HOW YOUR PEOPLE REALLY FEEL ABOUT OUTREACH
A Leadership survey uncovers the (sometimes surprising) beliefs and opinions people and their pastors have about evangelism.
Craig Brian Larson
October 1, 1991
"Many of my people are too busy to devote themselves to outreach," said my pastor friend Mark. "It's cramping our plans to reach the neighborhood." Mark is like a greyhound on a taut leash, straining against the collar, nails scratching the pavement. Though his church on the southwest side of Chicago is strong and growing, he is frustrated. He wants to reach thousands; his church touches only a fraction of them. He has plans and programs to bring many to faith in Christ, if he can just mobilize his own people to the maximum. Mark isn't the only one with collar burn. Ask most pastors about their church outreach, and you'll likely hear, "I wish we were doing more." One of the clearest results of the latest LEADERSHIP survey on evangelism documents this frustration: 84 percent of church leaders said they are discontent with their congregation's commitment to evangelism. "You can't really get mad at your people, though," said one pastor. "Most of them are preoccupied with good or necessary things, like their kids' schooling or other worthy church programs." But the angst and guilt remain. Pastors want to reach their communities with the gospel, but they can't do it alone. The church body must join in. How do we enable those on the other end of the leash to break into a run with us? One of the first steps is to understand the attitudes toward outreach that inhabit the congregation and also to compare these views with pastors' perspectives. To investigate this issue, the research department of Christianity Today, Inc. surveyed 500 churches, sending separate questionnaires to church leaders and churchgoers, and 214 pastors and 480 churchgoers responded. We learned that pastors and churchgoers differ radically in some pivotal areas. We ...
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