USAToday provides a story in today's paper and on-line here. It is also on the their front page on the internet and is the most commented upon story.
The USAToday article focused on the views of the unchurched in a few key areas. The story is attracting a slew of comments in their feedback section.
The good folks at our LifeWay communications office have just released our story on the research here.
Our focus is more on the opportunities for people to share their faith:
Open to friends
Despite their negative opinions about the institutional church, most unchurched people are open to discussing spiritual matters with a friend. The research showed that:
--78 percent of those surveyed said they would be willing to listen to someone who wanted to talk about their Christian beliefs. The number rose to 89 percent among adults 18-29 years of age.
--Only 28 percent of adults 30 years and older said they think Christians they know talk to them too much about their beliefs.
--78 percent of adults 30 years and older said they would enjoy an honest conversation with a friend about religious and spiritual beliefs, even if they disagreed with the friend.
"Even though the unchurched have a confused view of God and a negative view of the church, they are overwhelmingly open to someone sharing about their Christian faith," Stetzer said. "We think religion is a topic that is off-limits in polite conversation, but unchurched people say they would enjoy conversations about spiritual matters."
From Scott McConnell:
"Eighty-nine percent of these unchurched people say they have close friends who are Christians," he said. "We don't have to search for the unchurched folks around us; we actually know them. It's really a matter of starting conversations about spiritual matters with the unchurched people we know.
And one final thought from the article:
Stetzer explained, "There will always be the stumbling block of the cross. Yet our study shows that many are tripping over the church before they hear the message of the cross."
We also have some interesting data contrasting the views between the younger and older unchurched. You can download the findings here.
This difference between age groups will also be the focus of my Catalyst Monthly column coming out soon.
Finally, we have more data that we have not released that will be shared in a new book called The Younger Unchurched and Churches that Reach Them. The book will be based on this and other research done at NAMB's Center for Missional Research and LifeWay Research and will be co-authored by Richie Stanley, research director from the North American Mission Board, and me.
More soon...
Update 1:
Lots of interesting dialogue over at USAToday (at 500 comments as of right now). Here is the graph they produced from our data.
The story is currently the most emailed story in the whole publication and in the two ten for "most read," "most commented," and "most recommended."
Why? Because I think it strikes a chord.
Be sure to read more than just the USAToday story-- their focus was on the attitudes of the unchurched toward the church. That attitude is, admittedly, bad. But be sure to read the rest of the story here, which tells the good news about the openness of the unchurched to a personal witness.
Update 2:
The very capaple people from LifeWay's communication department have provided some helpful graphics here. You can download high-res, color, and black and white graphics.
Here are they web versions of the graphics:
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