Black pastors in America struggle with evangelism
NASHVILLE– Black Church pastors are struggling to lead their churches by example in evangelizing the un-churched. In a recent study, published in the current issue of Reconsider, a publication for the leaders of today's Black churches, found that 39 percent of pastors say personal evangelism does not come easy for them; only 25 percent strongly agree that they find it easy to share the Gospel one-on-one.
LifeWay's findings also uncovered that Black churches follow a general market trend in which media is not used effectively to reach those disconnected from the church. The percentage of persons reached through media is much smaller than the percentage of those willing to receive church information from a local church.
"In sharing these findings, we at LifeWay believe leaders within the Black Church can become more aware of their personal and congregation-driven evangelism efforts," said Elgia Wells, who directs LifeWay's Black Church Outreach and serves as pastor at a Nashville area church.
"Our hope is that pastors may feel more open to sharing their struggle with this issue and their congregations may benefit just as much from hearing about this honest admission. Black churches are missing the opportunity to evangelize and connect with those who are open to hear about the Gospel."
LifeWay's study findings are the result of an online survey conducted among 801 Southern Baptist pastors who were asked more than 30 questions about their personal evangelism efforts, evangelism in their preaching, their church's evangelism methods and advertising outreach methods used to reach their communities.
The sample size provides 95 percent confidence that the sampling error does not exceed ±3.4 percent for the total sample. Responses were weighted based on church size to minimize response bias. For a copy of Reconsider, or to learn more about the findings, visit lifeway.com
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