Evangelism In The U.S.: A new Barna Group survey finds that 55% of born again adults claim to have shared their faith in Christ with a non-Christian during the prior 12 months, a ratio that has remained relatively constant for 10 years. As might be expected, 66% of evangelicals shared their faith, compared to 41% of people associated with mainline churches. 61% of Protestants shared their faith vs. 37% of born again Catholics. Surprisingly 65% of Westerners engaged in evangelism compared 58% of Southerners, 59% of Northeasterners and 41% of Midwesterners. 76% of Hispanics shared their faith compared to 63% of blacks and 49% of whites. The most common method of sharing faith was “offering to pray with a non-Christian who was in need of encouragement or support” (78%). Lifestyle evangelism was next at 74%, while 69% did so via “Socratic evangelism” (dialogue about spiritual matters). The next frequent methods were moral confrontation (50%); bringing a non-Christian friend to a church service (49%); bringing them to an outreach event (45%); giving, out evangelistic literature (35%); sending evangelistic letters or e-mails (21%); and preaching on the street or in other public places (11%). (Barna Online 1/31/05)
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