Survey Schmurvey

A 1995 Barna Research Group survey discovered non-Christians have no clue what Christians mean when they use some of the phrases Christians often take for granted.

63% of non-Christians don't know what Christians mean when they talk about the Gospel.

75% of non-Christians don't know what John 3:16 is.

Add to that phrases like "a broken heart," "I've been convicted" and "get into the Word,” which non-Christians would hear quite differently.

What they hear is the unspoken message, "If you don't understand the holy lingo, you don't belong to the holy huddle."

But get this, 40% of Christians don't know what the Gospel means, and 53% don't know John 3:16.

I would imagine 11 years later in 2006 the numbers are even worse.

The preceding information was passed along to me from someone who works at a large church. The question I have is, what are churches doing with this information? Will they use it as a springboard to preach the word with clarity and authority? Will churches use this information to inform non-Christians about what it means when Christians speak of the Gospel? Indeed if 40% of all Christians don't even know what the Gospel means, and 53% don't know what John 3:16 says, then what does this say about how ineffective churches have been in the preaching of said Gospel? Is the response to this information going to be that, when the preaching is finished there will be no doubt about the exclusivity of the message of the Gospel That man is indeed a sinner, and he is in need of a savior?

Or will the opposite happen, and more and more churches will strive to be "culturally relevant" and water the message down even more so that non-Christians won't be frightened off. Will they cease to speak of "conviction" and "getting into the word" just because unbelievers don't know what these terms mean?

The comment about it being worse eleven years later was added by one of the leaders in the same church where I got this pole from. If it is indeed worse, what does this say about how churches have gone about preaching the gospel? Maybe we should preach more from the Bible and not so much from self help books. Maybe our small group study time should be more devoted to "getting into the word" and not focusing on program books like The Purpose Driven Life. No one was ever saved by a program. People are saved by the hearing of the word. Romans 10:17 Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word of Christ. (NIV)