A recent survey which was run by The Church of England and Evangelical Alliance made some remarkable finding which I thought I would share with you today. I will also offer you the opportunity to think about your about your own views on the topics covered and your answers to some questions covered.
“What do English adults know and believe about Jesus Christ? What do they really think about his followers? How often—if ever—talk about their faith in Jesus? How do both Christians and non-Christians feel about those conversations?”
The survey suggests that forty percent of people in England do not believe Jesus was a real person. However, 43% of the people asked said they did believe in the resurrection, but did not think it happened as described in the Bible. To here some of the finding from the executive summary of the investigation click ‘Continue Reading’…
One surprising discovery they made was that 57% of people classified themselves as Christian, but less than 10% read the Bible and prayed regularly, or go to church at least once a month. Why is going to church not such a regular weekend activity anymore, like it was 50+ years ago?
From the graph below you can see that around 57% of English Adults are Christian. Muslims, Hindus, Jews, Buddhist and Sikhs make up less than 10% of the population.
Something else I wish to share with you is that 6 in 10 adults believe Jesus was a real person (60%). Hope Together discovered in the survey that adults 35 and over (65%) are more likely than those young, aged 18 to 34 (57%), are more likely to believe that Jesus existed. Is this as a result of us not evangelising enough? What is causing the young populating to not believe that Jesus is a real person? The report suggests it isn’t because they aren’t being told, because twice as many young people (aged 18-34) said they had talked about their relationship with Jesus in the last month (31%). Compared to only 17% of older Christians (aged 35+). Who have you talked to in the last month about your relationship with Jesus? Have you? Jesus says in Mark 16:15, “Go into all the world and proclaim the gospel to the whole creation”.
We do know from the survey, that more than half (58%) of English non-Christians, who know a Christian have had a conversation with them about Jesus. However, after having this conversation 6 in 10 people didn’t want to know anything more about Jesus. It is good to know that 26% of people who had the conversation with their Christian friend, felt closer to their friend after the conversation. Could this be because of the topic covered in the conversation?
The survey was part of a wider research project looking at both practising Christians and the wider population.
What do you and or your church do in the way of spreading the word of God? 72% of practising Christians feel comfortable with sharing their faith. Practising Christians in this survey are those who report praying, attend church at least once monthly and read the Bible.
I hope you have enjoyed reading this post and if you are interesting in finding our more about this then you can find the summary here. If you did find this interesting, I would appreciate if you could hit the like button below and share this article with your friends or family. Finally, we would love you to share you views on this topic and the questions covered in this post, below.
RCG 