If someone asked you about Jesus, would you be willing to share? Furthermore, would you know what to say? According to a 2022 study, 66% of people who identify as Christians claim they don’t know how to evangelize, nor possess the proper methods to do so.
Lifeway Research Executive Director Scott McConnell explains, “Many Christians say they agree sharing their faith is important, but many also need encouragement and to be shown how to share the good news about Jesus Christ with others.” Though these studies were conducted in 2022, evangelist Canon J. John notes four years later that the lack of evangelism among Christians is still increasingly problematic.
In a conversation with CRE (Church Resources Exhibition), the Philo Trust founder said Churches need to spend more time on evangelism while preparing their members to do the same. Instead of focusing solely on worship and the wellbeing of congregations, John urged leaders to be more intentional:
“Research indicates that we spend over 95 per cent of all of our time, energy, money, resources and manpower on worship and wellbeing. We spend less than 5 per cent on witness. Do you not agree there's a slight imbalance there?”
While John suggested that churches should distribute resources more equally between worship, wellbeing, and evangelism, he argued that “simply telling Christians to witness to others was not enough and that they needed to be shown how to do it.”
“We've got to equip people. We've got to help people,” said John.
For the last four decades, John and his wife Killy have dedicated their lives to sharing the Gospel all over the globe. To date, they’ve spoken in more than 69 countries.
As a resident of London, England, John wants believers everywhere to know that the Gospel can and should be shared to the ends of the earth. We just have to be willing to listen, hear, and act.
