Recent surveys reveal church strengths, weaknesses
Assistant General Superintendent Alton Garrison
By Alton Garrison
Dr. John Perkins said, “We have over-evangelized the world too lightly” (David Olson, The American Church in Crisis). When asked what the phrase meant, he said that evangelism actually becomes counterproductive to God’s purpose for the church when it is not partnered with discipleship. Evangelism and discipleship should be an inseparable pair.
Recently, most evangelicals have expressed concerns over discipleship outcomes reported by the Reveal Report from Willow Creek, unChristian by David Kinnaman and The American Church in Crisis by David Olson. It is alarming to read statements like the one from Kinnaman where he said:
In virtually every study we conduct, representing thousands of interviews every year, born-again Christians fail to display much attitudinal or behavioral evidence of transformed lives. Most of the lifestyle activities of born-again believers were just as likely to bet or gamble, to visit a pornographic Web site, to take something that did not belong to them, to consult a medium or psychic, to physically fight or abuse someone, to have consumed enough alcohol to be considered legally drunk, to have used an illegal nonprescription drug, to have said something to someone that was not true, to have gotten back at someone for something he or she did and to have said mean things behind another person’s back.
One study we conducted examined Americans’ engagement in some type of sexually inappropriate behavior, including looking at online pornography, viewing sexually explicit magazines or movies, or having an intimate sexual encounter outside of marriage. In all, we found that 30 percent of born-again Christians admitted to at least one of these activities in the past 30 days, compared with 35 percent of other Americans. In statistical and practical terms, this means the two groups are essentially no different from each other. If these groups of people were in separate rooms, and you were asked to determine, based on their lifestyles alone, which room contained the Christians, you would be hard-pressed to find much difference.
Here is what all of this boils down to: 84 percent say they personally know at least one committed Christian. Yet just 15 percent thought the lifestyles of those Christ followers were significantly different from the norm. This gap speaks volumes. (Baker Books, Grand Rapids, MI, 2007, pp. 47-48.)
Although we might surmise similar results for the Assemblies of God, there was no way of knowing for sure.
In 2008, the Discipleship Ministries Agency commissioned Dr. Ed Stetzer of LifeWay Christian Resources to conduct a national survey on the state of discipleship in the Assemblies of God. We mailed a survey to our 12,300 churches and had a remarkable response of 2,614.
The report gave us both good news and bad news. In some areas, Pentecostals typically do better than others in discipleship, but we certainly have challenges in other areas that we must not ignore.
While 65 percent strongly agree that their congregation understands it is every Christian’s responsibility to share the gospel with non-Christians, only 17 percent strongly agree that those who attend their church can effectively share their belief in Christ with someone else.
Of the pastors surveyed, 48 percent believe that over 40 percent of their adult attendees serve as a volunteer in the church but 45 percent say less than 30 percent of their members serve in their community.
Eighty-seven percent of Assemblies of God people enjoy significant and meaningful relationships with people in their church, but only 54 percent participate in formal outreach activities. It would appear that in developing meaningful relationships within the church, we have neglected relationships with those outside the church.
Only about half of our people are involved in small groups or Sunday School, which seem to be more effective in creating true disciples than does simply attending the Sunday morning celebration service.
Our findings show that although 90 percent of our pastors claim to teach regularly on the importance of the baptism of the Holy Spirit, only 28 percent strongly agree with the statement that their church regularly takes time to pray for people to receive the Holy Spirit. In all, about half of worship attendees claim to be baptized in the Holy Spirit.
While 56 percent of our churches claim a 5-year average worship attendance growth of 10 percent or more, 15 percent have plateaued and 29 percent are in decline.
Forty-five percent say they regularly evaluate the progress and spiritual growth of their members; 55 percent say they do not.
Sixty-four percent of our pastors claim they are dissatisfied with the state of discipleship in their churches.
The following observations are derived from our survey and other forms of research:
- Pentecostals do better in many areas of Protestant discipleship outcomes.
- Church plants are essential to growth.
- The AG is stronger relationally than most but has not translated those relationships into evangelistic effectiveness.
- Our churches appear to be more inwardly focused than we would like to believe.
- Many feel unprepared to share Christ.
- We need to strengthen the practice of our doctrinal distinctive.
- We must create a more robust discipleship strategy — accessing, resourcing, training and modeling.
“What counts is whether we have been transformed into a new creation” (Galatians 6:15, NLT).
We know it is God’s will for every convert to become a fully devoted follower of Christ — a disciple of Christ. That is clearly indicated in the Great Commission.
“Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age’” (Matthew 28:18-20 NIV).
At this General Council, we will have the opportunity to improve our commitment to the discipleship process through leadership training, inspirational services and relevant resources. Our goal is to become a disciple that makes disciples.