[00:00:00] Speaker A: A recent Barna study found that almost half of millennials thought that it was wrong to personally evangelize.
That is startling. And in this conversation, we're going to talk a little bit about why we think that came out and give you five tips to help your church teach millennials and other generations how to be better personal evangelists. We hope this conversation helps your church reach more people.
You're listening to the Reach Right podcast, the show dedicated to helping pastors and church leaders reach people the right way, hosted by me, Thomas Costello, and with me, as always, is my co host, Ian Hyatt. We're here to help your church see more visitors and grow.
Well. Hey, guys. Welcome to the Reach Ride podcast. I am your host, Thomas Costell, and with me, as always, is my co host, Ian Hyatt.
[00:01:06] Speaker B: What's up, Thomas?
[00:01:07] Speaker A: Hey. Not much. We have a good one today. We're going to be talking about a recent Barna study, and we'll get to it in just a second here. But the question we're asking is, are Christian millennials just done with evangelism? I think that's something that this study kind of makes us think might be the case, and we want to talk a little bit about what that means, why that might be the case, and what our churches are going to do about it. We have some ideas on that, and I think it's something that should be a good conversation. Let me just start off. I'll go ahead and share this data, and I want to read it, make sure I get it exactly right so there's no confusion. Here's what it said. 47% of millennials felt that it is wrong to share your beliefs with someone of a different faith in hopes that they will someday share your faith.
And to those of us in ministry, I think that that is something that is very shocking.
It's really telling.
And it's just.
It's. It's scary for the future of the church. As if we, you know, not that in the end, we don't really have any control. God's going to build his church, and we believe all of that. Yes, but that's. I don't know. What was your thought when you first heard that, Ian?
[00:02:22] Speaker B: Yeah, it was depressing is the first word that comes to mind. And I think, though, that my other thought is that I just think that there's some confusion about what evangelism actually is out there for millennials if this is the case.
So that's where the encouragement would come over the depression. And I will get there but, yeah, the first thing was like, man, that is just a depressing statistic.
[00:02:45] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know. It's just something that I grew up in a time, you know, you probably. I know you came to faith a little later than I did in life. You were an adult, and I was 12 or 13 when I first started to make a decision to follow Jesus. And so that was in the days where we would do plays about how terrible hell was going to be and people would be tortured for eternity. In the play, you would go. You'd bring all your friends. I grew up in the time of the Power Team, when people would come and rip phone books and break ice blocks and do all that kind of stuff.
So, I don't know. Evangelism was just something that was innately something I knew as a Christian that we were to do. Now, was it something that we liked to do or that we were scared of doing? Yeah, I mean, that was scary. Inviting your friend to church or inviting them to come see the power Team, you know, that could be scary for sure.
But I think at the same time, it was something that we knew. But to hear that it wasn't just scary for millennials, I would have got that. But. But to hear that they thought that it was wrong or sinful even to do that, I thought that was really telling.
So let me share some other stats, and I want to get these all right, because I think that there's.
It's. There's some proof in the numbers here. So only 27% of Gen X, 19% of boomers, and 20% of elders agreed with that statement that it is wrong to share your faith in hopes that someone else will make a change to their faith here. But 94% of millennials, they agreed.
This is Christian millennials. They agree that the best thing that could ever happen to someone is for them to come to know Jesus. So that seems exactly right. Right. That's what we want.
96% of millennials felt that part of their faith means being a witness about Christ Jesus. So that's good that 90. I mean, that's almost all of them really get that being a witness is important. And 86% of millennials felt confident that they know how to respond if someone raises questions about their faith. So that's also good. That's really surprising. So I think that part of it is in the way that this question was worded. But I think there's kind of like three main things that I think are the factors that kind of led to this response. And so it's not good. But I want to, I guess, make a little bit of an argument that maybe it's not quite as bad as we think when we first hear that. I wish that people would answer that, yes, it is good to share your faith with someone that doesn't know Jesus and hopes that they will come to know him. That is good.
But I think there's some reason why. I think, first of all, it's some of the recent evangelistic trends and ways that evangelism has taken place. I don't know why it is because, like, I think maybe it's that stuff I just talked about, right? Like, it's the. Maybe people have this idea that the Power Team and Heaven's Gates, Hells Flames type productions, that is evangelism. And so. Or, you know, maybe it's just we have this idea of person on the street soapbox argument evangelism as being the primary way to do it. Kind of the Ray Comfort, Kirk Cameron style.
I think those guys have a place. I've learned a lot from people like them and the way that they're able to give a reason for the hope that they have. And they're really. They're apologists in some ways. Right. They practice apologetics more than anything. But if your idea is that, if that question was asking, do I need to be. Be someone that goes and argues with Muslims and Buddhists on why they need to follow Jesus? If that's your interpretation of the question, well, I get it. Like, that's not necessarily what. I don't think that's what it was
[00:06:22] Speaker B: asking, especially when it's perceived about to go argue with them. That's. That's a different story, right?
[00:06:27] Speaker A: Yeah. Which is kind of the next one. So I think it's the methods and then I think it's the, like, I guess the, the interpretation can be offensive for some people like that. Like, I think we just live in a. In a place where this, this culture of tolerance has shifted into a culture of acceptance, right. Where, like, it used to be that we talked about tolerance, where we would tolerate things that we found objectionable or people that were different from us. It was always tolerance. And there's. There's lots to be even embraced and liked about people that are different from us. I think that it's. There's a lot to be learned from Jewish culture or Muslim culture that we, we might actually be able to look at it. Not to say that we want to take their, their message and embrace it as our own, but some of Their methods. There's things that they do well, and it's interesting to me, and their food is great, and there's all kinds of things that go with that that are good. And I think that sometimes we have shifted as a culture to a place where we have. We now think of tolerance as. As acceptance and that, like, if you don't accept somebody, then it's the same as hating them. Right. If you. If you don't. If we are. If we want the. The Muslim person to. To change and have an encounter with Jesus, some might interpret that as offensive because we're. We're saying that they're wrong, we're right, and that's the only way. And while that's all kind of, you know, as. As people of faith, of. Of Christian faith, that's something that we believe is true. It's not the way that we should have that kind of a conversation. Exactly. So there's still a lot to be embraced and liked and tolerated and. And there can still be loving relationships. It doesn't have to be offensive in that way. And I guess I'll say this too, last thing is that I think that there's a.
There's a burden that I have that maybe just we haven't been doing a good enough job teaching the Great commission from Matthew 28, where it talks about going into all the world and preaching the gospel and teaching people to obey everything that Jesus commanded, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and that he is with us even though the ends of the age. And so that's all.
I think that that's something that. Because we have this in our churches, a lot of us have some of this fear of.
Of teaching about evangelism. And what that's led to is a generation that I think has some confusion over what it means to evangelize. So there's a lot to be encouraged about in those numbers there. Again, all those 90% of them thinking that being a personal witness.
I think it's kind of. That preach the gospel and use words when necessary. Well, I don't really agree with that statement completely. I kind of get the heart behind it, and I know what they mean by that. So I think that's kind of. There's a lot to be encouraged by these stats. But I think that there is some room that I think some things we have to take seriously as a church in order to kind of correct that trend, to help people get over that hump, to know that it is, in fact, a Good for you to help someone to have faith in Jesus, even if they have a different faith right now, that's actually a good thing because eternity is resting on that and it
[00:09:39] Speaker B: doesn't have to be offensive and argument or something extremely negative. Right.
[00:09:44] Speaker A: So.
[00:09:44] Speaker B: And yeah, no, that's really good. And I think too, just hitting the nail on the head that, you know, someone has to know that the Great Commission is for them as a believer for sure. And if that's not taught, well, that's something we got to remedy right away in church life for sure. So.
[00:10:01] Speaker A: Yeah, well, absolutely.
[00:10:02] Speaker B: After all of that, you know, what do we do? How does this turn around? Thomas?
[00:10:07] Speaker A: Yeah, that's the big question, right. I think that's what we want to. Want to talk through is what do we do in light of this fact that there is some confusion on such an important topic of, you know, evangelism, the Great Commission, these things. So first thing I would say is we need to teach on biblical evangelism. I think that it probably is. Is worth a series at a topical church. If you're a topical teaching church, it's worth it to do a series on that. If you're an expository kind of a church, it probably is worth it to do a deep dive into some of the things that happen in the book of Acts and how there was no confusion with the early disciples that they knew that it was their responsibility to take the message of Jesus Christ into all the world. So I think that you. Most churches should really, especially if you're reaching younger people, you should really probably take some time to craft a series of messages around evangelism and affirm some of these good stats that people know that it's not so much just about. It's not only what I say. Like, it's not. It's not exclusively about the words that come out of my mouth. It is about the words that come out of my mouth. You cannot receive Jesus if you never hear the gospel. It has to be presented. It can be written, I suppose, but it has to be presented in language. It cannot be only displayed. At least that's my belief, is that you could not somehow catch the gospel by people being really nice to you. Right? So you have to actually declare it at some point. And we need teaching on this. I think we need to rise up and we need to craft messages and do series and have conversations and talk about it in small groups. But I think really teaching on biblical evangelism is a. A good first step.
[00:11:47] Speaker B: That's good.
[00:11:48] Speaker A: What else?
Well, I think maybe you could show the next one. You know, I guess the next one we talked about is we should model. Model how to share Jesus Christ. Right? How do we get to model those kinds of things? So I don't know. What can you tell us about that?
[00:12:02] Speaker B: As a matter of fact, I'm glad, I'm glad you let me do that one, because I remember one of the last messages. I. Well, the last message that I preached was this very thing at your church, at your church in Madison that you last pastored.
And it was basically about sharing the gospel with truth and love was kind of the title of that message. But it had a lot to be. It had a lot to do with how to model how to share Jesus. So that's the next thing. Model how to share Jesus. So talk about personal experiences. I had references in there of where I've had poor evangelism efforts in my own life attempts and then some that were. I really, you know, saw people come to know Jesus and so share those experiences, you know, talk about what evangelism is and what it's not.
You know, and there's, there's plenty of scripture references, too. I think when I think of modeling, I think of, you know, the woman at the. Well when that, that example in scripture was, you know, an act of love before for, you know, so there's. There's a lot. It's. Again, it boils down to teaching, like you said in the first point. But modeling that, giving examples is probably the best way I would, I would think about it as. When you're preaching about it, at least.
[00:13:21] Speaker A: Yeah. I think here's one that, like talking about modeling it, I think you used to do this, and it was never something that was really comfortable for me, and it was cool. But I have done it before and it's something that you modeled for me even when, you know, you were. I was your pastor at the time, I think. But yeah, we would go to a restaurant and we would ask the server, you would say, hey, you know, I just want. We're going to pray before this meal. We wanted to see if there's anything we could pray for you about when we're praying here a little bit later. So, yeah, you know, that's a great example of just like when you're having a lunch with someone maybe that you don't typically have lunch with, doing something like that where they can actually see. Well, you know what? It's not that hard to do something like that.
[00:14:03] Speaker B: Now, some people that, when that happened, I was never met with resistance. And it was authentic. It was just. You were already there, you met them. Hopefully you got their name first and were friendly.
Do that first. And then. Yeah, if you're going to be praying for your meal, why not invite the server into that? How awkward is it sometimes when you are praying and then the server comes right back and you don't want to just stick it. Hold on, hold on. Stick your finger up or anything. So I think being natural and all of that. So. So, yeah, you made a good point. I mean, this isn't. Not everyone is an evangelist, and not everyone is. And I think no matter when you share your faith, you're gonna have to in some way step out of your comfort zone. That's always gonna be the case. But there's ways to do it naturally. And I think that's what we're kind of talking about with modeling.
[00:14:52] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Kind of in that vein. I'll get the next one. Is you need to foster authenticity and engagement. That's kind of the.
I think that this is what.
I think this is probably the chief thing that millennials of which I'm right on the border of. So I say this kind of like as a right on the line of Gen X and millennial type person. I think that this is what's lacking in that, is this feeling that evangelists need to have everything completely sorted out, know all the answers before they ever start evangelizing.
[00:15:27] Speaker B: Right. Yeah.
[00:15:27] Speaker A: And I think that there is a lot of room for the authenticity of things that we aren't really sure about or questions like that. It's like when people can be okay to share their faith with you or talk about their experience, even when yours is different, that's really where a lot of this great stuff can happen there. So if you're talking to someone who is of a different faith or maybe their family is Hindu, and you're talking to them about, you know, have the authenticity. Don't just kind of come out there and like, say, hey, I'm going to tell you all about Jesus. Ask them questions about their faith. Ask them questions about their family traditions. Why do you celebrate Diwali? And what is that about? And tell me about. I've seen. The only thing I know about it is all the powder and colors that people throw up. And it seems, like, so fun. Tell me more about that. Have those authentic kinds of conversations. I think that is where evangelism best happens. I think a lot of times when you. When people think about evangelism in an older kind of context, it was with people that you don't really know, convincing them that Jesus is the only way. That's what they kind of. They take evangelism to mean, but in
[00:16:39] Speaker B: most cases, screaming to turn or burn. Yeah.
[00:16:42] Speaker A: So that kind of stuff, right.
[00:16:43] Speaker B: Throwing the Bible at you.
[00:16:44] Speaker A: Yes. So but even if it's most generous form, it was I. I was taught that evangelism was going down into our downtown or kind of place. Where it happened was Waikiki in Hawaii here. And we'd go down there and talk to tourists who were drunk or something like that. And they obviously needed Jesus. I didn't know him, but we'd try those kinds of tactics. But most of the time, that's not the most effective way to win people. It's usually your neighbors, your co workers, your fellow students, and people that are in your life and just having real relationship and practicing kind of that lifestyle evangelism. And then being prepared to give a reason for the hope that you have, but in that authentic kind of way. Not in a rehearsed, canned kind of a way.
[00:17:27] Speaker B: I love it. Yeah, that's good. And that actually, it's a good segue to the next one. Create opportunities to serve others. Serving is part of being authentic.
[00:17:35] Speaker A: Right.
[00:17:35] Speaker B: You're meeting a need.
So many churches already have stuff like this going on. A food pantry, a soup kitchen, certain kind of outreaches. Obviously, when you. What is this saying that comes to mind from the late, great Billy Graham? They don't care how much you know until they know how much you care, is what he said. So that saying still holds true when you are serving and meeting a need, whether or not it's an outreach that opens a door to share your faith. You know, jeez, this is.
We used to. Case in point, we talked about when we did ministry together, Laundry Love. An amazing ministry that we were a part of where we would wash. We were in a rougher part of the town where, you know, maybe laundry was difficult for some of the folks there. We would wash their clothes for free twice a month, and, boy, did that open up a window. They appreciated that so much, and they wanted to know why we were doing it. And it was a great opportunity for us to share God's love.
[00:18:34] Speaker A: Yeah, the old school method.
I remember I used to serve when I was younger at a local homeless mission where they would help people and give food and that kind of stuff, and they'd have two meals a day. And the old method, I'm not criticizing this necessarily, was, hey, you have to listen to a sermon. And then we'll feed you, you know, that kind of a thing. Or like it's, it's, you know, while you eat, you can eat here, but you have to be eating during the sermon that's here.
[00:19:03] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:19:03] Speaker A: And so that's something that people used to try. I would actually encourage you maybe unless you have a real reason for that. I would encourage you against that and just love people for, for Jesus sake, because he calls us to do that kind of stuff. It'd be like if laundry love. If said, we'd say, hey, I. I'm happy to wash your laundry for you and kind of get you some clean clothes. But before I have a short presentation I want to share with you about who Jesus is. That just wouldn't. It doesn't have the same loving feeling
[00:19:34] Speaker B: me you're reminding me of when you get the free cruise or the hotel.
[00:19:39] Speaker A: Right. Vacation timeshare pitch.
[00:19:41] Speaker B: A whole timeshare pitch. No one likes that. Some people do it. Yeah, they just, but. And then in their mind, what is it in their mind? They're saying, I'll, I'll get through this and listen, but I'm not going to do it. I think it's the same thing. We don't want that in people's mindset when it comes to accepting Jesus.
[00:19:56] Speaker A: So, so, and I get it, you know, I'm all about call to action. We talk about call to action all the time. And I understand, like you want to use this, you know, we did something for you. Here's a call to action for you to respond to. But I think you just have to, you have to realize that that actually for every person that that works on that probably turns 10 people away and makes them say, you know what? I probably. This will never be for me because I just don't like that. Again, the Holy Spirit's in control and we don't have any real say in that in the end. But I think that it is hurting our witness when we'd use that kind of method. But create opportunities to serve. Just for serving sake, I think is good. So that's a good one to talk about. Last one is embrace technology. I think this is something that evangelism can be something that can both be taught and, and executed online. It could be things that we do that I think then if you think about it like younger people, most of their interaction with other human beings takes place through a screen now.
So again, I don't say that like in a critical way. That's just kind of a matter of fact thing is that most of My children's interaction with their friends, like, they love being with their friends in person. That's great.
But most of their interaction happens when they're not together or. Yeah, like, my kids, when they, when they do, when they have conversations, they just live their life on FaceTime together with other kids. So, like, they'll just. They won't even, like, be looking right at it and making eye contact with them. They'll be like, just putting the phone down, walking around with it and just living their life, having someone else watch
[00:21:39] Speaker B: them live the same thing. Yeah. And it's.
[00:21:41] Speaker A: Yeah, again, we're just old and so we don't really get that. I guess we come from a different time, you and Ian.
But I think that if we, if we present evangelism in this old wineskin is that it has to be done, you know, face to face, like, or it has to be done in a church setting with a pastor giving an altar call or those kinds of things. You are really limiting over half of the conversation and relational opportunity that young people find themselves in, because they are, you know. You know, you and I, for instance, we do. This is exclusively how we communicate now, is through technology. I haven't seen you in person in two years. And so we. We talk this way almost all the time. Right. And so if we limit our evangelism or our prayer together to only times when we're together, we never pray together. Right. So I think just teaching and giving people opportunities and teaching. How can we do evangelism on social media? Again, it's not just, you know, posting meme graphics about how, you know, Jesus, you know, funny pictures of European Jesus and memes. That's not what we're talking about. But it's in real conversations that people have on social media. I see it happening all the time on Twitter of real conversations happening about Jesus and the impact he's made on people's lives. It's sharing your testimony online, talking about giving God the glory for every good and perfect gift that he gives to us. Right. So these kinds of things are evangelism and just kind of helping people get over that hump and learning. That's something that could be part of my online Persona as well as a part of my in person Persona. So I think that's a good way to look at it.
[00:23:21] Speaker B: That is good. And it's a good way to balance it out.
[00:23:24] Speaker A: Awesome. Anything else to add to, I guess, other strategies or anything else to say as we wrap up here, Ian? No.
[00:23:30] Speaker B: I hope some of this was helpful to our listeners and maybe gives you some ideas of what you can not only preach from the pulpit, but if it's at, you know, your discipleship at the church. You know, think through these things. You know, let's take a step back and Is your church doing things? The scripture that comes to mind, maybe a good one to close with, is that the Apostle Paul said, be all things to all men, that we would win some. Right. So being all things means relatable. It means being relatable to the current time. Paul had to be relatable to the current time he was in. Same thing these days. Just.
[00:24:05] Speaker A: And.
[00:24:05] Speaker B: And as the saying also goes, the message stays the same, but the method may need to change for your evangelism.
[00:24:12] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Good stuff.
I just want to say, Millennials, I love you guys. You guys, you're. I know that you're. You've been the butt of jokes for, like, 15 years.
The good news is that's going to be shifting off of you on to Gen Z, if it hasn't already, kind of making that move right now.
[00:24:33] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:24:33] Speaker A: But I just want to say that, like, I. We get it. A lot of the challenges you're facing with this evangelism stuff is because of the excesses of my generation and the boomers and the things that we did to kind of ruin it or give you a bad taste in your mouth. So.
Yeah. What's that you said?
[00:24:51] Speaker B: You made it sound like you said you were a boomer.
[00:24:53] Speaker A: Oh, no, I'm not a boomer. I blame the boomers. We can always blame the generation before us. So.
[00:24:57] Speaker B: That's right.
[00:24:58] Speaker A: That's right. That's not it. But anyway, you guys got this. It's going to be good. We. I believe that the gospel is still vital for us, and we're going to get this figured out. So thanks so much, guys, for being a part of the Retright family. If this episode has been helpful to you, it would mean a lot to us if you would rate, review, subscribe. Let us know what generation you're a part of in the comments below here. We'd love to hear kind of what. Where our audience is coming from with that. So we already know, because YouTube tells us or wherever you're watching it. We have analytics on exactly how old you are, what. What age range you are typically there. But yeah, let us know what I did. What. What generation you identify with. Let's put it that way. We all talk about identities nowadays. So anyway, guys, thanks so much for being a part of our reach. Right family. And we'll catch you next week.
[00:25:43] Speaker B: See you.
[00:25:47] Speaker A: Thanks for listening to the Reach Right Podcast. We hope this episode will help you reach people the right way. Looking for more resources for your church?
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