Why can’t we get The Word out?

Evangelism by the Religious and Non-religious (June 1, 2023)



Oh, the Great Commission.  The wonder and quandary of Christianity from the very beginning of it all.  It has worked to a degree, obviously.  In 2021 there were over 19.4 million people 'claiming' to be Christian in Canada alone1, and 2.4 billion claiming such in the world (2020)2.  However, as statistics noted in some of my other articles clearly indicate, religious devotion is much lower, and it continues to decline.  Canada (as with many western nations) is shedding devout Christians at alarming rates.  Are we going through the Great Decommission of Christianity?


The Christian denominations most known for their evangelism are having mixed results; but are mostly not being all that effective at getting more people into the church.  The questions I have are twofold: who is vying for the hearts, minds and souls of the people, and what tools are they using.


As we already have seen, the people who are religiously-ambiguous represent the greatest of the three religion cohorts in Canada.  I suspect they are not trying to sway the great battle one way or the other to any significant degree.  They seem pretty comfortable in their middle ground.  Further, they have a general respect for religion and feel a bit of a calling towards it as well.


Therefore, the battle is really between the two opposing groups, which Bibby calls embracing religion and rejecting religion.  I suspect that the old fashion notion that the non-religious keep their feelings to themselves is still prevalent.  The idea remains that Christians are playing a solitary game and are just losing ‘players’ due to lack of commitment or interest.  However, ever-expanding news reporting and polling numbers show that this is just not the case.  The die-hard non-religious people are mobilizing.  Atheistic 'evangelism' exists.


If we have two groups in the great battle for your soul, what are their primary weapons?  The religious folks use classical methods such as preaching, teaching, witnessing, outreach, role-modelling, showing love, as well as comforting and physically supporting those in need.  They may use all of today’s modern technologies, but their approaches are generally drawn straight from the Bible.


These techniques worked for the first couple of thousand years.  However, this was also due in part to the use of less moral techniques such as shaming and shunning, forced cultural deconstruction, execution and other corporal punishments, overwhelming peer-pressure, and even government pressures.  (For example, it wasn’t until 1971 that Statistics Canada added the category ‘no religion’ to it’s five-year census.3)  I expect the gradual elimination of these more nasty techniques not only freed non-religious people to leave the church, but also drove some believers from religious institutions due to the immorality and hypocrisy of these practices. 


Let’s look at what the other side of the battle uses as its weapons of conversion. 


Let’s check out how ‘devoted’ the people are that say they reject religion.  Of all of the people who claim to reject religion, 64% do not ever attend church (even yearly)4, 66% are pretty confident or absolutely convinced that there is no God4, and only 7% wish to have a religious funeral.5  Further, only 8% feel any guilt about not being involved with a church5.  These folks seem to be pretty fixed in their path.


Now, can we see signs of an inclination by the non-religious to be outspoken about their lack of belief and a wish for others to follow suit?  We can’t determine this definitely, but some poll numbers are suggestive.  69% say the growth in Atheism is a good thing, and only 15% feel religion has had a positive impact on the world6.  If these folks look to improve the world (in their eyes), you can imagine some anti-church messaging will be part of their efforts.  Further, the people who reject religion are not quite as happy.  75% claim to be pretty or very happy compared to the 91% of those who embrace religion7.  An increase in disaffection can fuel a will to lash out.


I am inclined to say that traditional Christian evangelism is fighting two forces today: a general loss of involvement and/or interest by religious folk, and a growing publicized backlash against religion.  I imagine lots of churches have developed ways to fight this trend.  I suspect the call to arms in many churches is to increase evangelism efforts.  


But this may backfire because lots of people don’t like being around devout Christians.  Using Bibby poll data8, we find that 63% of those who reject religion are uncomfortable around devout Christians.  44% of the religious middle say the same.  Heck, even 24% of those who embrace religions say they are uncomfortable around devout Christians.  (What’s up with them?).


What about those evangelicals?  Do people really dislike them as a group?  There seems to be quite a few who do.  51% of those who reject religion say they have negative feelings towards evangelicals.  22% of those in the religious middle say the same.  Strangely, among those who identify with a religion, it is the mainline protestants who seem to dislike evangelicals the most (28%, versus 18% of Roman Catholics)9.


I think one message that could be drawn from this analysis is that, if your church plans to increase its evangelism, it needs to use techniques that do not come across like traditional evangelism. They need to be more subtle than in the past and employ people who do not come across as too 'churchy.’  Tricky to do, I’m sure.

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1. Wikipedia, Religion in Canada, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Religion_in_Canada

2. Wikipedia, List of religious populations, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_religious_populations

3. Bibby, Reginald W, Resilient Gods: being pro-religious, low religious or no religious in Canada,

     UBC Press, 2017, page 45

4. Bibby, page 67

5. Bibby, page 83

6. Bibby, page 68

7. Bibby, page 93

8. Bibby, page 122

9. Bibby, page 124