Christianity Today reported on some new research put out by Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, which indicates that 20 percent of North Americans do not personally know any Christians.
One out of five non-Christians report that they do not know a Christian.
When broken down by religious affiliation, the numbers are even more staggering. For example, these are the percentages of North American people from other religions who do not personally know a Christian:
Buddhists: 65 percent
Chinese folk religion: 75 percent
Hindus: 78 percent
Jains: 79 percent
Muslims: 43 percent
Shintoists: 68 percent
Sikhs: 81 percent
Taoists: 70 percent
Zoroastrians: 67 percent
Altogether, these numbers total about 13.5 million people who live in North America but do not personally know a Christian — of any denominational affiliation. Keep in mind, we’re not talking about whether folks know any Evangelicals. This is a “big tent” statistic where “Do you know a Christian?” could be answered in the affirmative quite easily … if the person being asked had ever personally met anyone who in any sense of the word identifies themselves with the “Christian” label.
Evangelical Christians need to ask ourselves, “What does this say about our commitment to reach the lost?” What does it say about our love of neighbor if our neighbors don’t even know who we are? What does it say about our witness as living demonstrations of God’s grace and truth in the world? Have all the ambassadors of Christ been hiding in the embassies instead of getting out into the culture to which they were sent? If 78 percent of Hindus have never met a Christian, does this indicate that they choose to exist in a Hindu-culture clique or does it indicate that Christians are choosing to live exclusively among their own?
The answer is probably “yes” to those questions, but the Hindu gets a free pass because nobody has laid down a command to “Go meet some Christians.”
Followers of Christ don’t get a pass because we are under the command of our Lord: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations” (Matthew 28:19-20).
And here’s the eternally tragic reality: if Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, etc. do not know a Christian then, most likely, they will not come to know Christ.
Missiologist Todd Johnson, who led the study said, “The United States is a very strategic place for people to interact. It’s ironic in a place with all the freedoms to interact that people don’t do it.”
Gina Bellofatto, a colleague of Johnson, stated the obvious indictment when she said: “I don’t know how many more million Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and Jews need to come to this country before it becomes a priority.”
So, before moving onto other news and analysis and entertainment, let’s ask the question of ourselves — “In these first eight months of 2013, have I made any overt attempts to cross religious-ghetto divides and simply meet my neighbors who happen to be a different religion and/or ethnicity?”
The question doesn’t even ask about whether we have made a Gospel presentation. Simply, have we met any folks from other religions or those who have no religion at all?
If you live in or near a city of just 100,000 or more, it is probably much easier than you think to make these acquaintances. Don’t know “how” to find people of other faiths in your own neighborhood or city? The U.S. Religion Census makes it easy.
If you have met a person or people of other faiths this year, share with us how you did so and any recommendations you have for the Christian church reversing this statistic. If we do not even know our neighbors we are not likely praying for them by name. If we are not praying for our neighbors by name we are not likely caring for them in tangible ways. If we are not caring for our neighbors in tangible ways we are not likely earning the right to share with them the Lord who motivates our love.