A survey by LifeWay Research has revealed the top evangelism activities of Southern Baptist churches. The research was gathered from interviews with 801 Southern Baptist pastors.
Among the findings, Southern Baptist churches primarily use Vacation Bible School, feeding ministries, and visitor follow-up and prayer for those who do not know Christ as main evangelism activities. Scott McConnell, associate director for LifeWay Research, shares more insights from the survey. "The one that really jumped out at me, as showing that churches are prepared for the needs of their community, is to see that so many churches already have a ministry in place to be physically feeding people in their community," he remarks. "We know the use of food stamps has hit record levels in the last year and [during] this recession, so we know a number of people have needed outside assistance to help literally put food on the table." McConnell says the survey also shows that pastors play a major role in the emphasis a church puts on evangelistic endeavors. "We saw that the vast majority of pastors were actually leading by example," he notes. "We saw that 96 percent of the pastors had shared with someone outside of the church -- so not just within their sermon -- how to become a Christian in the previous six months." The survey also found that the traditional invitation -- the "altar call" -- is still used in most Southern Baptist churches.
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