“Dear friends, since God loved us that much, we surely ought to love each other.” (1 John 4:11)
When the Global Church Member Survey asked church members in 2018 whether they had spent time making new friends with non-Adventists in their community during the past 12 months, responses were fairly consistent in each response category, ranging from 11.4% to 14%, with “only once or twice” somewhat greater at 22.1%.
Five years later, answers were similar, but had slid downward towards “Never/only once or twice.” That the “Never” category rose by four percentage points is a concern.
Why do we find it difficult to make friends with non-Adventists? For certain generations of Adventists, in certain areas, it may be that they have had very little contact with non-Adventists: either because they live and work surrounded by other church members, or because they have been taught that there is danger in associating with “the worldly.” Sometimes it is shyness or social anxiety; sometimes we are just comfortable with the friends we have; sometimes life is just too busy or stressful and we don’t have the energy it takes to reach out to others.
The Church is finding that traditional methods of evangelism are not working as well as they used to. In Western, post-Christian societies particularly, people are not just disinterested in, but are actively hostile to, being “preached at” on street corners or talking to Christians going door-to-door. They may even scoff at the idea of attending an evangelistic meeting.
A study done by the GC Archives, Statistics, and Research in 2013 asked former Adventists about their experiences in the church before they left, and the reasons why they left. The study concluded that:
[a]lthough the largest number of inactive and former members were raised as (an) Adventist[s], almost as many told the interviewers that the[y] first came into contact with the Seventh-day Adventist Church through a friend, relative, spouse or other acquaintance. Together these two avenues account[ed] for the majority of these cases, demonstrating how important relationships are to church growth and retention. Less than a quarter of the individuals interviewed indicated that their first contact with the Adventist message was through public evangelism.
Even church members who came into the denomination through evangelistic campaigns often were invited or made aware of the campaign by an Adventist neighbor, friend, or colleague. Thus, we need to encourage and train our church members to make relationships with those not of our faith.
We are becoming more and more isolated from each other. Families fragment, people move around to find work, and the elderly are shunted off into care-homes in some countries. COVID exacerbated our feelings of loneliness as we were forced to isolate. Perhaps the answer is no longer large tent meetings but someone reaching out a hand to say, “I see you,” “I hear you,” or “tell me what you need.” We are more likely to believe what a friend says than what a random stranger says. How much sweeter could it be to share the good news of Jesus’ love by modeling it to them?
You can access the full report here.
Created in collaboration with the Institute of Church Ministry.
Published by ASTR on 08/14/2024.