Catholics lag in evangelisation

Church Life Survey reveals Catholics behind in evangelising, welcoming stakes.
By Anthony Barich
National Reporter
PENTECOSTAL churches are the most inviting, welcoming and actively evangelical churches in Australia, while Catholic parishes are among the lowest, the latest breakdown of the National Church Life Survey (NCLS) has revealed.
While the survey report said youth retention “requires great attention”, it also revealed that young people are more willing to talk about their faith, and that the influence of parents is the most powerful predictor in a person’s childhood of their current religious involvement.
NCLS – a joint project of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, Anglicare in the Diocese of Sydney and the Uniting Church in Australia’s NSW Board of Mission – last month revealed its 2006 survey findings to which 22 Christian denominations contributed.
The survey found “substantial variations” between denominations in evangelising acts.
Pentecostals are most likely to look for opportunities to share their faith with others (29 per cent) and are also least likely to find their faith hard to talk about (16 per cent) compared with 19 per cent overall.
Catholic attendees, meanwhile, also have fewer than the average who find their faith hard to talk about (16 per cent), but also have fewer than average who look for chances to talk about their faith.
Older attendees are generally more likely than young attendees to prefer not to talk about their faith.
Those at ease in talking about their faith are generally younger, highly involved in church life, experiencing personal growth in their faith and are helping people in practical ways.
This younger group, however, finds it difficult to talk about their faith in ordinary language in a secular society.
Pentecostals are also the most inviting denomination (59 per cent). New arrivals to a church are more likely than long-term attendees to invite others, while ‘switchers’ – those who changed denominations – are particularly strong inviters (49 per cent).
Running activities like evangelistic church services, Bible studies, door-knocking, outdoor evangelism, drop-in centres or some other evangelistic activity is significant for a church in several ways, the report stated.
It provides a means of sharing the faith. Research shows that those involved in such programmes are more likely to have invited someone to church in the past year and will be at ease sharing their faith.
Levels of sharing and inviting others to church are also likely to exist where attenders feel their own gifts are recognised and that their contribution is valued.
Asked about their involvement in any activities of their congregation that reach out to the wider community, levels of commitment are highest among the Pentecostals (37 per cent) and Baptists (29), while Catholics (7 per cent) and Lutherans (16) are among the lowest.
Previous research has suggested that a reliance on family faith education and an emphasis on the Catholic school system contributes to Catholic parishes having fewer formal evangelistic programmes than their Protestant counterparts.
In the percentage of churches providing training in outreach and evangelism over the past two years, Catholics are also ranked second-last behind Pentecostals, Presbyterians, Baptists, Churches of Christ, the Salvation Army, Anglicans and Lutherans.
What happens at home and the stability of families has also proved to be the most crucial factor influencing the retention of youth. With only two-thirds of children living in “traditional nuclear families”, church activities need to be open to non-traditional family structures, NCLS’s Social trends in Australia and implications for church life report found.
Stable Christian families and marriages can also provide valuable support networks and role models. Just 44 per cent of church attendees indicated they frequently discuss matters of faith at home.
In the Catholic Church, importance is placed on the role of parents educating their children in the faith, and the report stated that “churches that support parents in this are more likely to retain youth”.
Among church attenders who have children aged 15 and over still living at home, 40 per cent of those children don’t attend any church. “Discussing faith at home and the presence of church programmes oriented at youth and a larger church size leads to higher young adult retention,” the report said.
Of 4,400 churches in Australia which returned an NCLS Operations survey in 2006, 49 per cent said they had children attending a youth group.
However, adult attenders were more satisfied with what is being offered children than what is being offered youth, and “with the significant loss in young adult church attenders that begins to occur at this time, this raises a significant concern that churches must consider”, the report said.