Just Who Are the UnChurched?

This morning as I left home and then returned from worship and Bible Study at my church I noticed what I notice nearly every Sunday that I am home. Very few cars leave my neighborhood on a Sunday morning. Most of my neighbors are Unchurched. They are the kind of folks every new church plant and every existing congregation wants to reach.

They may be unchurched but they are not a monolithic group of people. Barna Research does the most extensive research about just who the unchurched are.

Perhaps the most surprising thing they discovered is that 62% of unchurched adults consider themselves to be Christian. Another startling finding is that the number of unchurched has increased by 92% in the past 13 years going from 39 - 79 million.

The evidence points to an incredible need for a new mission focused church planting movement as well as the urgency for existing churches to become truly missional.

Here is what the research uncovered.

Definition

The following is how we define an unchurched adult for our research: an adult (18 or older) who has not attended a Christian church service within the past six months, not including a holiday service (such as Easter or Christmas) or a special event at a church (such as a wedding or funeral).

How Many?

• There has been a 92% increase in the number of unchurched Americans in the last thirteen years. In 1991 there were 39 million unchurched Americans compared with 75 million currently. (2004)

Who?

• Although they comprise slightly less than half of the national population, men constitute 55% of the unchurched. (2006)
• The average unchurched person is 41, which is younger than the national norm of 45. (2006)
• One-fifth of American adults (21%) are single-never-married, whereas nearly one-half of the unchurched fit that definition (48%). (2006)
• The highest concentration of unchurched adults is in the West where 43% of adults are unchurched and the Northeast (40%), compared to 28% residents in the South and Midwest who are unchurched. (2006)

Spiritual Commitment

• More than three out of five (62%) unchurched adults consider themselves to be Christian. (2006)
• 44% claim they have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ that is still important in their life today. (2006)
• In a typical week, 19% of unchurched people read the bible compared to 47% of all adults who do so. (2006)
• In a typical week, 66% of unchurched people pray compared to 84% of all adults who do so. (2006)
• Three-fifths (61%) of the churched population has accepted Jesus Christ as their savior, compared with one out of every five unchurched adults (21%) who has done so. (2006)

Beliefs

• 64% of the unchurched say that Satan is not a living being but is a symbol of evil. (2006)
• 63% of unchurched adults state that a good person can earn his or her way into Heaven. (2006)
• Slightly less than half (48%) of the unchurched define God as the perfect, all-powerful, all-knowing Creator of the universe who continues to rule His creation today. (2006)
• 51% of the unchurched assert that when Jesus Christ lived on earth, He committed sins. (2006)
• 27% of the unchurched firmly believe that the Bible is totally accurate in all that it teaches. (2006)