Approximately 2.5 billion people in the world profess to follow Jesus.
Yet right now, fewer than one-tenth of 1% of Christians engage in cross-cultural missions.
Christians today give less than 2% of their money to Christian causes.
And less than 6% of that sum is directed toward global missions.
These statistics are sobering, to say the least.
They summarise the “Mission Gap,” the empty space between Christ’s call and our response.
How can ministry leaders begin to turn the tide on such a significant lack of engagement?
The Mission Gap research began as a global initiative designed to gain a better understanding of how to effectively communicate the Great Commission with Jesus followers.
It became so much more.
The research rapidly evolved into an opportunity to get to the root of why Christians aren’t getting involved in global ministry.
In other words, the Mission Gap research identified why the mission gap exists in the first place.
Once we saw "the why" emerge, we knew solutions for how to close the gap were close behind.
The Mission Gap report effectively summarizes our research across 21 focus groups in seven countries and five languages.
Learn about our methodology and get a digital copy of the report.
Why do most Christians choose comfort over the Great Commission?
It’s a big question.
Our Mission Gap research findings indicate that Christians around the world possess a fundamental understanding that they are called to help and love others. But they are unaware that as Christians, they are called to use their gifting to pursue a lifestyle of evangelism. Their image of missions work is that it’s for missionaries, ministry workers or full-time clergy … “special” Christians, not everyday people.
This should be a red flag for those of us serving in traditional churches and missions agencies. One of Jesus’ central messages and a tenet of our faith is not getting through to our people.
We need to alter the way we communicate.
Seminary historically hasn’t covered subjects like learning how to measure if our message is effective or not, or understanding the perceptions, motivations and fears of our flock.
This doesn’t get us off the hook. We have a job to do. Our mission is to help people discover their one, true life purpose. We have the privilege of inspiring Christians to engage in the Great Commission, for the Kingdom.
Let’s get started by digging into the hearts and minds of Christians today.