Non-Christians love food, not apologetics
• Talking Jesus found non-Christians view of the Church was a mixed bag – 26% hypocritical and homophobic alongside 22% friendly and 20% caring. In our Ipsos research we found 20-35 year olds specifically view the Church as ‘helps people’ and is ‘welcoming’ but the opinion that Church is irrelevant was high across the board
• Talking Jesus saw that the top questions people outside of the church are asking from the options they provided, were around family, death, health and ‘being ok’. This correlates with the research we conducted through Ipsos Mori that showed the highest values amongst 20-35 year old non-Christians this year are family and happiness and then wealth and security (over peace, personal growth, loving others and feeling loved). [add this as a call out] The least asked question by people outside of the church was ‘is there a God?’
The view of non-Christians towards their Christian friends is warm and favourable with 26% saying they view them as friendly, warm and welcoming
The main interests of 20-35 year old’s* are music, gaming, relationships, travel and food/cooking
The hurdles for most 20-35 year old non-Christians in attending a Christian course, is fear of being brainwashed and disagreeing with Christianity (which links back to irrelevance)
Takeaways
Non-Christians views of Christians is far more favourable versus their views of the Church, therefore personal witness is important right now
Non-Christians struggle to see the relevance of Church
“Before attending an Alpha course, my perception of Christianity was that it was very exclusive and very judgemental. I felt that the Church had brainwashed Christian’s to believe and that it was a money making, society controlling cult. Having reluctantly attended an Alpha course on the recommendation of a friend, all of my perceptions became misconceptions.
I was welcomed into the church by some really nice people who were not in any way fanatical or judgemental.
As I started asking difficult questions driven by my scepticism, I was treated with total respect and as an equal. As the weeks progressed I developed some really good friendships with the Christian’s on the course who seemed to genuinely care about me, which I wasn’t used to. Through my own personal experiences around that time, I concluded that God is real, and crucially so is Jesus which to my surprise led me to become a Christian myself!”
– Alpha testimony - Adam Stride from Southampton
Concerns have shifted heavily towards family life for 20-35 year olds
Get your congregation signed up to cooking classes, footy and gaming
