THE first Beatitude, addressing those “poor in spirit”, has a contemporary echo in a new survey published by the Evangelical Alliance. It found adult converts to Christianity saying “I needed help with life”, “Looking for meaning”, and “A difficult or painful experience” as the catalysts for their exploration of faith.
The results are published in Finding Jesus: Identifying paths to faith in adulthood, published on Tuesday. In 2024, 280 people aged 18 and above completed an online survey, having been recruited through Evangelical Alliance networks and social media. This was followed by in-depth interviews with 20 of the participants.
The authors acknowledge that this cohort is limited to those attending Evangelical churches, but say that “a sample of this size and interviews of this depth can helpfully indicate some patterns and illustrate the range of experiences individuals and different demographic groups may have and help us think about how to share the gospel in our time.”
Of the 280, 55 per cent were women, and 38 per cent were aged 45 and above. When it came to denominations, the largest number were attending an Anglican church (27 per cent), while 16 per cent did not know the denomination. Almost half (45 per cent) had an annual household income of less than £35,000.
The authors note that 72 per cent had “some sort of historic connection with Christianity”, including family members, friends, Sunday school, church school, or youth and student groups. “Although those associations weren’t always positive, for a good number, residual Christianity played a part in their journey.”
But one fifth had no such connections, and these had “very little idea what Christianity was about and had tended to see it as something marginal and irrelevant”. The authors observe that, “as the ‘residue’ of cultural Christianity continues to decrease across society, their experiences will become more common.”
Of the 280, 38 per cent described themselves before coming to faith as “cultural Christian but not practising” (defined as “I’d tick Christian on a survey but wasn’t committed to following Jesus”); 21 per cent as “spiritual but not religious”; and just 12 per cent as atheist.
Asked “What prompted you to begin exploring Christian faith?”, 37 per cent selected “I needed help with life”, followed by “I was looking for meaning” (34 per cent); “Difficult or painful experience” (32 per cent); “Impact of faith on someone I know” or “Christian spoke to me” (both 29 per cent); and “Spiritual experience” (28 per cent). A total of 19 per cent referred to a church service, and 17 per cent a Christian event or course.
For 59 per cent of participants, their conversion had taken less than a year. This number rose to 76 per cent for those with a low income, and 74 per cent for those with no faith background.
The authors say: “Listening to people describe how they came to faith, we noticed that a significant number of them were making some kind of commitment with only a very limited understanding of the gospel . . . many made some kind of commitment before they had fully understood exactly what they were committing to.
“This tended to be in response either to the overwhelming love they had received within the Christian community, or to some kind of encounter with God. For these people, they did a lot of what we might consider exploring Christian faith after they had already committed to it, illustrating the need for intentional discipleship of new believers.”
Asked what had helped their exploration, participants were most likely to say attending church in person (59 per cent), followed by reading the Bible (47 per cent), and attending a course or small group (42 per cent). Spiritual experiences (39 per cent) and answered prayer (37 per cent) were also important factors.
The survey conveys positive experiences of church attendance and contact with Christians: ”Participants described how the people they met in church spaces really cared about them and listened attentively to them. They weren’t hurried, distracted or coming with an agenda. They asked questions and listened well. Participants commented that this is different from how people generally relate to them in other spaces.”
When asked, “What finally prompted you to make the decision to follow Jesus?” the most popular answer (39 per cent) was “an experience of God”, with just nine per cent selecting “it made intellectual sense”.
The authors write: “It became clear from the interviews that people had experiences they could not explain. These caused them to search for answers in places they had not considered before. Having had these encounters, they often approached a Christian they knew, searched the internet, or sometimes just wandered into a church looking for understanding on what had happened to them.”
Spiritual experiences included “physical healing, physical sensations, intense emotional experiences, hearing God and/or a tangible sense of God’s presence.”
Digital media, the authors conclude, “seems to play more of a supporting role, rather than initiating our interviewees’ journeys to Jesus”. During faith exploration, 15 per cent of survey respondents said that online resources had helped, rising to 23 per cent of younger people.
The survey highlights different themes across the demographics. For example, when asked about challenges on the journey to faith: “Among participants with lower incomes, no one struggled with the existence of God, and only one reported no support from Christians. However, the concept of being forgiven, combined with personal struggles, lifestyle changes they felt they would need to make, and what others would think of them, were most difficult . . .
”The challenges facing those with no faith background were more theological, including the existence of God and person of Jesus.”
Among the recommendations made are: “Remember the gospel is for everyone. All kinds of people are becoming Christians: people of different ages, ethnicities,
faith backgrounds, education levels and geographical locations. There is no ‘type’
of person who will or won’t find Jesus.”
