Can we estimate how many Active Christian Witnesses there are in a given community?

In Louisiana, the North American Mission Board has established the lost and unchurched population to be 62%. That’s 2,889,672 people.

The estimated number of participating protestant believers in Louisiana is 879,479.

A Lifeway study found that only 54% of believers are willing to share their faith. And only 10% have actually shared their faith. And those who have shared their faith typically share it about once per month. We’ll call the 10% active faith sharers.

So, if there are 879,470 participating protestant believers in Louisiana and if 10% are active faith sharers. That would mean there are 33 lost persons for every 1 active faith sharer in Louisiana.

For Southern Baptist in Louisiana, if 10% of the participating members are active witnesses. There would be 1 active SBC witness for every 249 lost or unchurched persons.

Here’s how it breaks down by region:

And by Metro Area:

You notice the drastic difference between North Louisiana and South Louisiana. 65-70% of protestant evangelical churches are in North Louisiana, while 70% of the population of Louisiana is in South Louisiana.

Observations:

1. How can we develop more active faith sharers? I love the E3 Partners mission of training 1 million people by 2025. We’ve had over 1,000 trained in Louisiana. Trainees are equipped with a simple process and easy-to-remember tools to develop a personal ministry of evangelism. Doing nothing is not an option. How will you develop faith sharers in your church and community?
2. Where is the church not? This is a great question to ask about your community. With low numbers of active witnesses, there are certainly pockets in every community where the gospel is absent. What segments of the population likely have few active witnesses? These would be great places to engage. For us, that has meant local multi-housing complexes, business networks, local gyms, and community organizations. Don’t just go where all the other Christians go. We’ve got to break out of our bubbles and build relationships where Christ is not being named.
3. We need believers to consider investing in the least reached areas. Of course, these numbers are drastically worse around the country and across the globe. How can they hear without a preacher? (Romans 10:14). How can they hear the gospel without active witnesses in the neighborhoods, workplaces, playgrounds, and schools around them. Christians tend to want to locate where there are more Christians and Christian stuff. It’s safer there. It’s safer because someone at some point took the risk to move there and share their faith actively.

Let’s pray for more active faith sharers. And let’s pray for a missionary movement to south Louisiana and other parts of our world that are desperate for an active witness.