Preparing people to share the gospel, making disciples, and developing leaders remain top concerns in the latest survey of IBSA churches. The 2018 Church Needs Survey, conducted online in October and November, showed few shifts compared to the previous four years.
Evangelism and the desire to reach young people rank high for a large majority of our Illinois churches, with respondents saying their church could use more assistance in those areas. Starting new churches to reach young adults and people groups is viewed as important, but not as many respondents said they feel their church is ready for the task.
Top 4:
>Evangelism: 57.8%
>Leadership Development: 53.2%
>Spiritual Renewal: 47.3%
>Discipleship: 48.4%
Young People
Invest “more” or “much more” resources in ministry to:
>Youth/students: 65.5%
>College/young adults: 72.1%
Church Planting
>Plant in Chicago and St. Louis metros: 39.2%
>Plant in Illinois communities: 52.5%
>My church is “ready” or “very ready” to help start a church: 19.1%