Ed Stetzer – Pastors On the Faith of Public Figures details a Lifeway Research study in which they interviewed 1,000 Protestant pastors and asked them “Which, if any, of the following people do you believe are Christians?” The names: Oprah, Pres. George Bush, Glenn Beck, Pres. Obama, and Sarah Palin.
The results are interesting although for me rather predictable. Of more interest is the simple question posed at the end of the article. How do we evaluate someone else’s faith? Should we even try?
This particular question has direct bearing on missionary research and church growth. It’s a question that came up in private conversations over the last two days here at the Finishing the Task conference. I know that I think it would be very difficult to know where the “true believers” are – but some good friends of mine believe it is possible to know, by simple questions. I think it’s even more difficult to know in aggregate for a large people group how many “true believers” there are within the group.
This particular article just illustrates the challenge. What do you think?
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