• The research found that only three types of outreach are offered by U.S. Protestant churches.
  • Food oriented donations tops the list at 73 percent of churches
  • Vacation Bible School (68 percent) 
  • Holiday food programs for poor families during Christmas or Thanksgiving (65 percent).
• Other types of community outreach offered by much smaller proportions of churches in the last year include:
  • prison ministry (25 percent)
  • homeless outreach (24 percent)
  • Boy Scouts or Girl Scouts (20 percent)
  • blood drives (17 percent)
  • after-school programs for kids (14 percent)
  • sports programs (11 percent)
  • outreach to specific ethnic groups (11 percent).
• The study also explored the obstacles to evangelistic ministries.
  • The results showed at least half of all churches site insufficient volunteers (58 percent), staff (56 percent), lay leaders (52 percent) and funds (50 percent).
• Four out of ten pastors lack strong interest in increasing community outreach
• The methods churches are using for evangelism are quite varied.
  • Vacation Bible School, has been used by seven out of 10 churches for evangelism in the last year
  • 59% have used literature such as tracts or magazines 
  • 56% use events such as block parties or a Fall Festival 
  • 51% use musical events or concerts 
  • 50% use mailings or fliers 
  • 49% visited nursing homes or retirement centers specifically for the purposes of evangelism
• Other relatively popular evangelistic efforts include:
  •  “invite a friend to church” days (42 percent)
  • revivals or crusades (40 percent)
  • evangelism training classes or groups (38 percent)
  • door-to-door visitation within the community (37 percent)
  • community service such as cleanup days (31 percent)
  • online efforts such as blogs or web sites (27 percent)
  • audio or visual products such as tapes or DVDs (26 percent)
  • booths at community events such as the county fair (20 percent)
• Ninety-seven percent of all churches report doing something specifically for the purposes of evangelism over the last year.
• Just what churches are doing to evangelize their communities differs quite a bit by denominational group.
  • Southern Baptist churches are particularly big on using revivals or crusades, literature, evangelism training classes or groups, and door-to-door visitation
  • Other Baptist groups (National, Progressive, General, etc.) are fairly close to average, but are a bit more likely than others to use literature and door-to-door visitation.
  • Methodist churches are more likely than average to use events, but less likely to use literature, door-to-door visitation, and revivals or crusades.
  • Lutherans are particularly likely to rely on Vacation Bible School, online methods, and mailings or fliers, and less likely to use revivals or crusades, musical events or concerts, or audio/visual methods.
• Fewer than one out of ten Protestant churches offer any kind of free or low-cost day care services, abortion or pregnancy counseling, domestic violence programs, English language classes, job skills or job training, or adult literacy or reading classes.
• 46 percent of Methodist churches have some sort of homeless outreach, compared to just 10 percent of Southern Baptists.
• The pastors’ reasons for their churches not being more involved in community outreach included:
  • lacking sufficient volunteers (58 percent)
  • sufficient staff (56 percent)
  • sufficient lay leaders (52 percent)
  • sufficient funds (50 percent).
  • not enough time to do everything (41 percent)
  • lack of sufficient facilities (31 percent)
  • the congregation is mostly older people (26 percent)
  • the church is located in a small town or rural area (25 percent).

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