More than half of American churchgoers have not heard of 'the Great Commission' in which Jesus called on his followers to 'go and make disciples of all nations', famously in Matthew 28:18-20, according to a study by Barna.
Asked if they had previously 'heard of the Great Commission,' 51 per cent of churchgoers said that they do not know the term.
Only 17 per cent said they had heard of it, while 'the Great Commission' rings a bell for one in four (25 per cent), though they cannot remember what it is.
Six per cent of churchgoers are simply not sure whether they have heard the term before.
Barna speculated that the data indicates that churches are using the phrase less.
The organisation also presented churchgoers with five different passages from scripture and asked them to identify which one is known as the Great Commission. A little more than one-third of churchgoers (37 per cent) correctly identified the Bible passage and nearly all of the churchgoers who indicated they have previously heard of the Great Commission (94 per cent) also selected the passage in Matthew 28. The remainder of churchgoers either did not know which of these verses is the Great Commission (33 per cent) or offers an incorrect answer (31 per cent).
Age is a significant factor. More than one-quarter of 'elders' (29 per cent) and 'boomers' (26 per cent) says they know the text, compared to 17 per cent of 'generation X' and one in 10 'millennials' (10 per cent).
As with other churchgoing groups, people in all generations are more likely to choose the right passage from a set of options than to remember it unprompted, Barna found.
Roughly two in five people among the three oldest generations correctly identified the Great Commission (43 per cent of elders, 42 per cent of boomers, 41 per cent of generation X). Churchgoing millennials, however, are about as likely to misidentify (36 per cent) as to correctly identify (34 per cent) the Great Commission.
Meanwhile, practising Christians recognise the Great Commission at four times the rate (25 per cent) of non-practising churchgoers (six per cent).
And unsurprisingly, there is a correlation between what Barna calls 'Bible-mindedness' – 'essentially, full faith in and regular engagement with scripture' – and recognising the Great Commission. More than a third of churchgoers who are Bible-minded (36 per cent) knows the term, and over half (57 per cent) correctly select the Great Commission from the list of possible passages.
Similarly, those with higher levels of New Testament knowledge are more likely than those with less knowledge to say that they know what the Great Commission is (33 per cent) and to correctly identify it (52 per cent). By comparison, only 0one per cent of those with low New Testament knowledge are familiar with the Great Commission, and 12 per cent can pick it from among other verses.
Evangelicals are the most likely churchgoing group to state that they have heard of the Great Commission and remember what it is (60 per cent),.
When selecting the Great Commission from the series of verses, three of four churchgoing evangelicals (74 per cent) correctly identify it, the largest portion among churchgoing groups.
