Common Belief Blockers That Stop People Wanting to Choose God

The Online Opportunity Report was completed in December 2020 covering findings from the Why God platform over a period of four years from 2016 to 2020. This was just prior to the platform being handed over to Roaring Hope. The conversations are fascinating and the statistics are too. Here’s an extract…

As people are more open to talking about God and faith, the proportion with a personal belief blocker increases significantly. Of the 2,709 conversations our team has had where individuals have been open to talking about God and faith, 63% have a personal belief blocker. Positively, this group has seen the greatest transformation with 28% moving toward God and 19% making a decision to follow Jesus - of which 31.5% were then connected to a church.

(See the images below)

Belief blockers have been identified as ‘the first identified blocker that was highlighted, which stops a person believing in God’.

The descriptions are as follows:

Personal - Struggle with sin or self-worth
Intellectual - God allowing evil, suffering, or proof of God
God's irrelevant - God has no relevance to my life (indifferent to God’s existence)
Church behaviour - Offence or injustice with Christians
Other religions - Belief in another religion

Christians often feel they cannot engage in conversation as they don’t know the answers to theological questions or intellectual arguments. It is not always long, in-depth conversations that move people towards Jesus; as we engage with a person's emotions, the walls that say God doesn't exist or is irrelevant start to come down. This highlights the importance of listening to what people are saying behind the questions or statements they make to enable us to identify with those unspoken needs. Providing opportunities for our response team members to engage in personal reflection helps them to identify where they can adjust their approach.