Qualities that make non-Christians open to faith conversations
Percent of U.S. non-Christians and lapsed Christians open to talking about faith with someone who has each quality, 2024 (in percent)
Key finding
Highest: Listens without judgment (62%). Lowest: Is good at asking questions (27%).
- Listens without judgment: 62%
- Does not force conclusions: 50%
- Shows interest in other people's stories: 29%
Source: Barna Group, What Non-Christians Want from Faith Conversations · Online nationally representative study of 1,001 U.S. adults who are not practicing Christians; margin of error of 3 percent. Article published 2024-01-05.
See all 4 categories, the full chart and more
Free account: full chart, CSV and PNG downloads, ready-to-paste citation, branded share image, and a discussion question for your team.
Questions about this statistic
What does this statistic show?
Highest: Listens without judgment (62%). Lowest: Is good at asking questions (27%). Listens without judgment: 62%. Does not force conclusions: 50%. Shows interest in other people's stories: 29%.
Who published this data?
Barna Group, 2024. Source: Barna Group, What Non-Christians Want from Faith Conversations (https://www.barna.com/research/non-christians-faith-conversations/).
Where can I get the full data and a citation?
Create a free Leader Insights account to open the full chart, download CSV or PNG, copy a citation and save the statistic to your own library.
More Outreach & Evangelism statistics
- Nones more willing to hear a Christian's faith if they don't claim all the answers Lifeway Research, 2026
- Nones who say they don't understand the language of most churches Lifeway Research, 2026
- Unaffiliated Americans on whether Christian language relates to what they care about Lifeway Research, 2026
- Christians who strongly agree they have a personal responsibility to share their faith Barna Group, 2025
- Churches not involved with area schools Lifeway Research, 2025
- Churchgoers eager to talk about Jesus with people unlike them Lifeway Research, 2025
About this data
Leader Insights collects statistics about U.S. churches from published research by organizations such as Lifeway Research, Barna Group, Springtide, the American Bible Society and PRRI. Every number is checked against the wording of the original source before it is published, and each statistic links back to the study it came from. Figures are reproduced from the publishers named above; see the source for full methodology.