Questions to focus on: The Mismatch Chart

These questions can be used at different levels. You can take 30 seconds to think about one or two. You can discuss them in a team or group of like-minded Christians. Or they can be used in a college class, including assignments and research projects, and answered in writing at any depth. They may be freely reproduced for this purpose. Please email us additional questions that could be added to this page.
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  1. Visit a Christian bookshop. Ask how many different titles of books and videos they have on display. Try to estimate how many titles are intended purely for Christian readers. How many are designed to be evangelistic?
  2. Find out how many new Christian books were published in your country last year. Then try to discover how many were intended for outreach.
  3. Analyse critically a tract, a video and a book which are intended to be evangelistic. Do they appear attractive graphically? Do they make assumptions about Christian understanding that many users will not have? Do they address real issues of concern to non-Christians? Are they glib, superficial, condescending, cringeworthy? Or do they offer honest non-preachy answers to real questions?
  4. Look at the Mismatch Chart. Do you think that this reflects the percentage of books, videos and websites which target people at different stages of spiritual understanding?
  5. Why do Christians find it so easy to minister to other Christians, and so hard to step outside the ghetto to relate to non-Christians?
  6. Does the Mismatch Chart also reflect the relative proportions of money that most churches spend on:
    1. discipleship within the fellowship
    2. evangelism in the community
    3. donations to other outreach ministries in the same country
    4. gifts to outreach ministries in other countries
    If so, how can churches be persuaded to give a higher priority to evangelism? How can churches be better integrated into understanding and involvement in cross-cultural evangelism overseas? Do short-term mission trips for church members or pastors increase overseas vision? Can you find examples of this?