Reading the Bible and experiencing a welcoming church are two of the most common reasons why people become Christians, a new report by the Evangelical Alliance (EA) has found.
Its new report, Finding Jesus: Identifying Pathways to Faith in Adulthood, draws on the experiences of 280 adults who came to faith in the last five years.
For many respondents, a deep dissatisfaction with life was the trigger for their faith journey - over a third (37%) said they had needed help with life at the time of turning to Christianity, while a similar proportion (34%) were looking for meaning.
Nearly a third (32%) said they had suffered a painful or difficult experience, while over a quarter (29%) said they were drawn to Christianity by the impact of the faith on someone they knew.
The same proportion said they had started exploring the faith because someone had spoken to them about it, while a similar number (28%) had had a spiritual experience.
People from low incomes were most likely to cite the positive actions of Christians towards them.
Around a third (32%) became Christians less than six months after starting to explore the faith, while for just over a quarter (27%) it took them six months to a year.
Both the Bible and a welcoming church were important factors in helping them to explore and grow their new-found faith.
Over half (59%) said a church had helped them to explore the faith, while nearly half of new believers (47%) said that reading the Bible was significant in their faith journey.
For many (42%), attending a course or small group was important to exploring the faith, while for others it was a spiritual experience (39%), or the hospitality, generosity and service of Christians (38%).
The report also found that both church communities and individual Christians, not just leaders, played an important role in helping people become Christian.
The study, based on interviews conducted between July and September 2024, was compiled by the EA to understand how and why adults in the UK choose to become Christians, despite wider cultural trends of church decline.
Welcoming the findings, the EA said that the report challenges the narrative of church decline, showing new growth and openness to faith.
Rachael Heffer, co-lead researcher of the Finding Jesus project, said: “These are exciting times for the UK church.
"We are witnessing lives being turned around and the church growing as a direct result of people being more open to the Christian faith, asking big questions, reading the Bible, and seeing God transform their lives.
"The challenge for the church is how to welcome and nurture the many people coming through our doors!”
