The National Council of Evangelicals in France (CNEF), along with the Evangelical Centre, have carried out the survey Live and tell the Gospel at work, “to better understand what evangelicals experience in their professional environment”.

This online survey contains 812 quantitative responses, 350 written testimonies and 16 video-conference interviews collected between 1 September and 31 October 2021.

The vast majority of respondents (90%) attend an evangelical church on a regular basis. Most are employed by private businesses (42%).

Perception of work

According to the survey, most evangelicals do not have difficulties in identifying themselves as such in their work places (91%), and the majority (80%) say that they do not suffer from misunderstanding or mockery because of their faith.

However, some testimonies from a minority of respondents show that they feel discriminated against because of their faith. Two examples shared are: “the expression of my faith was the cause of two dismissals during my career”, or “my husband was dismissed for talking about the Bible to a patient”.

[photo_footer] Most French evangelicals do not suffer from misunderstanding or mockery because of their faith . / CNEF [/photo_footer] 

The research reveals that only 28% of the respondents see their “work as a way to provide for the needs of the church and its ministries”, while 35% have an ethical conflict with their employer's values or practices in relation to their faith.

Struggle to be a witness

Despite the willingness of respondents to identify as Christians at work, this survey also highlights the difficulty that evangelicals have in witnessing to their faith among their co-workers.

Most of them “feel inadequate and guilty”, because they fear that they “could be a bad witness”; feel that they are “not doing enough”; or put pressure on themselves, “because I have heard that a Christian must be perfect in order to give a good testimony and it is impossible”, some of the testimonies say.

That is why 87% of evangelicals surveyed would like “to be better equipped to know how the Gospel is good news in their professional field”.

“In order to deepen our primary mission, which is to encourage the proclamation and practice of the Gospel in France, we plan to offer in the coming months tools for reflection and theological deepening on these themes (witnessing to one's faith, the Church, , work from a biblical point of view, etc.), which are at the heart of Christian life”, says the CNEF.