You are looking at posts in the category unchristian.
| S | M | T | W | T | F | S |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| « Jun | ||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | |
| 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 |
| 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 |
| 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 |
| 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | |||
Posted on July 7th, 2008 by Brian Sparks.
Categories: unchristian.
unChrstian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity…And Why It Matters
written by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons (From The Barna Research Group)
Quotes:
“Young outsiders generally do not get the impression that Christians have good intentions when it comes to trying to ‘convert’ them. Most reject the iddea that Christians show genuine interest in them as individuals” (page 68).
Development of the Christian Mind:
“A faith that does not effectively address convoluted and thorny issues seems out of tune with a generation asking big questions and expressing candid doubts. Spirituality that is merely focused on ‘dos and dont’s’ rings hollow” (page 126).
“Are we trying to please God or polishing our holy credentials in front of fellow insiders?” (page 186).
Posted on June 30th, 2008 by Brian Sparks.
Categories: unchristian.
“Currently Christianity is known for being unlike Jesus; one of the best ways to shift that perception would be to esteem and serve outsiders. This means being compassionate, soft-hearted, and kind to people who are different from us, even hostile toward us” (page 212).
“And so, to move from unChristian to Christian, young people need to see Christianity rejecting self-preservation and insularity and embracing true concern and compassion for others. This is important for Christian young people as well as Mosaics and Busters who are on the outside, watching to see if the efforts of ‘those Christians’ are worth joining” (page 215).
“What if millions of us are living for ourselves, even while we are going through the motions of religion? What if we seek comfort for ourselves rather than giving comfort to other people? What if our spiritual efforts re focused on maintaining equilibrium rather than addressing the significant spiritual needs of others?” (page 219).
“I believe part of the reason Christians are known as unChristian is because the church has lost its ability and willingness to love and accept people who are not part of the ‘insider’ club. This failure is draining the vigor from our faith. We say we love outsiders, but in may cases we show love only iof it is on our terms, if they are interesed in coming to our church, or if they repect our way of life.
“We want young generations to participate in our churches, but we expect them to play by the rules, look the part, embrace the music, and use the right language. We condemn the moral compromises of Mosaics and Busters, but we lack the patience to restore them. We want them to be ccome mature Christ followers, through we are unwilling to submit to the significant task of our own spiritual formation” (page 219).
Posted on June 30th, 2008 by Brian Sparks.
Categories: unchristian.
“Christians talk about hating sin and loving sinners, but the way they go about things, they might as well call it what it is. Thyey hate the sin and the sinner” (page 181).
“Respondents to our surveys believe Christians are trying, consciously or not, to justify feelings of moral and spiritual superiority. One outsider described it like this: ‘Christians like to hear themselves talk. They are arrogant about their beliefs, but they never bother figuring out what other people acutally think. They don’t see to be very compassionate, especially when they feel strongly about something’” (page 182).
“To be judgemental is to point out something that is wrong in someone else’s life, making the person feel put down, excluded, and marginalized” (page 182).
“Our research shows that do-it-yourself morality is gaining momentum, and it is the way most Mosaics and Busters sift through moral decisions” (page 183).
“Yet an entire generation of those inside and outside the church are questioning our motives as Christians. They believe we are more interested in proving we are right than that God is right. They say Christians are more focused on condemning people than helping people become more like Jesus” (page 184).
“The perception is that Christians are known more for talking about these issues than doing anything about them”(page 184).
“In a recent study, we asked outsiders, churchgoers, and pastors to describe whether they perceive Christian churches to be loving environments, places where people are unconditionally loved and accepted regardless of how they look or what they do. Only one out of five outsiders said they perceived churches in this way. Surprisingly, few2er than half of churchgoers, including born-again Christians, felt strongly that their church demonstrates unconditional love” (page 185).
“Are we trying to please God or polishing our holy credentials in front of fellow insiders?” (page 186).
“In addition to Jesus’s cautionary words, the Bible makes it clear that God, not humans, should judge. It is God’s job, and he does it impartially while exposing the true motives of people’s hearts” (page 192).
“We have to start seeing ourselves and those around us for the people we really are-needy and hurting but with great potential as God’s sons and daughters. Maybe thenwe would reject arrogance as adamantly as we do any other sin, because it is especially corrosive to the faith of Christ followers” (page 193).
“Outsiders understand the nuances of differenct situations, and we discovered that, when their Christian peers gave them input within the context of relationship and with respect, in general they appreciated it. Human beings are attracted to acceptance and genuine respect: they are repelled by rejection and an air of superiority.
“Outsiders suggested the following guidelines for facilitating mutual esteem:
“We need to move beyond expecting people to behave according to our expectations, and instead try to help connect them to God’s purposes” (page 195).
“There is someone I love, even though I don’t approve of what he does. There is someone I accept, though some of his thoughts and actions revolt me. There is someone I forgive, though he hurts the people I love the most. That person is me. There are plenty of things I do that I don’t like, but if I can love myself without approving of all I do, I can also love others without approving of all they do” (Jud Wilhite, page 198).
“One of our weaknesses is that we’re far more concerned with being right than being righteous. We become like the Pharisees whenever we focus on issues rather than people” (Margaret Feinberg, page 200).
“I’m perplexed at how anyone can hear the story of Jesus dying in our place and rescuing us out of our helplessness and have it produce arrogance in their life” (Rick McKinley, page 201).
“Grace is our central issue, and for us to simply ignore this finding will certainly be our unhinging. We will slide down the slippery slope toward irrelevance, and our message of the gospel will no longer be credible in our culture. Why? Because it appears at some level that the secular world is capable of ‘doing grace’ better than we are. Chrsitianity’s main export has been co-opted by nonbelievers”(Mike Foster, page 202).
Posted on June 30th, 2008 by Brian Sparks.
Categories: unchristian.
“You should realize that my goal is not to suggest that Christians should neglect or ignore politics. The political arena is a crucial setting for influencing culture and an important domain for expressing a Christian worldview” (page 155).
“Our lives should reflect Jesus, which includes not just how we vote, but every element of our political engagement-our conversations about politics as well as our attitudes about idealogical opponents. This may seem obvious, but based n our research on this subject, we must realize that our political activism, if expressed in an unChristian manner, prevents a new generation from seeing Christ” (page 155).
“Christians need to be aware of their reputation in this arena, not only because it influences their politcal engagement, but because it affects their ability to connect with new generations who are innately skeptical of people who appear to use political power to protect their interests and viewpoints. This perception may not always be accurage but it contributes to outsiders’ mistrust of Christians.
“The stakes are high. Future elections are liely to be shaped by these attitudes, as will tyhe outcomes of the spiritual search of millions of young adults” (page 156).
“Since every group seems to have a political presence and agenda, why should Chritians be subject to special criticism? Are outsiders asking us to stay out of politics? According to our research, not exactly. Many outsiders clarified that they believe Christians have a right (even an obligation) to pursue political involvement, but they disagree with our methods andour attitudes. They say we sem to be pursuing an agenda that benefits only ourselves; they assert that we expect too much out of politics; they question whether we are motivated by our economic status rather than faith perspectives when we support conservative politics; they claim we act and say things in an unChristian manner; they wonder whether Jesus would use political power as we do; and they are concerned that we overpower the voices of other groups” (page 165).
“‘A lot of times the church would take a conservative Republican stance, and anyone who did not fit into that mold was judged as not as good a Christian as everyone else’ ” (page 166).
“We should make an effort to engage in other culture-shaping activities in addition to politics” (page 168).
“There is nothing gained by winning elections if we lose our soul in the process” (page 168).
“Guard your attitudes and what you say about outsiders. Our political engagement should not be the only yardstick by which outsiders measure our faith. Our words and actions shape people’s experiences and impressions of Jesus” (page 169).
“Christians do a lot of complaining about the society and how bad things are in politics, but they don’t do much more than complain. The pont is that you have to offer more than an opinion”(page 170).
“Christians talk about being driven by family values when they volte, but a lot of their families are in bad shape too” (page 170).
“In the aftermath of the Religious Right’s ascendancy, it is not an accident that ‘antihomosexual’ is the number one perception of Christians in America these days, followed closely by ‘judgmental’ and ‘hypocritical’ and ‘insensitive.’ Young people today could, if we had taken a wiser path for the last few decades, think ‘antipoverty’ or ‘pro-environment’ or ‘pro-fidelity’ or ‘antivoiolence’ when they hear ‘Christian’ or ‘evangelical.’
“We need more Bible-but we also need a better, more holistic and profound understanding of the Bible and what it says about justice, compassion, the future, power, poverty, money, war, sex, and the kingdom of God. Yes, we need more maturity-but we also need a better and more holistic maturity, a maturity willing to face the historic and social realities of our so-called Christian pat: a past that includes antiSemitism, racism, chauvinism, holocaust, colonialism, apartheid, slavery, attempted genocide of native peoples, and much else that is ugly and calls not for excuses and minimization but for forthright repentance” (Brian McLaren, page 172-173).
“It is a huge mistake to become married to an ideology, because the greatest enemy of the gospel is ideology. Ideology is a man-made format of how the world ought to work, and Christians instead believe in the revealed truth of Scripture” (Chuck Colson, page 174).
“Every time Christianity has fallen into the trap of using politics to achieve its means, it has lot its power and effectiveness. Relevant Christianity never loses sight of the reality that in the kingdom of God, everything is upside down when contrasted with the world’s pursuits…He said that our job as followers of Christ was to promote Jesus, not political bias” (Tri Robinson, page 175).
“In addition, politics is not everything. We are not going to se aright the sexual revolution on the floor of the Senate. We need new and ’saltier’ forms of cultural engagement” (Mark Rodgers, page 178).
Posted on June 30th, 2008 by Brian Sparks.
Categories: unchristian.
“Christians enjoy being in their own community. The more they seclude themselves, the less they can function in the real world. So many Christians are caught in the Christian ‘bubble.’” (page 121).
“Outsiders think Christianity is out of tune with the real-world choices, challenges, and lifestyles they face. Only one-fifth of young outsiders believe that an active faith helps people live a better, more fulfilling life. Three-quarters of Mosaics and Busters outside the church said that present-day Christianity could accurately be described as old-fashioned, and seven out of ten believe the faith is out of touch with reality. Most outsiders and nearly half of young insiders say that Christianity is confusing” (page 122).
“If you have spent much time with people in their twenties or thirties, you know that Mosaics and Busters are the antithesis of ’sheltered.’ This is one of the reasons Christianity, in its sheltered, clueless, non-intellectual form, makes no sense to them” (page 125).
“Mosaics and Busters thrive on unexpected experiences and enjoy searching for new sources of input…A vast portion of their typical day is spent consuming media and exploring the burgeoning realms of the Internet” (page 125).
“A majority of Busters, including most born-again Christian young people, believe that the spiritual world is too complex and mysterious for humans to understand. Millions of young people admit that life itself is too complicated to really grasp” (page 125).
“Young people’s perspectives about the world are not neat and tidy. They find themselves brushing aside thoseunwilling to expolre life’s intricacy and irony and idiocy, as they would say. A faitht hat does not effectively addresss convoluted and thorny issues seems out of tune with a generation asking big questions and expressingcandid doubts. Spirituality that is merely focusd on”dos and don’ts” rings hollow” (page 126).
Fractured generations
“Being salt and light demands two things: we practice purity in the midst of a fallen world and yet we live in proximity to this fallen world. If you don’t hold up both truths in tension, you invariably become useless and separated from the world God loves. For example, if you only practice purity apart from porximity to the culture, you inevitably become pietistic, separatists, and conceited. If you live in close proximity to the culture without also living in a holy manner, you become indistinguishable from fallen culture and useless in God’s Kingdom” (Mike Metzger, page 133).
“This may not surprise you, but the perception that Christians are sheltered is most significant among the subculture of intellectuals and influentials. Our research shows that upscale outsiders-those with advanced educational and financial profiles-are much more likely than average to express resistance and skepticism toward Christianity. The sheltered perception-that Christians are ignorant and uninformed is most common among young intellectuals” (page 135).
“These young Christian leaders realize that they must display excellence at their craft. Their credibility as Christians depends on their ability to do a great job” (page 136).
“So how do you stay connected? Relationship. Talk to people. Anyone. Everyone. Ask questions. Lots. Liten closely to the ansers. Open up your life to strangers, visitors, and friends of friends” (Margaret Feinberg, page 141).
“We’ve tried too long to educate their minds instead of engaging their lives. The more we try to change the way we do church so this generation will join us, the more they seem to stay away…We have discovered a short window of time during the teenage years when students need to experience something beyond church as a spectator sport. If a young person is not challenged by hands-on personal minsitry, their faith will likely be sidetracked and even sabotaged” (Reggie Joiner, Page 142).
“It really bothers me that Christians are perceived as boring. Other perceptions may pass, but the idea that Christinaity is boring will not, unless we work hard to recover the true robust nature of the gospel. We have succeeded in making Christianity tepid. We are lukewarm, and God says that he will spit us out. Current forms of Christian practice have become a poor substitue for the real thing. That is way this perception exists.
“The excitement of Chritinaity won’t come back because of ‘happy music’; it will come back when we begin to understand the vibrance and vitality of the biblical story of what the kingdom of God is all about” (Chuck Colson, page 144).
Posted on June 30th, 2008 by Brian Sparks.
Categories: unchristian.
“Born-again Christians are more likely to disapprove of homosexuality than divorce. The vast majority of Christians say that homosexuality should not be considered a legitimate lifestyle and strongly reject church-sanctioned weddings for same-sex unions. However, a minority of born-again believers (39 percent) embrace Jesus’s teaching that divorce is a sin except in cases of adultery” (page 94).
“Most born-again Christians have a hard time knowing how they should respond to the lifestyles of homosexuals as well as how to respond to the political efforts of gay and lesbian activists” (page 94).
“May Christians continue to be very skeptical about donating to HIV/AIDS causes, even overseas, despite Christians’ generosity in many other arenas” (page 95).
“It is one thing to be against homosexuality, to affirm that the Bible rejects the practice of same-sex lifestyles, but it is another to be against homosexuals, to let your disagreement with their behavior spill out in your feelings and words toward them as people” (page 96).
“We encountered significant resistance among some Christians to having their views about gays and lesbians challenged. Apparently they have already made up their mind that they have nothing to learn. Consider some of the inaccurate assumptions Christians embrace:
Biblical Responses
Posted on June 26th, 2008 by Brian Sparks.
Categories: unchristian.
“Our research among outsiders shows that Christians have a reputation similar to that of the Mormon evangelists. When it comes to matters of faith, young outsiders feel they know what Christians want before any words are uttered. Although Mosaics and Busters generally resonate with spiritual topics, they don’t like feeling ‘cornered’ into conversations about faith. A generation reared in a marketing-drenched world is quick to sniff out what they believe to be the underlying motivations and superficialities” (page 68).
“Among young adults, process trumps product and the journey is more important than the destination” (page 68).
“Youth outsiders generally do not get the impression that Chritians have good intentions when it comes to trying to ‘convert’ them. Most reject the idea that Christians show genuine interest in them as individuals” (page 68).
“When outsiders question our motives, it neutralizes their interest in Christianity. Only one-quarter of young outsiders firmly perceive that Christinaity offers them ‘hope for the future’ (23 percent), and only one out of every seven strongly believes say that Christianity is ‘genuine and real’ (15 percent). Despite the fact that most young outsiders say that Christianity has good values and principles (79 percent), a majority say that the Christian faith teaches pretty much the same basic ideas as other religions (81 percent)” (page 69).
“The most effective efforts to share faith are interpersonal and relationship based. When we asked born-again Busters to identify the activity, ministry event, or person most directly responsible for their decision to accept Jesus Christ, 71 percent listed an individual-typically their parent, a friend, another relative, or a teacher”(page 70).
“In our research with some of the leading ‘mass evangelism’ efforts, we found that often these measures create three to ten times as much negative response as positive” (page 71).
“Obeying the command to make disciples does not give us license to offend people, especially when those offenses are actually inhibiting us from fulfilling that very commandment”(page 71).
“Most people, by personality, are not logical thinkers and are not likely to change their beliefs because of elegant argumentation or apologetics” (page 72).
A person with a biblical worldview believes that:
“Only one out of seven outsiders describes Christianity as something that seems genuine and real. Just one-third believe that Christians show genuine interest in them”(page 77).
“Many outsiders actually miss the chance to experience true life in Christ because we cheapen the message of Jesus to church membership or denominational loyalty” (page 79).
“Most people do not have a clear sense of what spiritual transformation is or what it should look like” (page 80).
“People who have a biblical worldview are much more likely to act like Jesus because they see such things as life, people, and crises differently than most people do…We are learning that one of the primary reasons that ministry to teenagers fails to produce a lasting faith is because they are not being taught to think” (page 81).
“If we are being transformed by our faith, the way we perceive and love people, including outsiders, will change” (page 81).
“A third outcome of transformation is the ability to listen-to God and to others…God is constantly communicating with his people, How can we orient our efforts as Christians to learn and respond to the ways he speaks?” (page 82).
“It is a picture of what the Hebrews called shalom, or peace, or wholeness, extending to every facet of lief: the sick healed, the captives freed, the oppressed released, right relationships restored with God and humanity” (page 86).
“The local church has to be responsible for ‘making the invisible kingdom visible” (page 87).
“The gospel cannot be merely a private transaction. God didn’t break through history, through time and space, to come as a babe, be incarnated, and suffer on the cross just so you can come to him and say, ‘Oh, I accept Jesus and now I can live happily ever after.’ That’s not why he came…Jesus came as a radical to turn the world upside down. When we believe it is just about Jesus and yourself, we miss the whole point” (page 87 - quote taken from Chuck Colson).
“Here’s my advice to Christians who want to change culture’s perception of Christianity:’Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.’ In other words, do something that causes people to look favorably in God’s direction. I still believe that everybody spends eternity somewhere. If tht’s the case, getting this right isn’t a marginal issue. It is the issue” (page 88-89 - quote taken from Andy Stanley).
Posted on June 26th, 2008 by Brian Sparks.
Categories: unchristian.
“Everyone in my church gave me advice about how to raise my son, but a lot of the time they seemed to be reminding me that I have no husband-and besides, most of them were not following their own advice. It made it hard to care what they said. They were not practicing what they preached” (page. 41).
“Part of this stems from immersion in a mean-spirited and fault-finding society. Having been the target of countless advertisements and thousands of messages and lectures, Mosaics and Busters recognize word games and are sensitive to inconsistent lifestyles. They are skeptical of what others say-even if they have little reason to be wary” (page 42).
“Eighty-five percent of young outsiders have had sufficient exposure to Christians and churches that they conclude present-day Chrsitianity is hypocritical. And as I have pointed out, negative perceptions also bleed into the perspectives of young churchgoers-half agreed that Christianity is hypocritical (47 percent)” (page 42).
“By a wide margin, the top life priorities of eighteen to twenty-five-year-olds are wealth and personal fame” (page 44).
“They see Christianity through the same protect-your-image-at-all-costs lens. Like their own choices and priorities, they believe that everyone says and does whatever is necessary to get ahead” (page 44).
“Yet they have become so jaded by the holes in people’s lifestyles that they are no longer shocked to find incongruence between words and actions.
“This gives the critique that Christianity is hypocritical even more potency. We are not known for the depth of our transparency, for digging in and solving deep-seated problems, but for trying to project an unChristian picture of haing it all together. Youg outsiders believe that rather than being able to help them sort through the image-is-everything world, followers of Christ are playing the very same mind games that they are” (page 44).
“Based on a study released in 2007, we found that most of the lifestyle activities of born-again Christians were statistically equivalent to those of non-born-again Christians. When asked to identify their activities over the last thirty days, born-again believers were just as likely to bet or gamble, to visit a pornographic website, to take something that did not belong to them, to consult a medium or psychic, to physically fight or abuse someone, to have consumed enough alcohol to be considered legally drunk, to have used an illegal, nonprescription drug, to have said something to someone that was not true, to have gotten back at someone for something he or she did, and to have said mean things behind another person’s back.
“NO DIFFERENCE.” (page 47.)
“If these groups of people were in two separate rooms, and you were asked to determine, based on their lifestyles alone,which room contained the Christians, you would be hard-pressed to find much difference” (page 47).
“There is a twist-a deeper reason why the perception of hypocrisy exists. It’s not just our lifestyles that have gotten us in trouble; it’s the very way in which we convey the priorities of being a Christian. The most common message people hear from us is that Chritianity is a religion of rules and regulations. They think of us as hypocritical because they are measuring us by our own standards” (page 48).
“Two-thirds of churchgoers said, ‘Rigid rules and strict standards are an important part of the life and teaching of my church.’ Three out of every frive churchgoers in America feel that they ‘do not measure up to God’s standards.’ And one-quarter admitted that they serve God out of a sense of ‘guilt and obligation rather than joy and gratitude’”(page 51).
“Our passion for Jesus should result in God-honoring, moreal lifestyles, not the other way around” (page 51).
“Our research shows that Christians believe the primary reason outsiders have rejected Christ is that they cannot handle the rigorous standards of following Christ. There is a nuance here that allows Christians to feel like they’re better than other people, more capable of being holy and sinless. We rationalize that outsiders don’t want to become Christ followers because they can’t really cut it” (page 51).
“Outsiders said they have never become a Christ follower for a number of other reasons: because they have never thought about it, because they are not particularly interested in spirituality, because they are already committed to another faith, or because they are repelled by Christians.
“When the primary way we measure our faith is based on liefstyle, it is easy to assume that the missing ingredient for outsiders is virtuous, moral living. Again, moral issues are not inherently wrong priorities. God deeply cares about our ations, asshould we. Yet don’t our priorities seem backward?
“The gospel-the Good News of Jesus-is that God has released us from the endless striving to measure up to God’s standards, let alone the expectations of other human beings” (page 52).
“Spirituality is not measure just by the number of sermons we hear, the piety of our lives, or the goodness of our actions”(page 59).
“The problem is not fundamentally hypocrisy. We’re all hypocrites at some level. The problem is the air of moral superiority many of us carry around. We stop acknowledging the imperfections in our lives. We forget where we came from and all God has done in our lives” (page 61).
“The perception of hypocrisy also emerges when we start fighting the ‘culture war’-meaning we attack people’s behavioral patterns rather than love them as people”(page 61).
“Young peple will not communicate with and seek help from parents, pastors, and teachers whose lifestyles and passions do not match their words and faith. They will go to those who will embrace relationship with them; those who are also hurting and who are willing to share it”(page 64-65).
Posted on June 26th, 2008 by Brian Sparks.
Categories: unchristian.
“Young adults enjoy challenging the rules. They are extremely-you might say innately-skeptical. Today’s young people are the target of more advertising, media, and marketing than any generation before. And their mindset is both incredibly savvy and unusually jaded” (page 21-22).
“The lifestyles of Mosaics and Busters are more diverse than those of their parents’ generation, including education, career, family, values, and leisure. Young people do not want to be defined by a “normal” lifestyle. They favor a unique and personal journey. Many young people do not expect to be married or to begin a family as a young adult (if at all), though this may have been the expectation in the past.
“For both Mosaics and Busters, relationships are the driving force. Being loyal to friends is one of their highest values. They have a strong need to belong, usually to a tribe of other loyal people who know them well and appreciate them. Still, under their relational connectedness lies fierce individualism” (page 22).
“Being skeptical of leaders, products, and institutions is part of their generational coding… They do not trust things that seem too perfect, accepting that life comes with is share of messiness and off-the-wall experiences and people” (page 23).
“If something doesn’t work for them, or if they are not permitted to participate in the process, they quickly move on to something that grabs them. They prefer casual and comfortable to stuffy and stilted” (page 23).
“Spirituality is important to young adults, but many consider it just one element of a successful, eclectic life. Fewer than one out of ten young adults mention faith as their top priority, despite the fact that the vast majority of Busters and Mosaics attended a Christian church during their high school years. Most young people who were involved in a church as a teenage disengage from church life and often from Christianity at some point during early adulthood, creating a deficit of young talent, energy, and leadership in many congregations” (page 23).
“The image of the Christian faith has suffered a major setback. Our most recent data show that young outsiders have lost much of their respect for the Chrsitian faith. These days nearly two out of every five young outsiders (38 percent) claim to have a “bad impression of present-day Christianity” (page 24).
“They are morelikely than previous generations to believe he committed sings; they are also more liely to believe that people can live a meaningful life without him” (page 24).
“Most people I meet assume that Christian means very conservative, entrenched in their thinking, antigay, antichoice, angry, violent, illogical, empire builders; they want to convert everyone, and they generally cannot live peacefully with anyone who doesn’t believe what they believe” (page 26).
“One crucial insight kept popping up in our exploration. In studying thousands of outsiders’ impressions, it is clear that Christians are primarily perceived for what they stand against. We have become famous for what we oppose, rather than who we are for” (page 26).
“In our national surveys with young people, we found the three most common perceptions of present-day Christianity are antihomosexual (an image held by 91 percent of young outsiders), judgmental (87 percent), and hypocritical (85 percent). These “big three” are followed by the following negative perceptions, embraced by a majority of young adults: old-fashioned, too involved in politics, out of touch with reality, insensitive to others, boring, not accepting of other faiths, and confusing” (page 27).
SIX BROAD THEMES
“Being hurt by Christianity is far mare common among the young than amoung older outsiders. Three out of every ten young outsiders said they have undergone negative experiences in churches and with Christians” (page 32).
“Some Christians respond to outsiders’ negativity by promoting a less offensive faith. The unpopular parts of Christian teaching are omitted or deemphasized. They hijack the image of Jesus by portaying him as an open-minded, big-hearted, and never-offended-anyone moral teacher. That is an entirely wrong idea of Jesus” (page 33).
“Young outsiders want to have discussions, but they perceive Christians as unwilling to engage in genuine dialogue. They think of conversations as “persuasion” sessions, in which the Christians downloads as many arguments as possible.
“Outsiders told us that the underlying concern of Christians often seems more about being right than about listening. There is an undercurrent of arrogance that outsiders perceive. This raises the implication that even the “correct” answers, if expressed in an unChristian way, are totally out of tune with the skeptical generation. If Christians are perceived as difficult to live with-and if they do not respond in godly, appropriate, and humble ways to people’s questions and doubts-we permit the hijacking of Jesus, simply by leaving our voice out of the conversation” (page 33).
“One thirty-five-year-old believer from California put it this way: ‘Christians have become political, judgmental, intolerant, weak, religious, angry, and without balance. Christianity has become a nice Sunday drive. Where is the living God, the Holy Spirit, an amazing Jesus, the love, the compassion, the holiness? This type of life, how I yearn for that’”(page 35).
“However, before you dismiss the unChristian perception as “just Christians doing their duty,” realize that the challenge runs much deeper. The real problem comes when we recognize God’s holiness but fail to articulate the other side of his character: grace. Jesus represents truth plus grace (see John 1:14). Embracing truth without holding grace in tension leads to harsh legalism, just as grace without truth devolves to compromise. Still, the important insight based on our research is that Mosaics and Busters rarely see Christians who embody service, compassion, humility, forgiveness, patience, kindness, peace, joy, goodness, and love” (page 37).
“Are you starting to wrap your heart and mind around all this? Millions of young outsiders are mentally and emotionally disengaging from Christianity. The nation’s population is increasingly resistant to Christianity, especially to the theologically conservative expressions of that Faith” (page 39).
Posted on June 26th, 2008 by Brian Sparks.
Categories: unchristian.
Seeing Christianity from the Outside
“[outsiders] reject Jesus because they feel rejected by Christians” (page 11).
“Often ousiders’ perceptions of Christianity reflect a church infatuated with itself. We discovered that many Christians have lost their heart for those outside the faith” (page 14).
“UnChristian reflects outsiders’ most common reaction to the faith: they think that Christians no longer represent what Jesus had in mind, that Christianity in our society is not what it was meant to be” (page 15).
“Christians use terms like “pagans” or “the lost” or worse. Other phrases are also inadequate, such as “nonChristians” (which defines them simply by what they are not) as well as “nonbelievers” or “seekers” (labels that are not necessarily ture of all outsiders)
“Labeling people can undermine our ability to see them as human beings and as individuals.” (page 17).
“Each generation contains more than the last, which helps explain their growing influence. For instance, outsiders make up about one-quater of Boomers (ages forty-two to sixty) and Elders (ages sixty-one-plus). But among adult Mosaics and Busters, more than one-third are part of this category, a number that increases to two-fifths of sexteen to twenty-nine-year-olds” (page 18).
“Christianity’s image problem is not merely the perception of young outsiders. Those inside the church see it as well-especially Christians in their twenties and thirties”(page 18).
Site Powered by MU.Wordpress.org - Developed by cFlare.com - Powered on pastorslounge.com