Am I unChristian? It’s a question I’ve been mulling over recently, especially in light of some recent reading I’ve been doing in a book by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons entitled, Unchristian. The subtitle clues you in to where the book is headed: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity. What the authors have provided is the results of extensive polling research of perceptions of Christianity by ‘outsiders,’ those who do not identify themselves as Christian.
Through their research, they identify six broad themes or common points of skepticism raised by outsiders (here I’m quoting from pages 29-30):
- Hypocritical. Outsiders consider us hypocritical – saying one thing and doing another – and they are skeptical of our morally superior attitudes. They say Christians pretend to be something unreal, conveying a polished image that is not accurate. Christians think that the church is only a place for virtuous and morally pure people.
- Too focused on getting converts. Outsiders wonder if we genuinely care about them. They feel like targets rather than people. They question our motives when we try to help them ‘get saved,’ despite the fact that many of them have already ‘tried’ Jesus and experience church before.
- Antihomosexual. Outsiders say that Christians are bigoted and show disdain for gays and lesbians. They say Christians are fixated on curing homosexuals and on leveraging political solutions against them.
- Sheltered. Christians are thought of as old-fashioned, boring, and out of touch with reality. Outsiders say we do not respond to reality in appropriately complex ways, preferring simplistic solutions and answers.
- Too political. Another common perception of Christians is that we are overly motivated by a political agenda, that we promote and represent politically conservative interests and issues. Conservative Christians are often thought of as right-wingers.
- Judgmental. Outsiders think of Christians as quick to judge others. They say we are not honest about our attitudes and perspectives about other people. They doubt that we really love people as we say we do.
As they note earlier in the book:
“Our research shows that many of those outside of Christianity, especially younger adults, have little trust in the Christian faith, and [little] esteem for the lifestyle of Christ followers is quickly fading among outsiders” (p. 11).
Unfortunately, however, this is not just the sketch outsiders would provide; many young adults within the church would provide the same sketch.
“Among young adults who participate regularly in a Christian church, many share some of the same negative perceptions as outsiders. For instance, four out of five young churchgoers say that Christianity is antihomosexual; half describe it as judgmental, too involved in politics, hypocritical, and confusing; one-third believe their faith is old-fashioned and out of touch with reality; and one quarter of young Christians believe it is boring and insensitive to others. These are significant proportions of young people in Christian churches who raise objections to the motivation, attitudes, and image of modern Christianity” (p. 34, emphasis original).
This is all pretty sobering stuff, isn’t it?
My response, as a self-identifying Christian?
- Repentance – turning away from attitudes and actions that might unnecessarily perpetuate negative perceptions that detract from the beauty and truth of the Gospel.
- Prayer – praying that God would indeed so fill me with a knowledge of his saving will in Christ Jesus that I would in turn “live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that [I] may have great endurance and patience, and joyfully giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified [me] to share in the inheritance of the saints in the kingdom of light” (Colossians 1:10-12).
- Courage – courage to continue to bear witness to the “grace and truth” of the Gospel (John 1:17), courage to “declare the praises of him who called [me] out of darkness into his wonderful light” (1 Peter 2:9), courage to continue to “follow the Lamb wherever he goes” (Revelation 14:4), courage to go “outside the camp, bearing the disgrace [Jesus] bore” (Hebrews 13:13).
10 comments ↓
These poll results make me humble and cause me to search my own soul for the sins that are so common. So I readily agree with the need for repentance. And it gives me greater appreciation for His grace toward me. “God have mercy on me.” It motivated me to try even more to be Jesus to those around me, a friend of drunks, prostitutes, lepers and tax collectors. And not to try to be like other Christians because my intellect tells me that their “positions” are right.
Most Christians under the age of 35 are ready for a re-definition of what it means to be a Christian because they are sick of the caricatures and bad vibes they are getting from the culture – particularly from peers and the media.
They have not received satisfactory answers to the following questions in particular:
1. If people are born gay, why is it wrong to be gay or to even marry a partner of the same sex?
2. How can I tell people that Christ alone is the way, truth and life if I’m not sure that I believe this myself? What if we’re wrong?
3. How do I know that the Bible is inerrant and authoritative for every area of life, particularly when my teachers and professors are telling me the exact opposite?
Todd, if I may comment (this is my first comment on here) – I think Christians often overlook simple things which would improve their relationships and reputation with outsiders.
For example, almost all Christian teaching about evangelism is about what to say, rather than how to listen. It’s about manipulating conversations so the Christian can say what they believe they ought to say.
If you think about your own relationships – would you rather be listened to or talked at? Do you prefer people who listen to you or who manipulate conversations in order to tell you what they want to tell you? If you’re like most people I expect you prefer being listened to.
I volunteer with a small organization which suggests Christians approach evangelism by giving attention away to outsiders by noticing them and listening to them, rather than demanding their attention by manipulating conversations and telling them things.
When you begin by listening the other person generally does ask questions and give you opportunity to talk after a while. And if they do it’s a choice they willingly made. If you begin with more talking than listening the other person might listen in order to be polite but it wasn’t necessarily their choice. They might not be enjoying listening to you or paying much attention to what you’re saying.
Jesus said that giving a cup of cold water will be rewarded. Where we live most people have enough water but they crave attention. It isn’t easy to give attention away – it takes discipline and restraint to really listen to people. But it will make their day.
We like UnChristian because it’s based on listening to outsiders. In our live events this year we brought in David Kinnaman (who is now President of the Barna Research Group and a great guy) to speak and we interviewed four young people, two Christians and two people who aren’t Christians, so the audience could practise listening to what the young people shared. (You can see a 3 minute video clip of one of the Outsider Interviews here)
It would be interesting to ask some Oak Park outsiders what they think of Christians and Calvary. If you are serious about outreach to the community, which I assume you are, it might be helpful research.
I also think it would be interesting to ask them what they think of your three steps to avoid being unChristian. Whether they think the steps will help. Since it was the opinions of outsiders which led to your plans, it seems appropriate to me to find out whether outsiders think they will help address the UnChristian problem. (You would probably have to be more specific about what each step looks like in practice in order for them to have an opinion on whether they’d help address the problem)
From what I know of Barna’s research, it pretty much confirms the viewpoints of outsiders – that believers don’t act that much different from unbelievers in many key areas. Oof, that does hurt. I think these 6 criticisms are all good ones to keep in mind in our relationships, as they often go unspoken in conversations. In fact, I often feel judged by these ideas before people even get to know me, which makes their #6 complaint very ironic indeed. Does the book point out any positive things that people believe about Christians, so that there is at least something we can build upon, as we help people grapple with our failings…?
By the way, I just found out the authors of unChristian, David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, are speaking at Moody Bible Institute’s Founder’s Week next year.
I definitely need to move UnChristian up towards the top of my reading list… I have seen a lot of references to it recently. From this post, from your sermon on Sunday, and from responses I’ve heard from others I am definitely intrigued by the findings of the Barna research.
What I find most interesting is that—to me—it seems that all six of the negative characteristics seem to come down to a heart that has forgotten, or never fully understood, grace.
The negative characteristics are consistent with what I think of as “religion”… I have behaved/acted/thought correctly, therefore God owes me His acceptance. If I am primarily “religious”, then I need desperately to see some inherent difference between ME and THEM. I need to talk a good game (hypocrisy), convince people to join my winning team (conversion for numbers’ sake, politicism), make a big point of people not living up to my standards (anti-homosexual, judgemental), and afraid of getting poisoned by THEM (sheltered).
On the other hand, following Christ is not that kind of “religion”. Biblical Christianity is founded in grace… because of what God has done through Jesus, I am accepted and therefore desire to behave/act/think to please Him. Grace requires humility, because we were outlandishly hopeless before we recognized what he’d done for us. Being saved by grace can’t make us superior to anyone else, because it’s not our work but Christ’s work that has made us right with God.
Grace rubs against our own prideful souls, though… we *want* to be able to save ourselves, prove our worth, etc. So even amongst Christians who know they are saved by grace alone, it is a constant temptation to revert back into a Religious mindset. I know I need to preach the basic gospel of grace to myself on a regular basis to avoid strengthening the seeds within myself of the negative characteristics that Barna cites. Lord knows the seeds are always there.
I’ve thought about this since I was first exposed to the book in your sermon.
Research is interesting but must always be interpreted wisely. I’m not convinced that what this says is how “bad” Christians are at living their new lives. That’s not to say that all of us as Christians fail to walk as we should at times. It also doesn’t mean that we try to project ourselves as some type of perfected saint that is then seen as hypocritcal when we fall. But most of the believers I know don’t do this. Most are humble, honest, and caring people to Christian and Non Christian alike.
So how do we understand what this reasearch seems to indicate and how do we respond to it.
First, we should remember that Satan is busy spreading lies about God’s people 24/7. I would suggest that all 7 issues are stereotypes designed to make Christians look bad. They are the world’s definition of what a Christian shouldn’t look like. We shouldn’t be too political, we shouldn’t focus on making converts the way we do, we shouldn’t be so sheltered. I wonder if we make a mistake if we willingly accept the world’s defintion of who we should be and what we should look like.
Second, the more we are about God’s business the more the world will fight back. Not everyone to be sure because God is working in men’s hearts but many to be sure. When we say homosexuality is sinful, why wouldn’t we expect that the world will say you’re homophobic. They don’t want to dialogue because that gives credance to an opposing point of view. It’s easier to accuse you of hate. I understand this doesn’t describe everyone but it does describe many. Should we stop acknowledging sin and why men need redemption so that we won’t be seen as hateful? If we believe that no one comes to the father except through the son and that the wages of sin are death shouldn’t our focus be on helping others to come to salvation. Shouldn’t that be seen as what motivates us. In our culture of postmodern tolerance and pop psychological acceptance why would we be surprised that this leads to our being labeled as conversion zealots with no other concerns.
So that this doesn’t turn into a dissertation I’ll stop now. I certainly agree with other comments on how we need to reexamine our lives and our obediance to our Lord and his Word but I suspect that these beliefs about believers will not change for the better soon and maybe even grow more hostile as we walk more closely in the Spirit. But we don’t live our lives to serve the world, we live so that we might live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way.
Repentence, prayer and courage are so called for, indeed! Now! While we are doing that let us capitalize on what is left of the “esteem for the lifestyle of Christ followers” that is left here in out culture. Most places on earth have much less of it. Because we have some esteem from out peers, the under 35 generation can be even bolder to proclaim the gospel knowing that some neighbors will give them the benefit of the doubt. I would like to read Unchristian to find out if they list what positive impressions of Christians are left in America. Repentence is vital, yet why focus only on the negative? God has given us an environment with many advantages to preaching Christ plainly and with a lot less explination than most of the world (altough much less than our preceeding generations). I must now praise the Lord for the groundwork that has been laid here for good and for what is left of it that. Much is still visable to those around us and within us (eg. Billy Grahm, Mother Theresa, the protestan work ethic and many other things most of us are proud of).
Focusing on why people dislike us can breed hesitancy to speak up. Sieze what is left of the day and say with conidence and a smile “Jesus (the one you subconsciously trust more than any other religious figure) loves you! And I do too!”.
Even though there is a LOT of misunderstanding and inability to comprehend the Christian worldview, and how Christians live out their faith, I believe the point of this book is more about informing us as to what we CAN do to address those perceptions.
We evangelicals invest large percentages of our annual budgets to send missionaries to many different cultures around the world and then expect them to do exactly what we are NOT doing in our own culture!
We expect them to spend years studying and learning the language, culture, history, of the place they have been sent. We expect them to become like the people in their culture, reaching out, building bridges and relationships. We expect them to share the gospel in ways that the hearers will understand – culturally relevant and sensitive.
What this book, and many others like it are saying today, is that we have been asleep while the culture around us has changed radically. I believe we in Oak Park are living practically in an “unChristian” foreign country – based upon almost any definition you can find.
I am convinced our only hope of survival is to become “missional” in our outlook toward the culture around us. We need to go through the same process we expect of our foreign missionaries. We need to break down the stereotypes and misperceptions. We need to correct ourselves where we ARE NOT living, thinking and communicating as we should. We need to bring the gospel in its pure essence to a culture that needs to hear it… in a language it understands. We need to do it in the right mind and spirit.
I submit that if we fail to do this – and soon – we will lose the diminishing window of opportunity that exists, and become the irrelevant, conformed to the world, institution that most people outside the church perceive us to be.
Randy I really like what you said.
I think the Incarnation is the ultimate example of entering someone else’s world in order to effectively connect with them.
You must log in to post a comment.