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11
Church
Unchristian: Change the Perception
by
David Kinnaman
and
Gabe Lyons
People have observed that Jesus ministered to people on different levels during his time on earth, such as through his teaching, performing miracles, and extensive travels. Yet primarily their close association with him powered the devotion of the first Christians. He had lived and walked among them. They were willing to die for Christ because their loyalty had been forged in their interactions with him. There may be no more powerful testimony to the resurrection of Jesus than the fact that so many of his original followers were willing to be martyred for their conviction that he was the Son of God who rose from the dead.
We have no record of anything Jesus wrote. He created no organizations. He eschewed political power, even though people expected him to embrace this form of influence. Instead, Jesus laid the foundation for the church through relationships. His influence was (and is) indelible
because he changed people
. His focus was on reconciling human beings to a holy God through his sacrifice. When it comes to our interaction with outsiders, we have to realize that our relationships, our interactions with people, comprise the picture of Jesus that people retain. God has wired human beings so that spiritual influence occurs most commonly through relationships.
One of the clear implications of our research is that the negative image of Christians can be overcome, and this almost always happens in the context of meaningful, trusting relationships. The goal of overcoming their negative baggage is not just to make outsiders think pleasant things about us, but to point them to life in Christ. We do not “spin” the Christian message; we live it. We do not need to exaggerate or hype faith; we embrace and describe all the potency, depth, complexity, and realism of following Christ.
3. Be Creative.
Jesus was a master communicator. He attracted people who were unaccustomed to his style, ability, and message and connected with them in creative ways. He made difficult concepts vivid and used the language of common people to help point them toward spiritual depth. Yet it was not just clever oratorical skills or provocative stories that enthralled people. It was his drive to connect people with God’s heart.
4. Serve People.
The fourth challenge for Christ followers lies in how we envision our role among outsiders. The research brought me to this conclusion:
to look more like Christ followers, we must cultivate deep concern and sensitivity to outsiders
. This is what Jesus did. 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.
There is another reason that serving the poor, seeking justice, and addressing the needs of outsiders are important: Mosaics and Busters, perhaps as much as any American generation before them, need to experience faith that is expressed toward others. They want to do more than a learn
about
their faith; they want to
live
it. 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.
BECOMING CHRISTIAN
It comes down to this: we must become Christlike again.
This is both the good news and the hard reality of accepting the research in this book. At first glance this may seem like an oversimplified solution, but when you recognize that being Christian demands more than simply saying a prayer, assenting to a statement of belief, and going to heaven when you die, it becomes more personally challenging. Add the concept that being Christian means being God’s agent of common grace in the world, and the task becomes even more sobering.
We must commit to doing the hard work of recapturing Christianity’s essence in our own lives. It’s easy to point out the imperfections of others, but it takes much more humility and grace to confront the faults in ourselves. Being Christian is hard work. Putting the needs of others above your own, loving your neighbor, doing good to those who would do evil to you, exercising humility, suffering with those less fortunate, and doing it all with a pure heart is nearly impossible. But it is Jesus’s model and call. And that is what it will take. When an aspiring saint asked Mother Teresa, “How can I be like you?” her simple response was, “Find your own Calcutta.” She understood the core of the Christian life — the truest knowing comes in the doing. How might this play out for an entire generation of Christians currently living out a poor expression of Christianity?
Christians in the older generations will need to work hard at rediscovering what it means to follow Christ in today’s culture. It may start with an honest admission that some of what you may have called Christianity has no connection to the faith at all. It may require letting go of the baggage that surrounds ardent denominationalism, or decisively stepping away from the comfortable Christian subculture. It could mean taking the risk of being labeled “worldly” or “liberal” because of a biblically based commitment to advocate for cultural issues, like social justice and caring for God’s creation. Maybe it’s a willingness to consider how much your faith has become entangled with Western values that are at odds with the heart of Christianity, such as consumerism and materialism. Overall, it requires openness to the idea that you may be living an incomplete or inaccurate version of the faith.
For the youngest generations, the challenge will be to live a life that represents a fuller vision of Christianity than you may have seen modeled for you. Have the courage to follow your God-given talents and callings, and take the risk to express your faith in less conventional ways. Local churches should take seriously their opportunity to disciple and celebrate people who have a fully orbed view of Christian thinking and its relationship to all things throughout culture. While this will be difficult and demanding, we have no choice. The outcome of this pursuit by the youngest generations carries a disproportionate amount of influence in reversing the negative reputation of Christ followers in society as we look to the future.
As Christians of all generations allow Christ to transform their hearts, minds, and actions, their expressions of the Christian faith will change, resulting in an influence on society that we have not experienced in decades. No strategy, tactics, or clever marketing campaign could ever clear away the smokescreen that surrounds Christianity in today’s culture. The perceptions of outsiders will change only when Christians strive to represent the heart of God in every relationship and situation. This kind of Christian will attract instead of repel. He is provoked to engage instead of off ended by a decadent culture. She lives with the tension of remaining pure without being isolated from this broken world. When outsiders begin to have fresh experiences and interactions with this new kind of Christian, perceptions will change, one person at a time. When they have cataloged enough experiences with this kind of Christian to outweigh their negative ones, the reputation will change.
In due time, the name
Christian
will come to represent something refreshing and positive. One new friendship, a compassionate hug, a kind word, a positive outlook, or a well-meaning affirmation will go a long way in seeing Christ’s reputation revitalized throughout our culture.
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Comments
daniel
while I choose reason and tangible perceptions and experiences to guide me instead of magical sky Gods, I FULLY support your interpretation of Christianity as opposed to the views of tired, established, hateful, hypocritical goons out there. Currently, we as a nation are lagging behind in every aspect of education, and more and more people (read: christian tea-partiers) want to teach creationism, reject science, and stop funding education. I don't believe things can get more crazy or, I hate to use this hyperbole, but, dangerous. Lead your flock to enlightenment, reason, and betterment of ALL, not just heterosexual, protestant white males.
WE ARE *SICK* OF CHRISTIANS DOMINATING OTHERS' LIVES AND STRANGLING ANY KIND OF PROGRESS WE AS A NATION COULD HAVE.
Portable Pastor
To Daniel,
Your comments are rife with the things that you say you are against. The Bible clearly teaches exnihilo Creation and real science supports this (which is why Creationists win debates almost every time with evolutionists). Second, education is the responsibility of the parents and never should be the function of the government, since the government can only deal in control and power, which it always seeks to extend over anything it funds. Third, ad homonyms are a betrayal of reason and intellegent arguments. If you would have a cogent discussion of these issues you need to engage rather than confront by name calling and untruths.
Marty Elmer
Just found you..was recommended by a sisster whose sstufy group is doing "The Next
Christians"...have a feeling that we will be doing likewise soon. Thank You!
Sen
Portable Pastor,
So it is science or church, is that the only option?
And discount Jesus' words for cherry picked Leviticus rules?
You have actually made the point of this article.
Way to fill the pews.
Dave Butler
Good stuff here.
My only concern is that we often become reactive rather than proactive over these issues.
True. Christianity has gathered this unchristian image you've described above, but also the negativity has been enhanced and promoted by the secular media and some anti-Christian element in e.g. the science community in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. I agree with Daniel's comment above, as I am a convert from Theistic Evolutionism due to the overwhelming scientific and theological evidence (rarely published). Nonetheless, I think these arguments should be presented respectfully but assertively. We've been intimidated by these voices for too long, but neither should we cram it down people's throats and make the image problem worse.
I've seen many sincere and compassionate Christians doing their best to throw out everything that even smells of Fighting Fundamentalism. I can understand it in a way, but then we can so easily throw out the baby with the bath water. I like Jesus' approach where He said to the woman caught in adultery: "Neither do I condemn you. Go, and sin no more." In our culture, I would use different words to say the same thing, however. Don't forget, too, that in spite of Jesus' compassion, He suffered from an (imposed) image problem. We will get it imposed on us whether we like it or not, but there's no point in making it worse.
If anything, Christians should be the most balanced, logical, compassionate, gracious, wholesome and healthily-living people on this planet. Jesus was.
reg cole
I read the piece on abortion. Too bad those women hadn't listened to why the young lady wanted an abortion. She felt totally alone! Why wouldn't they try to befriend and provide the support she needed? We give money to "Pregnancy Reource Centres" and pontificate on "The right to life", but are we willing to invest ourselves in helping people like the young preganant woman? Support and encouragement is what she needed, not a sermon.
Jim Tuininga
Most of our church communities have an abysmal record in dealing lovingly, fairly, graciously with those struggling with homosexuality. Listening to them and HEARING them might help us to minister to, and serve them.
Ann Bezemer
WHAT I GOT OUT OF THIS EXCELLENT ARTICLE.:
You are what you are, not what you tell people you are.” We need to make continual, honest evaluations of ourselves so that we can uncover the ways in which our lives do NOT accurately reflect what we profess.
Our life shows other people what God is like.
The perceptions of outsiders will change only when Christians strive to represent the heart of God in every relationship and situation.
Spiritual formation is about depth rather than simplistic formulas
Worshiping God intimately and passionately
Engaging in spiritual friendships with other believers
We do not simply change our principles to accommodate people who disagree with us, but we should be willing to look at ourselves in the light of Jesus
Rather than being known for criticism, let’s learn to step in and work toward a solution for the problems we see They say Christians are more focused on condemning people than helping people become more like Jesus.
Are we more concerned with the unrighteousness of others than our own self-righteousness?
The opposite of sin is not virtue; it is grace. We need to move beyond expecting people to behave according to our expectations, and instead try to help connect them to God’s purposes.
Jesus was in but not of the world. Christ followers must learn to respond to people in the way Jesus did.
1. Respond with the right perspective. If his inquisitors tried to corner Jesus his response was often to raise another question or to tell a story that changed the parameters of the argument.
His response was oft en to raise another question or to tell a story that changed the parameters of the argument. The message of the cross doesn't make sense to outsiders
.2. Connect with people. The goal of overcoming their negative baggage is to point them to life in Christ. Not “spin” the Christian message; we live it - no need to exaggerate or hype faith - embrace and describe all the potency, depth, complexity, and realism of following Christ.
3. Be Creative. Make difficult concepts vivid and use the language of common people to help point them toward spiritual depth.
4. Serve People. Be compassionate, soft -hearted, and kind to people who are different from us, even hostile toward us. Need to do more than learn about faith;need live it.
Being Christian means being God’s agent of common grace in the world, Being Christian is hard work. The truest knowing comes in the doing.
Take seriously their opportunity to disciple and celebrate people who have a fully orbed view of Christian thinking and its relationship to all things throughout culture.
As Christians of all generations allow Christ to transform their hearts, minds, and actions, their expressions of the Christian faith will change, resulting in an influence on society that we have not experienced in decades.
Ms Marie
Regretably, I often see a lack of distinction between being against homosexuality and being against the homosexual person; the propaganda is so persistent. I have a young homosexual male in my life who rejoices in God "never leaving or forsaking" him despite his willful (his word) activities; this is a reflection of the lack of understanding of God as Holy and I fear for not just his physical safety (bars) but that of his soul. Many young people have a hard time choosing to stand against the institutionalization and imposed normalization and endorsement of sin because they want so badly to be accepted, and let's keep it real: sometimes it's just cowardice.
Playing down the light that God shines on my particular sin at any given moment by saying, "Well you know we all..." would be an entirely inapproriate response to a Holy confrontation--God is not talking to "we all", he's talking to me all. Jesus said he did not come to bring peace but a sword and that we must prioritize our relationship with Him above even the one to our own mother, (you have NO idea how much I can relate to that) so it was easy to know how to respond when my friend wanted me to create a comfotable environment for his willful sin--not emotionally fun, but easy (Matt. 10:34-39). "Life is not about easy answers"--really? What does that mean? God did not leave us clueless about the place of our emotions in relationship to His Word and law, we just tend to create complication when we want to indulge the flesh (Deuteronomy 30:11-14; Romans 1:28).
The thing about UnChristian is that it doesn't qualify the subjective experiences of those with so much negative to say about "Christians", "The Church" & "Christianity" against the objective standard of the Word. It control for those who are just on a bandwagon of offense and or lying. It doesn't give attention to their any ability on their part to overcome undue stereotyping. Also, the terms "Christians", "The Church" & "Christianity" must be defined--biblically. "The biblical response should be..."; well, the biblical response IS to speak the truth in love but that does not guarantee that people will not be offended, and if they are offended it doesn't necessarily mean we're doing something wrong, if a person is in sin they are supposed to feel bad, not like a victim, but aware of the contrast between their life and the holiness of God and desire to close that distance by repenting (Ephesians 4:11-16, 5:1-7, 10-13 & John 16:7-11, 3:17-21).
Friends, Jesus Christ is the head of the church--not the opinions of the "young people"; we can set ourselves up to be emotionally manipulated if we don't subject emotive language to the wisdom of the ages about human nature contained in God's Word. The church is Jesus' idea, and He said the gates of hell will not prevail, those who are cowardly need to stop claiming Christ because He will not claim them if they insist on straddling the fence and failing to clearly speak where God has clearly spoken without equivocation, ambiguation or mitigation. Perception is not reality; REALITY IS REALITY, and reality is ultimately the person of Christ himself.
Of course God loves homosexuals, some are repentant in heart some are not; the question is whether the person love Jesus ON HIS TERMS, which is "as the scripture has said" (John 7:38 & 2 Timothy 3:16). There is a lot of past hurt and a deep root of rejection in the souls of the homosexuals and lesbians I've known, hurt tends to color one's judgment and criticism; I encourage them to get current in their conversations with me and try not to prejudge me as someone who is like whatever stupidity they've seen on TV. One guy I know, I asked him if he'd ever done what Jesus instructed in Matthew 18 when he was offended or didn't get the answers he wanted from someone in church--he hadn't, he just left, hurt. I shared with him that I knew God wasn't upset with me for not being in church because someone I thought was befriending me just abruptly stopped bringing me when I shared my view that, "observing something negative does not make the person observing a negative person; some things by their very nature are just negative--everything is not happy and upbeat" (the conversation wasn't about a negative aspect of my church experience by the way). Eventually, when the time was ripe, I asked him if he thinks that all the things "The Church" & "Christians" have done bad to him will be an acceptable excuse when he stands before the Lord Jesus Christ--he frowned at first and then said, "Okay, I get it".
Anyhu, didn't mean to carry on, but it is very important for Christ followers to understand that our faith is one that refers to us as passers-through in this world, we are destined to feel the same heat that got Jesus crucified, and that we are not fit for the kingdom if we prioritize "making people feel welcome" or the fleeting pleasures of the world around us or behind us over the offense of the cross and being GOD's friend. Outsiders are not qualified biblically to judge spiritually-alive and mature believers. Jesus was not as soft as so many assume He was, the first word out of his mouth when he preached His gospel was "repent", and he said the MAJORITY would be attracted to the way that leads to destruction. The bible says that when people live a lifestyle given over to various lusts, it affects their ability to reason soundly; feelings are not even TELLING us the truth half the time, so you know they certainly can't BE the truth. Please read and listen to the entire book of 1 John MANY TIMES (God lead me to get it in my spirit when I was 17), 2 Corinthians 3, 4, 10:3-5; Matt. 7:12-14, 21-23; Ephesians 4:17-24 & Jude.
PEACE
bobanahalf
I think you're missing the point. When it comes to homosexuality, we're not talking about 'hate the sin, love the sinner.' We're talking about letting people be what God made them to be, either gay or straight. It's not like alcoholism, or stealing, or just being a jerk.
Those five bible passages you always quote about God hating homosexuality are flat out wrong. Yes, two and three thousand years ago, people were just plain wrong about that. And now we know better. A few other things we've grown past as a global culture:
1) killing every man, woman, child, and animal in God's name,
2) propogating slavery because that's just how it's always been, or
3) subjugating women.
Here's to hoping the 19 to 29 year olds do, one day, inherit the earth. Just like the 'lost generation' made strides in ending racism, just like the boomers pushed forward gender equality, let's hope the after-boomers can do away with discrimination based on sexual orientation.
Chris
To Ms. Marie: Jesus made people feel welcome, it was the religious people who were not made to feel welcome because they were the hypocrites. Get it?
Comments are now closed
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