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unChristian:
What A New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity…And Why It Matters
(03/17/2008)
This book is currently #35 on the list of best selling books for the Association for Christian Retail and climbing. It is being hailed around the country as the definitive work describing the state of Christianity today and how to fix it. But is it an attempt at honest self-examination with sound doctrinal solutions or is it a misdiagnosis of the disease (and consequently the treatment needed) based on symptoms born of the current “good is evil, evil is good” “blame everything Western” mindset?
Here’s a description of the book from their website (www.unchristian.com):
“Christianity has an image problem. Christians are supposed to represent Christ to the world. But according to the latest report card, something has gone terribly wrong. Using descriptions like ‘hypocritical,’ ‘insensitive,’ and ‘judgmental,’ young Americans share an impression of Christians that’s nothing short of . . . unChristian.The book attempts to compile and correlate data from 14 different surveys conducted from 1995 to 2007. All but 2 were conducted by The Barna Group. Those 2 were conducted by the Fermi Project and form the core of the books findings. The first of these is a “qualitative” survey of 27 people conducted in April, 2004. The second was an online survey of 867 respondents (440 of which were classified as “outsiders” or non-Christians).Groundbreaking research into the perceptions of sixteen- to twenty-nine-year-olds reveals that Christians have taken several giant steps backward in one of their most important assignments. The surprising details of the study, commissioned by Fermi Project and conducted by The Barna Group, are presented with uncompromising honesty in unChristian.
Find out why these negative perceptions exist, learn how to reverse them in a Christ-like manner, and discover practical examples of how Christians can positively contribute to culture.”
Contributors to the book represent a veritable “who’s who” of Emerging Church proponents and social reformers including Rick Warren, Brian McClaren, Dan Kimball, and Charles Colson.
The format of the book consists of a presentation of the data, their interpretation of it, their recommendations, and then short theses from contributors to help flesh out their ideas.
The Authors
Its authors are David Kinnaman (President of The Barna Group – www.barna.org) and Gabe Lyons (Founder of the Fermi Project – www.fermiproject.com).
David Kinnaman has worked for The Barna Group since 1995. The Barna Group has become known as the authoritative source for statistical data concerning Christians and Christianity and has been in the field since the mid-80s. They describe their mission as:
“We seek to use our strengths in partnership with Christian ministries and individuals to be a catalyst in moral and spiritual transformation in the United States. We accomplish these outcomes by providing vision, information, strategy, evaluation and resources.”Gabe Lyons is the driving force behind the Fermi Project and they describe themselves as “a broad collective of innovators, artists, social entrepreneurs, church and societal leaders experimenting with ways to advance the common good in culture.” They hope to achieve “a major shift within the church’s way of viewing its mission and opportunity within the culture.”
Synopsis
Their data suggests that most people between the age of 18 and 41 have a negative impression of Christianity. The most common observations were that Christians are anti-homosexual, judgmental, hypocritical, were only interested in getting you “saved,” sheltered (out of touch with reality, old fashioned, nonintellectual), and too political. The first three observations were the most prevalent.
The author’s had similar recommendations on how to address each issue. In general, the idea is to establish relationships with outsiders (i.e., non-Christians) and show them that you genuinely love them. Try to engage them where they are without judging them and without sounding like we know it all. After they see that we do really care for them, then they will be more open to discussing what we believe.
Page 208 – “Jesus laid the foundation for the church through relationships.”The authors bemoan the fact that “young people experience a one-size-fits-all message that fails to connect with their unique sensibilities, personality, or intellectual capabilities.”Page 209 – “God has wired human beings so that spiritual influence occurs most commonly through relationships.”
Page 16 – “to engage non-Christians and point them to Jesus, we have to understand and approach them based on what they really think”
Page 232 – Dan Kimball: “Jesus followers need to simply be friends with those outside the church.”
Page 88 – Andy Stanley: “If we were to rewrite the script for Christianity, I think we would put the emphasis on developing relationships with nonbelievers, serving them, loving them, and making them feel accepted. Only then would we earn the right to share the gospel.”
They advocate that we “articulate a ‘kinder, gentler’ faith – one that engages people” but they are quick to add “one that does not compromise its passion for Jesus or its theological understanding of Him.”
General Analysis
Right off the bat, I am surprised at the small sample size of their survey. It seems like a pretty small group for the authors to confidently make such sweeping statements about what young people in America today believe. But perhaps that betrays my ignorance of statistics. What’s that old saying? “There’s lies, darn lies, and statistics…”
One underlying assumption to this book (and The Barna Group, in general) is that you must understand and empathize with the feelings and worldview of those whom you want to reach. The goal is to tailor your approach and your message so as to maximize your effectiveness. The most immediate measure of effectiveness in the context of this book is establishing a relationship where a personal exchange of ideas is possible. In churches today, effectiveness is usually measured by the number of people in your congregation.
If such assumptions are correct, then surveying your target audience and analyzing the resultant data makes perfect sense. The same technique has been proven over and over again in the business of sales and marketing.
This would all be good if Jesus was a product and we were trying to get as many people as possible to “buy” into it. It would be the soul of wisdom if people became Christians through effective appeals to their intellect and their emotions, or if the gospel needed to be tailored according to our understanding of those to whom it is presented, or if the Holy Spirit was limited in His ability to work by our understanding of those we speak with. But that is NOT the case. Oh, such methods may result in more non-Christians being friendly to you or in more people coming to your church but it won’t result in more people coming to repentance and being born of the Spirit. So their fundamental assumption is flawed.
Do you think such information would have changed Paul’s sermon on Mar’s Hill or in Ephesus or in Corinth? No! Because he “determined to know nothing among (them) except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified.” His message and preaching “were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that (their) faith would not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God” and so that they might be saved “through the foolishness of the message preached (1 Cor. 2:3,5; 1 Cor. 1:21).”
They say that they base their recommendations on the words, attitudes, and behaviors of Jesus but their view of Christ is warped by their preconceptions of Him. They completely ignore essential aspects to His mission and message:
What did Jesus say He come here to do?
Luke 4:43 But He said to them, “I must preach the kingdom of God to the other cities also, for I was sent for this purpose.”What was the message He preached?
Matthew 3:2 “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”They dismiss preaching as being an ineffective methodology and calling for repentance as being judgmental. Granted, again and again in introductory passages of their chapters they mouth the right words as if to say, “OK…we’ve defused that biblical but narrow-minded and ineffective position by acknowledging its existence” but they then proceed to recommend it’s opposite. For example:
Page 19 – “This book never advocates that we try to become more popular.” But in the next sentence they say “our task is to be effective…”But then…Page 33 – “Softening or reshaping the gospel is an utterly wrong response to the objections people raise.”
Page 73 – “If we really want to help outsiders see the unique freedom available through Christ, a simplistic get-saved message is an insult to their intelligence.”They say…Page 212 – “the truth is that repeating what the Bible teaches is not considered valid or compelling evidence”
Page 220 – “They do not want to be scolded; they require our help and our empathy.”
Page 211 – “To connect with them, we have to find new stories, new parables, new ways of telling the timeless truths of the Bible’s message. Using tired expressions and clichés make us seem not only old-fashioned but simpleminded.”
Page 184 – “If Christians do not point out God’s standards, who will? People still have to answer to a holy judge.”But then…
Page 184 – “Being judgmental pushes people away from God’s purposes, and people become repulsed by an image of Jesus that is not at all like the real thing.”Here they quote the Bible and dismiss it at the same time:
Page 40 – “It would be easy for Christians to dismiss outsiders’ critiques by quoting the Bible: ‘Satan, who is god of this world, has blinded the minds of those who don’t believe. They are unable to see the glorious light of the Good News.’”Confirming the need for evangelism and gutting it at the same time:
Page 83, 84 – “When outsiders are outraged because we encourage people to make a decision to follow Christ, we can’t respond by simply going home. Some believers forget what it means to be compelled by the message of freedom and grace we receive only through Jesus. Some people contend that Christians should not talk about Jesus at all or send missionaries anywhere, since that might offend people. This is a serious threat to Christianity because it essentially says evangelism can be traded for the path of minimal resistance. The opposite reaction is to become more vocal and ‘in your face’ about decisions, but then the critique of outsiders has even more traction.”“The middle ground between these extremes suggests that we focus on cultivating relationships with people and developing environments that facilitate deep spiritual transformation.”
The Big Three
Let’s look at the “big three” objections (anti-homosexual, judgmental, and hypocritical). The authors acknowledge that “that part of the reason Christians possess a bad reputation is because our faith perspectives grate against a morally relativistic culture (Page 36).” But again, they dismiss the idea in the next sentence by saying that “the real problem comes when we recognize God’s holiness but fail to articulate the other side of His character: grace.” Can anyone honestly name any one church or group which is overemphasizing God’s holiness and underemphasizing His grace?!
Let’s look at each objection:
Anti-homosexual
Page 104 – “Because of our opposition to homosexuals, outsiders cannot picture the church as the loving community of believers Jesus envisioned.”How can you state what the Bible has to say about homosexuality (that it is sin) without people who are non-Christians calling you anti-homosexual? Can you imagine in your church having two men or two women sitting next to you on Sunday morning holding hands, arms around each other, giving each other polite kisses, dropping their kids off in your child’s Sunday School class? Or having a transsexual stand next to you and sing praises to the Lord? It’s like what Paul described in 1 Corinthians 5 where a man was sleeping with his father’s wife. There is no place in the church for it. However, for us to address it we would actually have to institute a biblical model for church discipline and it doesn’t look like that’s going to happen anytime soon. So you can look forward to seeing such things in your church in the near future.Page 104 – “The biblical response to homosexuals should be to deal with the fundamental needs that all men and women have…develop a process within your church or within your life that allows people to work through their sexual issues in a context of accountability, respect, and transparency.”
Page 108 – “If our theology says homosexuality is wrong and sinful, is it still true that homosexuals have deep sexual needs. Just like the rest of us?”
Page 111 – Shayne Wheeler: “The Bible is clear: homosexual practice is inconsistent with Christian discipleship.”
Judgmental
Page 182 – “To be judgmental is to point out something that is wrong in someone else’s life…some part of their potential to be Christ followers is snuffed out.”How can you speak the Word of God that declares unequivocally that there is an absolute right and wrong, call for repentance from sin, and proclaim that God’s Judgment is imminent without being considered judgmental?
Hypocritical
Page 46 – “So how did Christians acquire a hypocritical image in America today? Let’s start with the most obvious reason: our lifestyles don’t match our beliefs.”How can you say that God hates sin when you sin yourself? How can you call for people to repent when there are areas in your life where you still fail to do what you know is right? How can you tell people that God calls us to love each other as He loves us when we consistently fail to do so? Those who are looking to excuse their own sin will always find fault with those who proclaim God’s standards because we ourselves fail to live up to them. That’s because they don’t understand the concepts of holiness and grace. As long as Christians continue to “preach the Word” (2 Timothy 4:1-14) we will be accused of hypocrisy because we are commanded to both call men to repent (Matthew 3:2, Acts 17:30, 2 Corinthians 7:9,10) as well as accept our reliance on God’s grace (1 John 1:8-10).
Inoculated
Page 40 – “Young outsiders are exposed to and can choose from virtually limitless options in life; from their perspective, why would they need Jesus?”Why indeed…
One of the most telling statistics quoted in this book are the number of people in the USA that have made a commitment to Jesus Christ at some point in their life; 65% for the 18-41 group and 73% in the 42+.
Page 74 – “For most of them, their faith was merely skin deep. This leads to the sobering finding that the vast majority of outsiders in this country, particularly among young generations, are actually de-churched individuals.”They’ve essentially been inoculated to the true gospel by being fed our current “2% gospel.” Most have never encountered true Christianity but only the imitation church which constitutes the majority of “Christian” culture. They bought what they were sold from the pulpit that Jesus will put springs on your wagon and give you a smoother ride through life. He loves you and wants to give you the desires of your heart and He’s just waiting to fulfill all your dreams! So they said the prayer and joined the church and waited for the pay off and it never came. So they threw it in the trash along with last season’s fashions and their latest fad diet and moved on. Now they think they know what Christianity is all about and they want nothing to do with it. It’s harder to reach them than it is someone who’s never heard anything about Jesus!
Once more, the author’s say the right things but…
Page 75 – “It is easy to embrace a costless form of Christianity in America today, and we have probably contributed to that by giving people a superficial understanding of the gospel and focusing only on their decision to convert.”They then go on to propose the answer as being rooted in establishing authentic relationships. But the true answer is hinted at in the question “why would they need Jesus?” They’ve never heard (much less become convinced of) the fact that they are condemned sinners and that God’s judgment is imminent and not open to negotiation. Hell for them is merely a curse word instead of a real place where all of humanity that fails to repent of their sins and be crucified with Christ will spend eternity in torment.Page 76 – “More of the same lightweight exposure to Christianity, where a decision for Christ is portrayed as simple and costless, will fail to produce lasting faith in young people.”
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom’ (Psalm 111:10, Proverbs 1:7, Proverbs 9:10).WHY do we have such a problem with fearing God? We try to explain it away as reverence or respect but it goes beyond that to just plain old terror. It has to do with our own image of who God is. Most “Christians” today have never learned the fear of the Lord. They see sin as something which is technically wrong but everyone does it and God understands that and no one is REALLY going to Hell…well, maybe Hitler and Charlie Manson.Matthew 10:28 “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”
Without the fear of the Lord being the starting place giving birth to sorrow and genuine repentance from sin then NO ONE is born into the Kingdom. Most of these “inoculated” de-churched people were never born of the Spirit because they wanted Christ for what He could do for them in achieving their selfish desires in this life. If they were convinced of the reality of their guilt before a holy God then they wouldn’t bail so easily when they don’t get what they want or things get rough. The answer to persistence in their Christian walk is not the quality of their human relationships, but the fear of God.
2 Corinthians 7:10 For the sorrow that is according to the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation, but the sorrow of the world produces death.2 Corinthians 5:11 Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men.
Miscellaneous Quotes and Observations
Page 27 – “The most common ‘favorable’ impression is that Christianity teaches the same basic idea as other religions.” Well, we certainly want to encourage that, don’t we?Page 37 – They ask the question “should we care what people think” but never answer it. Instead, they shift it over to “what if young outsiders are right about us?”
Page 39 – “The nation’s population is increasingly resistant to Christianity, especially to the theologically conservative expressions of that faith.” What is there to be offended at on the theologically liberal side?
Page 60 – Quotes Philip Yancey’s book “What’s So Amazing About Grace?”: “Having spent time around ‘sinners’ and also around purported saints, I have a hunch why Jesus spent so much time with the former group: I think he preferred their company. Because the sinners were honest about themselves and had no pretense, Jesus could deal with them. In contrast, the saints put on airs, judged him, and sought to catch him in a moral trap. In the end it was the saints, not the sinners, who arrested Jesus.”
“If only our view of outsiders were more like that of Jesus.”
The “saints” were not the Pharisees and the religious leaders…it was his disciples (whom Jesus spent 24 hours a day with). And if Philip Yancey and the authors of this book prefer the company of the lost to their Christian brothers and sisters, perhaps it is because they, indeed, have more in common with them. Too bad, because they’ll being spending eternity with us…we hope.
Page 87 – Chuck Colson: “I even dislike the words ‘ accept Christ’ anymore…Christianity is a worldview, a system, a way of life.” Need I say more?
Page 83 – “If we can prevent the message from being watered down by casual Christians, outsiders will begin to experience believers who have been (and are being) transformed by their faith and who are working in humble and respectful ways to transform the culture.” PREVENT the message from being watered down? What message…the one where we’ve already taken out everything offensive? Prevent it by “building relationships” with our “inoculated” audience? With the goal of transforming the culture? Was that what Jesus did and what He commanded us to do?
The Net Effect
Readers are left with the essential message that non-Christians don’t like you very much and have no respect for you. Therefore, you need to stop quoting Bible verses to them and talking about sin (as if anyone is still doing that) and start just being friendlier to them. If we can do that, then we can join with them in addressing social ills like poverty, disease, hunger, and injustice to transform our culture. And along the way, they will become convinced that you really do love non-Christians and they will become convinced that your faith is authentic.
The result is that Christians are left feeling even more afraid of telling anyone about Christ than they were before (if that’s possible). Because of the focus on what others think of us, we’re left walking on egg shells around non-Christians and instead of boldly proclaiming the gospel we apologetically strive to establish friendship with the world.
James 4:4 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.Why do non-Christians hate us? For the same reason it has always hated us and Jesus. Are we perfect? The church has never been perfect because it’s made up of people. Do they hate us more today than a few years ago? Of course, because the world continues its accelerating slide into relativism and hatred of the truth.
John 15:18,19 “If the world hates you, you know that it has hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of this the world hates you.”And it will continue to get worse and not better. The world will continue to get more evil and antagonistic of the true Church while the imitation church grows in numbers through ecumenicalism and tolerance of everything except sound doctrine. The church today is not growing better…it is growing larger, more accepted by the world, and more evil. Just as God’s Word said would happen.2 Thessalonians 2:10b because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.
2 Timothy 4:3,4 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths.One needs look no further than their own Fermi Project to see the net effect of implementing the author’s recommendations. As mentioned above, one of the goals of The Barna Group and this book is to “transform” society (i.e., the culture of the USA). It is spelled out clearly in their introduction where they say they seek to “discover practical examples of how Christians can positively contribute to culture.”2 Thessalonians 2:3 Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction
A tangible example is their “Q” conference scheduled for April 9-11, 2008 in New York City. It has a variety of liberal Christian leaders, environmentalists, scientists, entrepreneurs, and musicians as presenters including non-Christians such as a representative from MTV and a Muslim scholar teaching the virtues of religious pluralism. The idea is to address a “myriad of topics selected to heighten their awareness and challenge their creativity as they consider their role in shaping culture.”
Page 223 – Chuck Colson: “Our job is not only to build up the church but also to build a society to the glory of God.”This concept of engaging and transforming culture appears to be a kindler, gentler variant of the “Kingdom Now” movement (which seeks to establish God’s kingdom on earth by transforming social institutions). But they envision doing it by joining with moral and ethical people of all beliefs to fight social ills for the common good…a cultural co-belligerence, if you will.
Christ has NOT called us to redeem the fallen world but to call those who will to repentance. It will always be a minority. The only thing that will be achieved by this ill-conceived attempt is compromise with the world and the continued laying of the foundation for the ecumenical and tolerant church of the Antichrist.
The book ends with almost a direct quote from Mahatma Gandhi . “Let’s imagine together what could happen and then commit to being the change we want to create” (Page 227). They then give theses from people on what they see the church being like in 30 years.
Do you want to know what the church (not the Church) will be like in 30 years? Just take a look at the Fermi Project’s “Q” conference…the headlong plunge into apostasy continues.