Are you living an "un-Christian" faith?
A shocking new book by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons shows that a higher percentage of "millennials" consider themselves to be "outside" the Christian faith than ever before. And even those who attend church are increasingly applying a morally relativistic perspective to the issues the Bible addresses. The book is called, "unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity... and Why It Matters"
Based on studies done from 2004 to 2007, the authors make a convincing case that the vast majority of those 18-29 outside the church hate Christianity, and the attitudes of church going youth are not much better.
Of course, Jesus himself said that Christians would be rejected and despised for following Him. But the studies show that the negative attitudes toward Christians have less to do with the biblical worldview than they do with how poorly Christians represent Jesus.
Kinnaman's and Lyons' research claims that when outsiders look at the church they see a group of people who don't listen, care, think, serve or live faithfully. It is Christians' inconsistency, not their consistency, that causes outsiders to conclude that the church is irrelevant.
And this criticism is not entirely unfair. "For instance," Kinnaman states, "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-agains."
The fact that churchgoers have a difficult time modeling genuine Christianity for the world might explain why unprecedented numbers of youth are walking away from the faith. They see a weak, self-centered church that is focused on everything but being a blessing to all nations of the earth.
Millennials are looking for mentoring, not mass media. They crave transparency, not an image of perfection. In short, they want to see humble believers being transformed by a powerful interaction with the mysteries of Christ. Can we demonstrate this to young people, both those inside and outside the church?
A shocking new book by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons shows that a higher percentage of "millennials" consider themselves to be "outside" the Christian faith than ever before. And even those who attend church are increasingly applying a morally relativistic perspective to the issues the Bible addresses. The book is called, "unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity... and Why It Matters"
Based on studies done from 2004 to 2007, the authors make a convincing case that the vast majority of those 18-29 outside the church hate Christianity, and the attitudes of church going youth are not much better.
Of course, Jesus himself said that Christians would be rejected and despised for following Him. But the studies show that the negative attitudes toward Christians have less to do with the biblical worldview than they do with how poorly Christians represent Jesus.
Kinnaman's and Lyons' research claims that when outsiders look at the church they see a group of people who don't listen, care, think, serve or live faithfully. It is Christians' inconsistency, not their consistency, that causes outsiders to conclude that the church is irrelevant.
And this criticism is not entirely unfair. "For instance," Kinnaman states, "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-agains."
The fact that churchgoers have a difficult time modeling genuine Christianity for the world might explain why unprecedented numbers of youth are walking away from the faith. They see a weak, self-centered church that is focused on everything but being a blessing to all nations of the earth.
Millennials are looking for mentoring, not mass media. They crave transparency, not an image of perfection. In short, they want to see humble believers being transformed by a powerful interaction with the mysteries of Christ. Can we demonstrate this to young people, both those inside and outside the church?
Note from Kim: I haven't read this yet but it sounds like an EXCELLENT book to read. If you get to it before me let me know what you think about it.
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