Are You unChristian?

U2 lead singer Bono has interesting take on Christianity. In an interview in the summer of 2006, Bono had this to say, "I never had any problems with Christ. But, uh, Christians were a real problem for me." WOW!! What do you take from that statement? For me, it's a punch in the gut! What does this say about the Church and the mission God has given us?

I've been in the process of reading the book unChristian by Dave Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons and it has been one of the most difficult reads I've had so far this year. Dave, president of the Barna Group, was enlisted by Gabe Lyons, former vice president of Injoy and currently leading the Fermi Project, to gauge how people view Christianity. After studying 16 to 29-year-olds, Kinnaman found a generation extremely skeptical of and resistant to Christianity than the same age group ten years prior.

The study explored twenty specific images related to Christianity, including ten favorable and ten unfavorable perceptions. Among young non-Christians, nine out of the top 12 perceptions were negative. The more common negative perceptions of todays Christians are:

• Judgmental (87%)
• Hypocritical (85%)
• Old fashioned (78%)
• Too involved in politics (75%)

Now, how does that make you feel? Friend, the church has an image problem. Bono's quote and the research done by Barna indicate this. We cannot share the love of Christ and tell the great story of the Gospel when those whom we want to reach cannot see that love in us. More on this in coming posts.

We Need to Do Better

Thinking back on my last post I was wondering how I could, in a more creative way, share the importance of doing better when it comes to sharing our faith. On one of the blogs that I read normally I found this clip from Pastor Mark Beeson of Granger Community Church and I think he has done a better job of sharing why it's so important to do better.

The Power of Story

Stories... we've all grown up with them. Those of us with children have read or told hundreds of them. In previous posts I've told you how much I love to watch movies and get drawn in to the story of the movie. Can the Church learn anything from Hollywood and today's best story-tellers about telling stories?

Christianity has the greatest story ever told (if I can borrow from an epic movie from the '60's) but our problem is that we don't know how to tell it in a compelling way. In a recent post on Phil Cooke's blog, Phil asked if we could learn anything from Hollywood. I believe he did this in response to a press release sent out just after the conclusion of this year's NRB convention. The writer asked if it was necessary to ask a Disney executive how to tell the greatest story? My answer to that is, "YES!!"

If it gets to the point that we cannot learn from others, especially those who have honed the craft to excellence, we need to stop ask for forgiveness for not being humble. My friends, we don't have it together - we have not arrived. Not only have Christians taken ideas and technologies to forward the Gospel, but we have improved on those areas and presented the Gospel in compelling ways. Now it's time to do the same with Story-Telling. People are desiring to hear a compelling story that will give them a reason to believe, a reason to accept the gift of Salvation.

I hope to continue this discussion by looking at a generation that doesn't see Christianity as something to accept and make a part of their lives. The Millennial Generation is a generation that demands creativity and compelling stories.