They Like Jesus but Are Not Too Thrilled With Us
By Ed Stetzer
The church is full of hypocrites.
I’ve heard it, and you’ve heard it. It intimidates many Christians. Not just because people say it, but because we’ve seen it, too. It is hard to share Christ when they believe the church doesn’t show Christ.
After all, they don’t like us…right? A crowded bandwagon to jump on these days is the one that says the world is going to hell because of Christians. Our arrogance, legalism, and buffoonery is constantly written about - often by us.
And it’s true, at least partly. The unchurched aren’t real excited about church (more on that later). And they have concerns about Christians. But that shouldn’t deter us from showing and sharing Christ.
Jesus they like. Us…well…not so much.
In spite of their attitudes toward the church, unchurched Americans - especially younger ones - “like” Jesus and are surprisingly open to talking about the Christian faith.
LifeWay Research in partnership with the North American Mission Board’s Center for Missional Research, conducted two telephone surveys in 2007 with unchurched Americans. The survey included 1,402 people who hadn’t attended a religious service at a church, synagogue, or mosque in the previous six months. We discovered some interesting facts. (You can download the full study at www.lifewayresearch.com.)
For starters, younger people are less cynical about the church and Christian faith than older adults. When it comes to the “hypocrites in the church” mantra, 75 percent of unchurched adults 30 years and older agree. But that number drops to 67 percent among adults ages 18-29. That’s still a lot, and we should keep in mind that these are people who don’t go to church, but you might expect younger adults to be even more skeptical about organized Christianity than older adults.
Even more surprising:
- 66 percent of younger adults believe Jesus died and came back to life, compared to 54 percent of older adults.
- 74 percent of younger adults agree “the Christian religion is a relevant and viable religion for today,” compared to 63 percent of older adults.
- 89 percent of younger adults say they would be willing to listen if someone wanted to tell them about his or her Christian beliefs, compared to 75 percent of older adults.
And 71 percent of all respondents agreed that “believing in Jesus makes a positive difference in a person’s life.”
More sobering is the fact that 58 percent of younger adults and 67 percent of older adults think the God of the Bible is no different from the gods or spiritual beings depicted by world religions such as Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, etc. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that people who don’t go to church don’t understand how completely different the God of the Bible is from Hinduism’s pantheon or Buddhism’s idea that ultimate reality is impersonal non-existence.
When you add those views to the Oprah-ization of American Christianity, you get a generic “big guy in the sky” view of God and a “you believe what you believe, I believe what I believe” viewpoint on theology. People are shocked when Christians say the Bible explains the truth about who God is, what He expects of people and what He has done to make it possible for us to be reconciled with Him. Shocked - but not closed to discussions.
Americans’ view of God is looking less and less like the God described in the Bible. A hundred years ago, Americans held more of a consensus about who God is. Today, the majority of the unchurched believe in God, but He/She/It is a generic God that fits into every imaginable religious system - even when the religions contradict each other.
Our syncretistic culture is a rebuke to us as Christians and, at the same time, a challenge. Is there something that causes our culture to like Jesus but reject the church?
Yes. It’s us.
Obviously, it’s more than that. And there is an important spiritual element here - only God can open people’s eyes. But we have been a big part of the problem.
One of the big mistakes Christians have been making is divorcing the explanation of the Gospel from the demonstration of the Gospel. For decades, Christians have been sharing presentations and not explaining how faith makes a difference in daily life. Maybe that’s what people have rejected. People don’t want to hear another presentation or be seen as a prospect. They want to be somebody’s friend, to see up close and personal the difference Jesus makes in a person’s life.
People want a faith that is not just “tell,” but “be” and “do.” All three matter - “be,” “do,” and “tell.”
Even though the unchurched have a confused view of God and a negative view of the church, the fact that they are overwhelmingly open to someone sharing about their Christian faith should make us stop and think. Or maybe I should say, it should make us go and tell. We believe religion is off-limits in polite conversation, but the vast majority of unchurched people say they would enjoy conversations about spiritual matters.
Even more important, our research showed 89 percent of unchurched Americans say they have at least one close friend who considers himself or herself a Christian, and 71 percent say they don’t think Christians talk too much about their beliefs.
In other words, we can stop searching for unchurched people to talk with about Christ. We already know them, and they are open to talking with us about Jesus. All we need to do is start the conversations about spiritual matters. Perhaps church leaders should begin teaching about basic hospitality and friendship as part of the biblical ethic in New Testament Christianity.
Christians don’t have the home field advantage we once had, but people are open to listening, and God is still at work, using people and churches to share the Good News in an increasingly confused world.
That should propel us to action and help us move beyond fear to share our faith.
Yep, lots of hypocrites in the church - at least that’s the way 72 percent of the unchurched see it. But only 44 percent of them say Christians get on their nerves.
We’ll have to work on the rest.
Ed Stetzer is director of research for LifeWay Research. For more details about the survey and a podcast that discusses the results, visit lifewayresearch.com and edstetzer.com. This data will be published in a forthcoming book, The Younger Unchurched and
Churches that Reach Them (co-authored with Richie Stanley).
Tags: Christians, Jesus
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