| October 9, 2007 |
Vol 8, Issue 32 |
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 Get Ready to Lead!
"It's simple. We're just changing the world."
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"Is this the last Christian generation?"
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 Greetings!...
...Wayne Rice once told me that those who embrace the Christian faith either had parents who lived it out in front of them or they had mentors. "There are no exceptions to this," he warned. Lacking personal role models and godly examples, American youth now represent the most un-Christian generation in the last century. What this means--and what to do about it--is the subject of this week's edition of Get Ready to Lead! |
| New stats show what youth really think about Christianity |
 49% of "outsiders" (those outside the Christian faith) age 16-29 have a bad impression of evangelical Christians.- Percentage of "outsiders" age 16-29 who say that the following phrases describe present-day Christianity "a lot" or "some."
- Judgmental--87%
- Hypocritical--85%
- Old-fashioned--78%
- Too involved in politics--75%
- Out of touch with reality--72%
- Insensitive to others--70%
- Boring--68%
- 84% of outsiders know a Christian personally but only 15% see any lifestyle differences in those Christians.
- Only 18% of born-again Christian youth consider serving people to be an important priority for their faith, and only 1% see discipling children or shaping their family faith as important.
- Percentage of born-again Christian youth who believe that the following are morally acceptable:
- Cohabitation--59%
- Gambling--58%
- Fornication--44%
- Drunkenness--35%
- Lust--33%
- Having an abortion--32%
- Homosexual acts--28%
- Using drugs illegally--16%
- Seventy percent of 23- to 30-year-olds drop out of church. Of the dropouts, only about 35 percent return and attend church regularly, defined as at least twice a month.
Sources: David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, UnChristian (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2007); TruthBook Religious News Blog | |
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| 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.
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 churchgoing 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?
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| Can we--or should we--try to change the world's perceptions of Christianity? |
 Like it or not, unChristians have a negative view of Christians. Should Christians try to act in a way that will generate new perceptions? Is it possible to do this without compromising truth? I've presented below, unedited and without comment, what David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons say in unChristian. E-mail me with your thoughts:
- Old Perception: Christians say one thing but live something entirely different.
- New perception: Christians are transparent about their flaws and act first, talk second.
- Old Perception: Christians show contempt for gays and lesbians.
- New perception: Christians show compassion and love to all people, regardless of their lifestyle.
- Old Perception: Christians are boring, unintelligent, old-fashioned, and out of touch with reality.
- New perception: Christians are engaged, informed, and offer sophisticated responses to the issues people face.
- Old Perception: Christians are primarily motivated by a political agenda and promote right-wing politics.
- New perception: Christians are characterized by respecting people, thinking biblically, and finding solutions to complex issues.
- Old Perception: Christians are prideful and quick to find faults in others.
- New perception: Christians show grace by finding the good in others and seeing their potential to be Christ followers.
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 From Jeff Myers: Make it a Great Week!
In the midst of the bad news there is much good news. A recent study
by the Baylor University School of Social Work showed that young people "who
express their faith through ministries in their communities are
significantly more mature in their faith and more involved in daily
faith practices than their uninvolved counterparts."
The secret there is that the faith of young adults is strengthened as their families and churches take seriously the admonition to be a blessing (Gen. 12, Gal. 3). By any measurement, there are at least 20 million Christians in this
counry who are wholy committed to Christ and to living out a biblical
worldview in every area of life. That's enough to bring a lot of blessing!
--Jeff
Jeff Myers, Ph.D., President
Passing the Baton International, Inc.
Click here to e-mail me. Or here to visit our website. Or here to take our latest survey. |
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