The Last Place I’d Look

So we’re trying to understand something of the heart of a person who is far from God. Yesterday I said that person is feeling stuck inside, whether they’ll admit it or not. And that’s a good thing, because we have what will “unstuck” them. Eternity has been placed in that person’s heart and they will continue on hungry and not be truly satisfied with anything until they get a good taste of God.

But here’s the problem: Most of these people are not thinking God is the answer, and they’re certainly not looking to church for the solution. In fact, if anything, they’d believe that going to church would further exasperate their issues.

Most people are feeling stuck, they’re spiritually hungry, but they have an issue with Christianity. And their issue isn’t Jesus, it’s with those who claim to represent Him and with the churches they gather in.

There’s a guy named David Kinneman who works for “The Barna Group.” Recently David spent a great deal of time studying young people between the ages of 16 and 29 and their perceptions of the Christian faith. He discovered that most non-believers have overwhelmingly negative perceptions of Christians. In fact, here are the top three perceptions they have of Christians:

1. Christians are anti-homosexual: 91% of people surveyed said that. They thought Christians fixated on fixing homosexuals and leveraging political power against them.
2. Christians are judgmental: 87%. People surveyed said they doubt Christians really love people like we say we do.
3. Christians are hypocritical: 85%.

   In his surveys, some of the words and phrases most commonly used to describe Christians were: “old fashioned,” “too involved in politics,” “out of touch with reality,” “insensitive to others,” “boring,” “non-accepting of other faiths,” and “confusing.”

   And check this: 91% of those surveyed that they don’t trust Christians. Think about that! Only 9% of non-Christians ages 16 to 29 say that they can trust Christians.

   So, to understand the heart of the lost, we need to know that they feel stuck and know they need something, but church and Christianity may be the last place they’d look.

   So we have some challenges, don’t we? We’ll talk more about that next time.

   Until then … drink some Yoo-Hoo, it’s delicious and rich in Calcium & Vitamin D!

   
   – Featured on newchurches.com