I’m not sure if you’ve heard about a book called UnChristian by David Kinnaman, but I highly recommend you read it. Basically it’s research about the perceptions of 26-29 year olds views on Christians. It’s a huge wakeup to the church that there are things that have to change. I may not have agreed with every sentence written in this book, for the most part it was an amazing tool for me to look at myself & I honestly believe every Christian should take the time to read it. The crazy thing to me is that none of these “perceptions” shocked me. Many people see Christians as hypocritical, judgmental, too political, antihomosexual, too focused on getting converts & sheltered. I doubt any of you reading this right now is shocked at any of those accusations. Most importantly the book deals with why so many feel this way & how we can change it!
“We have become famous for what we oppose, rather than who we are for.” It’s not about lowering standards or softening the gospel just to come across differently & that’s not what this book is about. It’s about us understanding how the new generation feels towards Christians and ultimately Jesus so that our hearts can be softened to the point we have a desire, a passion to comfort their pain and hurt. If this is how they feel, let’s do something about it!
To me one of the best parts of this book was when it talked about how legalistic we’ve become with our religion. They called this “hijacking Jesus.” “The most common message people hear from us is that Christianity is a religion of rules and regulations” when in reality that’s not what Jesus is about. He’s about healing, freeing & loving. Our passion for God should be the cause of our worship, serving & building relationships with others…not the other way around. Probably the best sentence in the whole book to me simply reminded me that the whole point of Jesus…the whole message of salvation is that God knew I couldn’t do it alone and didn’t expect me to. We have so much more to offer this world then rules and regulations and it’s about time we start living out that freedom, peace and joy….truly living it out & realizing all that Jesus has to offer this world! “The gospel—the Good News of Jesus---is that God has released us from the endless striving to measure up to God’s standards, let alone the expectations of other human beings.”
I could have written more (believe it or not) and I could have written less, but hopefully it will peak your interest enough to give it a try! :)
“We have become famous for what we oppose, rather than who we are for.” It’s not about lowering standards or softening the gospel just to come across differently & that’s not what this book is about. It’s about us understanding how the new generation feels towards Christians and ultimately Jesus so that our hearts can be softened to the point we have a desire, a passion to comfort their pain and hurt. If this is how they feel, let’s do something about it!
To me one of the best parts of this book was when it talked about how legalistic we’ve become with our religion. They called this “hijacking Jesus.” “The most common message people hear from us is that Christianity is a religion of rules and regulations” when in reality that’s not what Jesus is about. He’s about healing, freeing & loving. Our passion for God should be the cause of our worship, serving & building relationships with others…not the other way around. Probably the best sentence in the whole book to me simply reminded me that the whole point of Jesus…the whole message of salvation is that God knew I couldn’t do it alone and didn’t expect me to. We have so much more to offer this world then rules and regulations and it’s about time we start living out that freedom, peace and joy….truly living it out & realizing all that Jesus has to offer this world! “The gospel—the Good News of Jesus---is that God has released us from the endless striving to measure up to God’s standards, let alone the expectations of other human beings.”
I could have written more (believe it or not) and I could have written less, but hopefully it will peak your interest enough to give it a try! :)
3 comments:
Ooohhh...that sounds good! Thanks for the tip. :)
We're fans of that book, and even more so fans of what it is trying to accomplish.
You should tune into Jake's blog. He writes these great little snippets of things he reads that are much like Kinnamen's. jakestum@blogspot.com
glad you're enjoying unchristian. it was even harder to write than you probably imagine, because I had to wrap my head and heart around the research and what it meant for my own life and church. take care and God bless you guys. -David Kinnaman
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