thoughts on "unchristian"

In reading Unchristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity...and Why it Matters, I have encountered some stunning numbers to corroborate some things I have considered to be true for a while through experience, observation, and intuition. I would like to take some space on my blog to work through some of these statistics and ideas in hopes of helping all of us reconsider some of what it means to be a follower of Jesus, and a witness to his atoning death and resurrection.
The authors and pollsters, David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons, present their basic findings on pp 27 & 28. Here they tell us that the young people outside the Christian faith (ages 16-29) have an unfavorable image of Christianity. That image is based on several perceptions. The top three negative perceptions listed are that Christians are antihomosexual (91% say “a lot” or “some”), judgmental (87%), and hypocritical (85%). These numbers tell us what nonChristians think of when they think about Christianity.
There are some favorable images in the minds of these young people. Unfortunately, the top favorable image they have of Christianity is that it “teaches same basic idea as other religions” (82% “a lot” or “some”). In general, outsiders consider Christianity to have good values and principles (76%), and friendly people (71%). However, only 55% think that Christianity “consistently shows love for other people”, and 54% believe Christianity “offers hope for the future”. These ‘favorable’ images are more dismal as we look at the percentage of young outsiders that consider Christians trustworthy (9 % say “alot”), or Christianity to be genuine and real (11%), “something that makes sense” (9%), or “relevant to your life” (10%).
These numbers are pretty depressing by themselves. The authors do a great job of pursuing what these numbers mean for the Christian community in America, and I plan to trace out some of that, along with my own thoughts throughout the next few weeks. For today, I’ll just let these numbers sit with you. I hope they will inspire you to prayer.
This is our mission field.