unChristian: Get Saved

As I have read the book, unChristian, I have come to the conclusion that one of the biggest tragedies facing the modern church is the fact that many "outsiders" see the church as only attaining for one thing; Getting them saved. If we look at the social makeup of Mosaics and Busters, we see that they put a very high priority on personal relationships. They want to feel connected with people on a personal level. Only 1/3 of "outsider" believe that Christians truly care about them. This is where the disconnect comes for the church; as the global church has become inwardly focused, it's become more difficult for develop meaningful relationships with outsiders because, well, they see us just going after their "soul" and not the person. If you think about it, it makes sense that they would feel this way. From Bill Hybles book, Just Walk Across The Room, as Christians "advance" in their journey with God, they spend less time with outsiders. Exactly the opposite of what The Word teaches Christians to do. Christ was a great example because he spent the majority of His time with outsiders. So I pose the question, why should outsiders except Christ when we've never taken the opportunity to get to know them as people? Another interesting thought is this.... Only 3% of Mosaics and Busters, those 18-41, hold a biblical world view. Biblical world view is defined by the belief in ALL eight principles: Christ was sinless, God is all knowing and all powerful creator of the universe and rules it today, salvation is a gift from God and can not be earned, Satan is real, Christians have a responsibility to share their faith, the bible is accurate in the principles it teaches, unchanging moral truth exist, and this truth is defined by the Bible. I know this is a lot to chew on, but let's boil it down. Those who live their life by these eight principles live out their life in a completely different way than those who don't share this belief. What the research is pointing to is the vast majority of Christians who hold a world view that is not biblical, don't know what they believe and are very relunctant to share their faith in God. So what we have are two groups, Christians who hold a biblical world view but don't really associate with "outsiders" and Christians who don't share this biblical world view and are shallow and uneducated as to why that believe. Not a very good place for the church or it's future. So what's the answer? For me it's simple and complicated. We must care about people first. A genuine love and care that Christ modeled in the Bible. But there is a delicate balance because we need to be entrenched on the world enough to make a difference but not so much that it affects us. I think that we must also remember that it is God who draws people to Him... Not us. Our job is to love people, share our faith, and be authentic and real. If we do that, God will do the rest.

Comments

[Aaron]

I haven't had a chance to read the whole book yet, but I have perused it for some of the findings you've commented on. Below are a couple of questions/comments that I emailed to Barna group to see what they thought. Unfortunately, they did not really provide satisfactory answers and didn't have time to look a little deeper into some of the questions I asked. But I do think my comments are useful for anyone trying to make sense of the research findings they present. From what I can tell, while their survey research is useful for understanding certain aspects of how Christians are perceived by outsiders, I'm not sure they are as clear or definitive as they could be.

1. While it's entirely appropriate that you concretely define what you believe by 'biblical worldview', don't you think your requirement that one 'strongly agree' with each of the 8 statements is a little bit stringent when defining a biblical worldview? I would suggest that one could legitimately maintain a biblical worldview if they responded with 'somewhat agree' on items defining a 'biblical worldview', or I would even say that they can honestly respond to the items with 'don't know' as an indication that they have no means of knowing with objective certainty that the item is true, yet they maintain a worldview that assumes the items are true and live according to the principles outlined in a 'biblical worldview'. I would be interested in seeing how many respondents said 'i don't know' to each item, and what proportion indicated 'somewhat agree' for each item as well.

2. I am curious about what criterion were used for selecting the 8 items? As I'm sure you are aware, there are a variety of Christian perspectives regarding how to define a 'biblical worldview' I find it curious that the items selected seem to cater to a somewhat conservative, perhaps even fundamentalist take on how a biblical worldview ought to be defined. For example, it seems perfectly reasonable for a Christian who maintains a biblical worldview to state that while the Bible offers insights into moral truth, it is not the source of moral truth (for example, God might be considered the source of moral truth). According to your definition, any christian who believes God supercedes the Bible as the source of moral truth would not be considered to hold a 'biblical worldview'. I also am familiar with many Christians who understand a Biblical worldview to include the teachings of Jesus about loving God and loving one's neighbor, aiding the poor, caring for the sick and weak in society. Your definition does not tap into these legitimate aspects of a biblical worldview. How did you come to decide that these particular 8 statements were necessary and sufficient aspects of a biblical worldview?

It seems to me that your presentation of the results in 'Unchristian' have the potential to be misleading, partly due to omitted details about the survey itself (#1 above) and partly due to a failure to acknowledge differences of opinion regarding what a 'biblical worldview' entails (#2 above). Readers who do not have experience with survey methodology may not recognize some of these limitations that are inherent in the way your results are presented. I would suggest you provide more information when presenting your research findings, and perhaps share your data with interested outsiders for further analysis and understanding.