Author David Kinnaman - "unChristian"
A generation of young Americans is rejecting a Christianity they perceive to be antihomosexual, too political, and hypocritical, according to a new study from the Barna Group. The findings, presented in a new book, reveal what Christianity looks like to people ages 16-29 outside the church. unChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity…and Why It Matters is a portrait of a faith and its followers perceived to be anything but Christlike. A huge chunk of a new generation has concluded they want nothing to do with Christianity. The title of the book, unChristian, reflects their most common reaction to the faith: they think Christians are no longer what Jesus had in mind. Join me as author David Kinnaman, president of the Barna Research Group shares practical ideas on how the church can move from an unChristian faith to an authentic expression of the message of Jesus. Be ready with your questions!
You can hear the interview three ways:
– Listen to the live broadcast Thursday at 12 p.m. CST on by going to www.blogtalkradio.com/godunplugged.
– Listen to the live broadcast by calling (347) 324-5425
– Listen to the archived broadcast anytime it is convenient for you by visiting www.blogtalkradio.com/godunplugged or by going to my website, www.amyhagberg.com or finding the player on my Myspace or Facebook profiles.
This is a very important topic – even though it might be uncomfortable to discuss our shortcomings, we need the tools to reach out to younger generations.
I hope you can join us!
I’m looking forward to listening to this program (hope I remember)!
I think I am one of those fed up Christians. I had a LOT of questions, for example, about Prop 8 on my blog: http://www.causecast.org/member/jsong/blog_posts/1237-im-confused-by-prop-8/?=gigwriter
I think Christianity might need a new rhetoric and I’m thinking of writing a book about it – do you know if anyone has broached this topic? And I assume UnChristian is available at any Borders?
I think you’ll find the interview to be enlightening. If you are unable to make it to the live broadcast you can always listened to the archives. I’ll be sure to post the direct link here. Christianity definitely needs a new rhetoric…. actually, what I think Christianity needs is NO rhetoric at all. All we need to do as Christ-followers is emulate Christ to the best of our ability. Love is truly the answer.
I agree that Christianity could stand some new lingo. Young people are leaving the church in droves. They are looking for a church experience that offers a genuine form of worship. They are also seeking a church home with less ritual and more relating to one another.
But the bottom line is, new people might stay at a church for a while if the music is great, and they are felt moved by the preaching. But if they don’t feel welcome and embraced by the regular attendees, they’ll move on. After all churches exist so that people can worship together in a meaningful way. They are not country clubs or sorority houses.
In Luke 20:27 Jesus gave us the secret weapon to living a successful life:
‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’ ; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ ”
To continue to expand the boundaries beyond our own church walls, we need to get a better handle on loving others, even if they don’t look just like us. Because THAT is what being a Christ Follower is all about.
that logic doesn’t completely play out, baesuce I also am a strong advocate for sex education in the public schools perhaps this is largely baesuce a child will not obtain a deadly disease or become pregnant from unprotected thinking about evolution Basically, the church doesn’t talk enough about sex other than to say don’t do it. Clearly, that logic has worked for centuries I don’t know about you, but there are a lot of places in my family tree where there are not 9 months between wedding and birth of first child But I digress.In short, this is NOT a Christian nation and we are kidding ourselves if we even think that the Founding Fathers were what today’s Conservative Christians would describe as Christian. Some were agnostic, at best! In any case, I think some of the morals of Christianity ought to be reflected in our laws, but these are morals that are similar to the morals of most world religions: killing people is bad; stealing is bad; harming another person is bad. You get the idea although clearly the religious right does not baesuce many are in favor of capital punishment and supportive of the war, while being vehemently opposed to a woman’s right to choose – A.k.a. the Republican point of view: We care about you in utero, but once you’re out, screw you! Come on people, if life is sacred, then life is SACRED you can’t have it both ways. (Just like to point out that I am very much pro-choice, but I’m also far more pro-life than most pro-lifers I have encountered!)Anyway, the point is this. While I agree that America’s youth do not have an excellent grasp on scripture, I am very much opposed to explicitly Christian values being imposed on our nation by the government; that is the place of the church. Not to mention the fact that my ideas of Christian values are drastically different than those espoused by some conservatives, (example: the Southern Baptist Convention!) If history has taught us nothing else, it’s that mixing church and state creates a highly toxic concoction. For both the sake of the nation, and even more for the sake of the church, let’s keep the two as far apart as we possibly can!
This new generation that is rejecting what they see in the “institutional church” has an underlying motivation that was not addressed by the Barna Group…me-ism. The efforts of the emergent church to satisfy and feed this motivation is creating a “new christianity” which does not resemble the Christianity of the Bible.
There has always been hypocrisy and sin in the church. Jesus warned this would always be the case (see the parable of the Tares). Real Christianity, however, is not man-centered but God-centered. God has not changed and neither has his Word.
Amy, I do agree with your assessment as to what is needed and where we are falling short. Luke 20:27 is a good start.