Life in the Grove

Chapter 2 of David Kinnamon’s book “unChristian” lays out the survey results of young people ages 16 to 29 who are outside the Christian faith, showing how they perceive Christians.

One person outside the Christian faith said, “Most people I meet assume that Christian means very conservative, entrenched in their thinking, antigay, antichoice, angry, violent, illogical, empire builders; they want to convert everyone, and they generally cannot live peacefully with anyone who doesn’t believe what they believe.”

The three most common perceptions of the surveyed outsiders are: 91% believe Christians are antihomosexual, 87% think they are judgmental, and 85% say Christians are hypocritical.

By and large, these perceptions are shared by young churchgoers: 80% say Christians are antihomosexual, 52% believe Christians are judgmental, and 47% think Christians are hypocritical.

A thirty-five-year-old believer said, “Christians have become political, judgmental, intolerant, weak, religious, angry, and without balance. Christianity has become a nice Sunday drive. Where is the living God, the Holy Spirit, an amazing Jesus, the love, the compassion, the holiness?”

Kinnamon concludes this chapter with reasons why perceptions matter and especially why what those outside the Christian faith think about Christians matters. It should also be noted that what young Christians think about other Christians matters a great deal in relation to the future of our church.

Should we (as Christians) care what people think? How can the Good News be shared if the messenger is so disliked?

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Following our introductory post on David Kinnamon’s book “unChristian,” here’s the next post covering Chapter 1. David Kinnamon is president of The Barna Group, which provides research and resources that facilitate spiritual transformation in people’s lives. The book is the culmination of a three year statistical study of thousands of interviews and surveys. The stated purpose is to understand non-Christian’s unvarnished perceptions of Christians so that they may be effectively engaged and pointed to Jesus based on what they really think, not what we assume about them.

The studies by Kinnamon focused on the 16–29 year-old segment of the U.S. population (approximately 24 million people). Forty percent of this age-group are not Christians—that is, they do not self-identify as Christians. This is a far higher percentage than in the older generations.

In addition, those of this age-group inside the church are also skeptical of present-day Christianity. Apparently, not only is the church failing to effectively communicate the “good news” of Jesus Christ to those outside the Christian faith, it is failing to disciple it’s own young generation.

Kinnamon states that he does not advocate that the church or individual Christians try to become more popular, but rather understand how to to be effective agents of spiritual transformation in people’s lives. By carefully considering how firmly people reject—and feel rejected by— Christians, we might become inspired with ways we can make a difference.

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A study by The Barna Group conducted among 16- to 29-year-olds shows that a new generation is more skeptical of and resistant to Christianity than were people of the same age just a decade ago. Analysis of this research is reported in the book unChristian by David Kinnaman. According to the article on the Barna website:

The study shows that 16- to 29-year-olds exhibit a greater degree of criticism toward Christianity than did previous generations when they were at the same stage of life. In fact, in just a decade, many of the Barna measures of the Christian image have shifted substantially downward, fueled in part by a growing sense of disengagement and disillusionment among young people. For instance, a decade ago the vast majority of Americans outside the Christian faith, including young people, felt favorably toward Christianity’s role in society. Currently, however, just 16% of non-Christians in their late teens and twenties said they have a “good impression” of Christianity.

One of the groups hit hardest by the criticism is evangelicals. Such believers have always been viewed with skepticism in the broader culture. However, those negative views are crystallizing and intensifying among young non-Christians. The new study shows that only 3% of 16 - to 29-year-old non-Christians express favorable views of evangelicals.

The Proportion of those “Outside”
Christianity is Growing with Each Generation

Even young Christians are catching the negative perceptions.

Among young Christians, many of the negative images generated significant traction. Half of young churchgoers said they perceive Christianity to be judgmental, hypocritical, and too political. One-third said it was old-fashioned and out of touch with reality.

Combine that with this study that finds that Negativity Is Contagious and the Christian church is facing big problems.

“Though we may not care to admit it, what other people think about something can affect what we think about it. This is how critics become influential and why our parents’ opinions about our life choices continue to matter, long after we’ve moved out. But what kind of opinions have the most effect? A new study reveals that negative opinions cause the greatest attitude shifts, not just from good to bad, but also from bad to worse.”

Because Cedar Grove is committed to Reach… Teach… and Release… we must understand what the broad community thinks of Christians and change these negative perceptions if we are to be accepted as having anything worth paying attention to.

With this as an introduction, we’ll post a few more articles in the days to come reviewing the chapters in this book.

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