unChristian

I just finished reading the book unChristian. I found it to be a fascinating book, and I found it a book that really got me thinking about the role that I play in: (1) helping to make disciples of Christ for the transformation of the world and (2) how do I help the perception of Christians.

This book interviewed non-Christians to get a sense of what their perceptions were of Christianity. They took the major themes and wrote about them. The major perceptions are:

1. Hypocritical - Christians say one thing but live something entirely different.
2. Get Saved! - Christians are insincere and concerned only with converting others.
3. Antihomosexual - Christians show contempt for gays and lesbians.
4. Sheltered - Christians are boding, unintelligent, old-fashioned, and out of touch with reality.
5. Too Political - Christians are primarily motivated by a political agenda and promote right-wing politics.
6. Judgmental - Christians are prideful and quick to find fault in others.

Although painful to admit, many of these perceptions are dead on. And any Christian should read this so they get a sense of where we are right now as a religion. We have lost our way and need to figure out how to change. If we want to reach out to a younger generation, this is a must read.

Rick Warren, when asked where he'd like to see Christianity in 30 years says, "My dream is that thirty years from now, the church will be known more by what it is for than what it is against For some time now now, the hands and feet of the body of Christ have been amputated, and we've been pretty much reduced to a big mouth. We talk far more than we do. It's time to reattach the limbs and let the church be the church in the twenty-first century.".

Amen.