For hopefully the last time we’re visiting the different reactions to church thieves. The question is simple, “Would you forgive and welcome like Kinetic Church did? Or would you let the thieves know that you wanted to kick their hind quarters like Revolution Church did?
Well, nearly half of you would welcome the thieves to your church with open arms. If you saw them walking down the street, you would buy them a (non-alcoholic) beverage and a burger and tell them about how God forgives them, and maybe you would politely ask for your things back.
The next biggest chunk of you are the undecided voters. 31% of you aren’t so sure how you’d respond, and you’re just hoping it doesn’t happen to you.
And about one in five would let a thief know how angry you are and that they’d better be scared. Following your threats, if you were serious, you might hire private investigators, rottweilers and the Navy SEALs to befriend the thieves, and the rest would be history.
This week, our poll question is a little bit longer, and it requires total honesty: The book Unchristian found that today’s young people, ages 16-29, have a critical view of the church and overwhelmingly think Christians fit five negative perceptions. Which ones do you think a first time visitor would say are true of your church (be honest)?
Jesse Phillips
September 3, 2008
Could you list the 5 at the bottom of your post? I can’t remember them all. something like:
– anti-homosexual
– judgemental
– mean
– narrow minded
– irrelevant
– stupid
I don’t think people would think those about my church, er, that is, I don’t think we’d give them that impression. But I do think they’d come in with those ideas already.
I think those ideas are based on their personal and media interactions with Christians. So I think we need to change how we act (churches should model this for us), and we need to minimize the negative media we get – we can’t do anything about false portrayal, except be such awesome people that everyone will know it’s false.
john keese
September 3, 2008
i think the problem with most of these 5 problems is our approach.
there’s a thin line between being judgmental (wrong) and being convicting (something we’re called to be).
there’s a thin line between recognizing that homosexuality is a sin (hating the sin) and giving the impression we hate those who struggle with it (we must hate the sin WHILE loving the sinner).
there’s a thin line between being hypocritical (wrong) and admitting we’re all sinners (of which i’m the worst).
although i do agree the church is too involved in politics. God isn’t a republican… or democrat.
Joshua Cody
September 3, 2008
Hey Jesse, if you’re in an RSS reader and you click through, our poll is in the right-hand sidebar of the site. That gives all of the links. We just like to let folks know the question in the actual post so they can be reminded to visit us and vote. It’s just the way we have the site coded. Sorry for any confusion there!