Something you probably don’t know is that the folks behind Church Marketing Sucks are huge fans of the book UnChristian. Heck, you might not even know about UnChristian. It’s subtitled What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity … And Why it Matters, and it looks at sociological research (by The Barna Group) into the attitudes of 16- to 29-year-olds towards Christianity.
They found that among these individuals, there were five prevalent perceptions. They thought the church was anti-homosexual, judgmental, hypocritical, old-fashioned and too involved in politics. And we wanted to know which of these five your church is guilty of.
29% of you said these late teens and twenty-somethings were spot-on in calling you out for being old-fashioned. The hymnals with the broken spines and dirt floors in the sanctuary must have given you away.
Another 21% said a visitor would walk away from your church feeling an over-abundance of hypocrisy. Maybe it’s in the form of blue-haired ladies gossiping, or maybe your church is just brutally honest that we can’t live as high as the standard we would like to. Thanks for your honesty and insight in this answer.
Slightly less of you, 18%, think a visitor would feel your church is judgmental after their first visit. Telltale signs of guilt here: greeters snicker after a visitor walks by, the pastor asking “You guys will never believe what I heard about [name here]” from the pulpit or a church sign that reads “I kissed a girl, and I liked it. Then I went to hell.”
Rounding out the rest of the list are 18% of you who think you would be pegged as anti-homosexual. Another 7% of your churches are too involved in politics. And the final slice of you are the perfect 9%.
Conference idea: UnUnChristian 2009. The 9% of you who are perfect can offer classes for all the rest of us to avoid the UnChristian findings. But until then you can vote on this week’s question: Which freebie would you most want to receive at a church event?
Kevin D. Hendricks
September 9, 2008
I think it’s interesting that so few people thought their church was too political, especially during an election year when everything is too political.
I wonder how people would respond if the question asked about nationalism instead of politics.
James
September 9, 2008
I wonder how people would respond if the question asked about nationalism instead of politics.
Kevin, I agree. This is the largest reason for why I initially left the church. Conservative Christian fundamentalists and the Religious Right leaders have become a misguided group who traded the Gospel of Jesus for the Gospel of American Empire; who traded Jesus’ calls to end poverty and violence for the Empire’s call to wage war and to profit from the underprivileged. You can’t be both a Christian and a Patriot; you can’t give allegiance to the Cross and to the flag; you cannot serve two masters.
Eric Brown
September 9, 2008
It’s good to hear you enjoyed the book. In response to the conference idea – you may want to check out http://www.qideas.org
Peace.
Paul Clifford
September 10, 2008
I couldn’t answer b/c none of these are our problem, but we’re not perfect.
At my last church, I knew exactly (after just a couple of months) where my pastor stood politically. After 7 years here, I don’t know and don’t want to know. Politics is divisive b/c everyone thinks they’re right and the other guy is wrong. The problem is that neither party is 100% right. I’ve gotten more apolitical since I realized the sin in being mad at people I didn’t know and would never meet.
Paul
Jeff Goins
September 12, 2008
We did an interview with the guys who wrote unChristian. Very interesting: http://www.wreckedfortheordinary.com/category.asp?category=culture&filename=interview-with-barna-group-and-fermi-project-presidents