Unchristian

Findings from Unchristian by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons - a comprehensive research study by the Barna Group

The top three negative perceptions of Christians are antihomosexual (91% say "a lot" or "some"), judgmental (87%), and hypocritical (85%). These numbers tell us what nonChristians think of when they think about Christianity.

Unfortunately, the top favorable image they have of Christianity is that it "teaches same basic idea as other religions" (82% "a lot" or "some"). In general, outsiders consider Christianity to have good values and principles (76%), and friendly people (71%). However, only 55% think that Christianity "consistently shows love for other people", and 54% believe Christianity "offers hope for the future". These 'favorable' images are more dismal as we look at the percentage of young outsiders that consider Christians trustworthy (9 % say "alot"), or Christianity to be genuine and real (11%), "something that makes sense" (9%), or "relevant to your life" (10%).

Outside Perception #1 Hypocritical
Christians say one thing but live something entirely different.



What Jesus will transform His "church" to someday be like:
Christians are transparent about their flaws and act first, talk second.


Outside Perception #2 All about getting saved!
Christians are insincere and concerned only with converting others.



What Jesus will transform His "church" to someday be like:
Christians cultivate relationships and environments where others can be deeply transformed by God.


Outside Perception #3 Antihomosexual
Christians show contempt for gays and lesbians.


What Jesus will transform His "church" to someday be like: Christians show compassion and love to all people, regardless of their lifestyle.


Outside Perception #4 Sheltered
Christians are boring, unintelligent, old-fashioned, and out of touch with reality.



What Jesus will transform His "church" to someday be like: Christians are engaged, informed, and offer sophisticated responses to the issues people face.


Outside Perception #5 Too Political
Christians are primarily motivated by a political agenda and promote right-wing politics.



What Jesus will transform His "church" to someday be like: Christians are characterized by respecting people, thinking biblical, and finding solutions to complex issues.


Outside Perception #6 Judgmental
Christians are prideful and quick to find faults in others.



What Jesus will transform His "church" to someday be like: Christians show grace by finding the good in others and seeing their potential to be Christ followers.

Guilt and Sight

A warning to all "Christians" who think they have it figured out...

John 9:39-41
Then Jesus told him, "I entered the world to render judgment-to give sight to the blind and to show those who think they see that they are blind."
Some Pharisees who were standing nearby heard him and asked, "Are you saying we're blind?"
"If you were blind, you wouldn't be guilty," Jesus replied. "But you remain guilty because you claim you can see."

the Heart and Peace

Highlights - Francis Chan, Living Sacrificially

2 Timothy 1:7
God gave us a spirit, not of fear, but of power, love, and self-control...

the Bible says we are a slave to that spirit, the spirit is beating the believer to submit to their potential... Why do we feel conviction? because the spirit that lives in us is not thriving... believers want to live boldly, it bugs you when you don't because you know that you are capable of more

When you are alone... not within an American church or fellowship, but when it is just you and the Bible... do you feel at peace with your life? It is easy to feel at peace when you are around other American Christians, but do you feel at peace with a watered-down version of the Bible that is lived? We often know the right things to say in our Christian environment... it is when we are dealing with God directly that we know there is more... 'I know that I can be more bold, more loving, have more self-control'... While people say their Christian feel-good phrases like "everyone does this and that" and "God understands" does it still comfort you when you are alone? When you are alone with God we know that we are destined for more...

Peace before God is when you are zeroed in on God... there is a big difference between having peace about something and ignoring something... there are certain things we are convicted about, and when we don't think about it we can temporarily ignore it, only when we are overwhelmed with God in our life is peace felt... a spirit that wants to break out is inside... often times sermon on evangelism means you just try harder... do church, do community... do evangelism or love people!... love God and love our neighbor as ourself, that is what it all comes down to...

our most courageous times are when we are zeroed in on God. When we are beyond others and are thinking about the creator, 'whatever you want God because it is you who chooses if i live or die, you are the only one that matters'... if i am in love with God, I just want to live how He wants me to, whatever happens happens with people is fine. 'i could care less about anyone else, it is you i want to please!!' ...

it is in these times that we are most courageous! The story of Stephen: People were enraged with Stephen as he preached, but he did not back off! Full of the Holy Spirit he gazed into Heaven and saw the glory of God... As he was pelt with rocks, he saw Jesus and everything happening to Him suddenly did not matter! He didn't care, he was in his own world. He saw Jesus, he was that close... "Fall in love with Jesus, get so close to him that you can see Him and it won't matter, courage will come in life! ... this is not about being tough, it is about being that in love with Jesus... We are most courageous when we are not into ourselves, being so insecure, but into loving God (obeying His command to love)...

Love people so much that you cannot help but tell them. We don't need to "evangelize", "preach" as Christians... we don't need a speech planned. Scripture speaks out against heartless religion and doing things because we are suppose to. Out of love it comes. we try to do church, do community rather then being so in love with people that everything you have is theirs. Just because you love them that much. it is not forcing people to give. Genuine caring for others, for orphans, Genuine love from a spirit given by Jesus overflows freely.

So much of our failure in evangelism in the Christian world comes form a lack of sincerity. We often have little tracks and speeches... but people can see through that!! People can see when you do things out of a sense of duty and when you genuinely care about them. words are often not influential, it is often the heart. if you show that you genuinely love them then they will at least listen. if we love God with all of our hearts, and if we loved our neighbors as much as ourselves then we would never have to teach how to evangelize. Love others! It just comes out. it is not forced. if you loved others as much as yourself then we could be visual presentations of Jesus to the world...

The mouth speaks out of the heart's overflow. whatever is in the mouth will come out of the heart. Watch your heart, not the external action! We miss the issue when we say don't cuss, etc! When we know the slogans it makes it fake. Deal with the root of the problem rather then trivial external factors.

Francis Chan and John Piper are messing with me

Brief summaries to follow...



Speaker: John Piper
Date: 10/19/08
Filling Up What Is Lacking in Christ's Afflictions



Speaker: Francis Chan
Date: 11/9/2008
Living Sacrificially
under media --> get a sermon

The Glory of God

Exodus 33:18 paraphrased
Lord! Show me why you matter to me!

The Lord literally shouted back in a mighty way.

Exodus 34:6-7
"The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands of generations, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children, to the third and the fourth generation.”

In God's words this is His glory, His significance to us, His weightiness... A question that shouts form this passage is how can He both love and forgive unfailingly AND be ultimately just, never excusing the guilty?

Jesus was the only way. Our Advocate Priest who promises that not one whom the Father gives to Him will EVER be snatched out of His hands (John 10:25-30, beware of the warning in Matthew 25:31-46!) and who He will lead until we are all face to face with Him to the end of the age.

Jesus attracted the "non-church folk"

"Jesus' teaching consistently attracted the irreligious while offending the Bible-believing, religious people of his day. However, in the main, our churches today do not have this effect. The kind of outsiders [that] Jesus attracted are not attracted to contemporary churches, even our most avant-garde ones. We tend to draw conservative, buttoned-down, moralistic people. The licentious and liberated or the broken and marginal avoid church. That can only mean one thing. If the preaching of our ministers and the practice of our parishioners do not have the same effect on people that Jesus had, then we must not be declaring the same message that Jesus did. If our churches aren't appealing to younger brothers [irreligious], they must be more full of elder brothers [religious] than we'd like to think."
-- Tim Keller, Prodigal God

"But when he heard it, [Jesus] said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.’ For I came not to call the righteous, but sinners.”
-- Matthew 9:12-13

Today our churches all face a strong pull toward religion and morality and away from the Gospel preached to lost, irreligious people. Christianese is the common language of the Church and it is barely intelligible to the outsider looking in. If our preaching does not offend the religious, as Jesus' often did, then the irreligious are by nature repelled. Jesus sought those that are repelled by the current message of the American Church. He spoke often with love to the non-religious type, but to the religious with strong condemnation... may there be reformation in the Church where that the irreligious repent of their sin and (equally as important) the religious repent of their religion.

How do I glorify God while working 40+ hours a week?

After clocking 62 hours of work this week I feel like I must ask the question... or at least define my focus a bit on this blog.

A Snapshot of Joy

Acts 7:54-60
The Stoning of Stephen
54 Now when they heard these things they were enraged, and they ground their teeth at him. 55 But he, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.” 57 But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together [2] at him. 58 Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul. 59 And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” 60 And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.


Nehemiah 8:10
10 Then he said to them, “Go your way. Eat the fat and drink sweet wine and send portions to anyone who has nothing ready, for this day is holy to our Lord. And do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength.”

Taking that word 'strength' and diving deeper into the original meaning you get: defense, force, fortress, strength, stronghold, and rock. Christian joy is all of these things. Happiness is fleeting and has nothing to do with what we are talking about here. I can prove this simply by referring to those times that everyone has had when a beautifully happy day is torn into pieces with a single life altering sentence... Joy is God exalting, worship creating, dark-day sustaining, and life-giving because it comes from the only one who can give life. Here Stephen follows in the footsteps of His master and bares His cross with joy (Hebrews 12:2).

John 15:11 "These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full."

Hating Your Family

1. "This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. There is no greater love then to lay down's one's life for one's friends." -- John 15:12-13
2. "To be my disciple, you must hate everyone else by comparison-your father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters-yes, even your own life. Otherwise you cannot be [mine]." - Luke 14:26

How do we handle Christ's commands to love and to hate? Do we love with a kind of hate or hate with a kind of love?

God was designed to be our only fulfillment. Our relationships can be idolatrous, If we make them ultimate, above an eternal satisfaction in God, then we will destroy it. Relationships were created to make God glorified (representing him, showing others His worth).

"Sin is building your self worth on anything, but God." -- Soren Kierkeguard

We Are Not Entitled to Happiness

Joy and Happiness are not the same thing. They cannot be when dealing with Hebrews 12:2 -

"12:1 Therefore...let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the JOY that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God."

For along time I thought this was joy:



Hebrews 12:2 tells me that this (Christ, before He was crucified) is a more accurate depiction of the joy that is promised by God to those that are His:


Mark 12:23 "And he said to them, 'My soul is very sorrowful, even to death. Remain here and watch.'"

And remember John 13:16!
"Truly, truly, I say to you, a servant is not greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him."

Happiness is NOT promised to us. Try as we might, but if God commands, and we shake if off saying, 'This would make me miserable and God would not want me miserable, so this must obviously not be for me' then we are basically worthless (Luke 14:34-35)... If we are servants of Christ then the best we can expect is death on the cross... We have all heard the Christianese phrase "Bare your cross." Well, Jesus was not happy carrying His cross, but Hebrews 12:2 said He endured it with joy.

Happiness is fleeting. The first thing to go when difficulty comes is happiness. That is why Christ cried out for us to chase joy, not happiness - God exalting, worship creating, dark-day sustaining joy.

(thank you Matt Chandler)

Mother Teresa and Love

I will end my "love" search with some words spoken by Mother Teresa. The more I study it closely, the more I am humbled by the wisdom of this tiny little lady (expect to see more on Mother Teresa in the coming days/weeks/life).

Do not think that love, in order to be genuine, has to be extraordinary. What we need is to love without getting tired.

I am not sure exactly what heaven will be like, but I don't know that when we die and it comes time for God to judge us, he will NOT ask, How many good things have you done in your life?, rather he will ask, How much LOVE did you put into what you did?

I try to give to the poor people for love what the rich could get for money. No, I wouldn't touch a leper for a thousand pounds; yet I willingly cure him for the love of God.

Intense love does not measure, it just gives.

Love begins by taking care of the closest ones - the ones at home.

Love is a fruit in season at all times, and within reach of every hand.

Spread love everywhere you go. Let no one ever come to you without leaving happier.

Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus - Unconditional Love - The thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, the imprisoned...

I was running with my new NIKE PLUS today (trying meet a "man challenge" that my fellows in California proposed) and at the very end of mile 1 I started getting all philosophical and what not about the song that was blasting through my shuffle.


"Turn your eyes upon Jesus,
Look full in His wonderful face,
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,
In the light of His glory and grace."

My first mile had already broken me down to a physical state of a man who had fasted for a week (I haven't been running that much and am totally out of shape!!)... I wanted to do this... I want to do this! My heart is in it, but yet what does it really mean? Where is Jesus' face? Is it all just metaphorical symbolism that never finds its way applied outside of a Church?? I felt so completely fake about it all. Is it all just about singing about loving Jesus, turning your eyes and being consumed with Jesus, checking your box, and then walking out of the Church in a things as usual mindset?? Where is Jesus? How can we love Him? How can we turn our eyes upon Him???

Psalm 42
1 As the deer longs for streams of water,
so I long for you, O God.
2 I thirst for God, the living God.
When can I go and stand before him?

I honestly don't think this man was calling for His death. Maybe it is just conjecture on my part, but I believe he too longed to see the face of His God. He thirsted as if in exhaustion. Satisfaction would not come with a drop. Would He have even been able to stand before God without Christ. Was he aware of Jeremiah 31:33? Did He look forward to the Messiah?? Was He speaking within the Spirit, pointing to the promise of more? As Matt Chandler says [paraphrased] the Old Testament asks the question and the New Testament answers.

2 Corinthians 4:6
4 In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants [1] for Jesus' sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.


Without drawing this out too long I think the song has biblical merit. And so, I just wanted to say what came next to my mind as I ran out of breath, with a side cramp beginning to form in my stomach:

Matthew 25:31-40
31 “When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. 32 Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. 33 And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left.
34 Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. 35 For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, 36 I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me. 37 Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? 38 And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? 39 And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ 40 And the King will answer them, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’

SO THE POINT OF ALL THIS: Jesus is among us. I know He is in the hearts of those who believe, but sometimes we deceive ourselves and make the statement trite speaking flippantly or ignorantly. We are in a war down here and honestly should not rely on an emotional high and low to dictate the movements of God... These verses in Matthew have been making me uneasy since they knocked me upside the head like a ton of bricks as I ran because if you continue in Matthew...

Matthew 25:41-45
41 “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. 42 For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, 43 I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ 44 Then they also will answer, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?’ 45 Then he will answer them, saying, ‘Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.’ 46 And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.'

There are times for Spiritual discussion, but as James (2:20) said: "20 Do you want to be shown, you foolish person, that faith apart from works is useless?" There HAS TO BE an element of physical to let the spiritual flourish...

Jesus is HERE! He is among us!! Why am I just realizing the full brunt of what this means now?? The thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, the imprisoned!!!!

I think we easily pass things off as metaphor in the Bible. I believe there is beautiful poetry, as well as things that cannot be described with physical words, such as the glory of God, the 'light' He offers, the 'saltiness' of a Church desperate for Christ, the glory of Jesus in Revelation 19... If we take the Bible TOO literal we LIMIT God (side note: this single idea reminds me of Philippians 2:12 "work out your own salvation with fear and trembling" -- I honestly think we need to take THAT verse more LITERALLY)



"Heaven is, by definition, outside our experience, but all intelligible descriptions must be within our experience." -- CS Lewis, Weight of Glory




All that to say: I just do not see this as symbolism without application! We will probably not see a literal "face" in the lowly that we will recognizable -- "Hey Jesus?! Oh yes, I thought that was you!" -- But yet Jesus is saying that these people are Him. An eternal truth that cannot be expressed within a finite language. We can find Jesus in the lowly... when we care for the thirsty, the stranger, the naked, the sick, the imprisoned. When we do this are we loving the 'literal' face of God?? I think so.

This is how we know what love is...

Jesus is love. And NOT the kind of love that evokes the image of Jesus with product in his hair.


His love was dangerous and cost much. Making enemies with the religious and the proud, befriending the lowly. Taking the position of a servant... for all of us.

Isaiah 61:1-2
The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
because the Lord has anointed me
to bring good news to the poor;
he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to those who are bound

1 John 3:16
This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers.

Fruit is not automatic...

You don't just plant a tree and get "fruit"... it is not that easy.






“Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.” -- John 15.4-5

Fruit of the Spirit

TOPIC #1 - the Fruits of the Spirit

I can not speak the phrase without the image of a flannel board, the discussion of fruit and vegetables in Sunday School, and the absolute zero application it had on my life as a child. When I recite Galations 5:22-23 "the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control", I also have an image of a watermelon, an apple, and at least a handful of grapes or a pear. How can I put that to death and raise this idea up instead:



"How can you say you love God whom you don't see when you don't love your neighbor who you do see..."


I searched for love at google and found wikipedia to be the first result saying: "Love is any of a number of emotions and experiences related to a sense of strong affection." As CS Lewis has said somewhere: [paraphrased] 'there is something amiss when the expression that I 'love' strawberries does not delineate from the fact that I 'love' my wife or 'love' God...'

For the next couple days I will be frantically trying to answer the question: What is love?

Let's begin this way...

In my (humble) opinion, I think this picture is really funny... My prayer for this blog is that trivialities ("flesh of Christ") may be left behind and words may be expressed with bite in order to create angst and desperation for the all-powerful Creator ("omnipotent yellow") God that is both complete love ("perfect white") and completely just ("rapturous red").

How to begin...

Ideas for Blog
1. How do we Destroy Christian Stereotypes
1a. Hypocritical, Numbers Driven, Antihomosexual, Sheltered, Too Political, Judgemental

2. Christianese to English Interpretation -- what do these words, that at one time had incredible weight, mean in today's context
2a. What do we really mean when we say: "faith", "born-again", "love", forgiving", "prayer", "quiet time", "love your neighbor", "love the sinner hate the sin", "sin", "calling", "bare your cross", "belief", "God", "Christian", "Church", "Jesus"

3. Study
3a. Romans, Luke, Pslams, Weight of Glory, Mortification of Sin, St. Augustine, St. John of the Cross, Quotes...

4. Tough Questions
4a. Can we trust the Bible?, How do we interpret the Bible: literally or metaphorically?, What will the Church in the next century look like: Emergent or Fundamental?

5. Personal Story: How did I become Christian? What does it mean to be Christian? What is the mark of a Christian today?

6. Scripture Application


Weekly Themes for Blog
1. How do I interpret the Bible?
2. Pride - Humility - The Joy and the Miracle of Self-forgetfulness
3. Love
4. Legalism
5. the Sovereignty of God
6. the Glory of God, the Weight of Glory