"More than 60 % of persons age 20 - 29 (not in church the last 6 moths) agreed, either strongly or somewhat, that Jesus died and came back to life. About 30 % disagreed, and 7 % answered they were not sure. 2/3 of those with an opinion agreed with this statement. Simply put, the younger unchurched are not staying away from church because they have a problem with Jesus."
I do not know about you, but that last sentence makes me shake my head. 60 % of the unchurched 20 - 29 year olds believe in the resurrection of Jesus. But they are not attending Church.
As I was reading this it made me think of this quote by Gandhi, "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ."
Here are my questions:
1) Is there something that the Church/Christians must change to get the younger unchurched to attend Church?
2) What are some reasons why you think this age group does not attend Church?
I will leave you with this, "The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today, is Christians, who look down on Jesus with their lips and walk out the door armed with their lifestyle, that is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable." Intro to What if I Stumble by DC Talk.
May the Lord bless you and keep you.
First off, how do you "somewhat" agree that Jesus died and was resurrected? For me to say "I somewhat believe that Dustin Gist is a living person" does not make sense at all.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, agreeing that Jesus died and came back to life has nothing to do with the heart. James 2 tells us that even demons believe in God, yet they are still doomed to Hell.
Finally, this statement, "the younger unchurched are not staying away from church because they have a problem with Jesus" cannot possibly be true. You mean to tell me that the young unchurched stay away from church because they might encounter hypocrites? Do they grocery shop? Because I guarantee you will find plenty of hypocrites at Walmart. No, these people don't want to come to church because they don't like the idea of surrendering their lives to the Living God. Blaming all the judgmental, biggoted, hypocrites that attend church is just their excuse.
Now, if you want to talk about church members and their legalistic lifestyles they like to impose on others to prove their churchiness, then that's a completely different topic.
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ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThe crux of my original post is directed at those who "strongly" agree that Jesus died and was resurrected. I do not understand how you can strongly agree with that statement and then do nothing about it. It's not like resurrection is some common occurance. That's why I don't believe the actions of the church are keeping these people away from church.
ReplyDeleteNow, for those who know little to nothing about Christianity and Jesus, the church has done a poor job of displaying who Christ is to the world. Early Christians were known in the secular world as "the way". As in, they live this way. A way that is MUCH different than the rest of society. If the world sees the church as "just like everyone else, with added judgement" then where is the appeal? If our lives are not marked by a devotion to Christ because of His great mercy, then what are we doing?
And SG beat me to the punch. Last night, while reading Crazy Love by Francis Chan I ran across this quote:
ReplyDelete"If you stopped believing in God, would anyone notice?"
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ReplyDeleteI chimed in my two cents worth here:
ReplyDeletehttp://stadiumchurch.blogspot.com/2010/05/mission-irrelevant.html
It was a little too long.