Saturday, November 17

Book Review: unChristian

unChristian was definitely a great read! It was pretty much what I expected... as far as how those outside the church view Christians... but what I didn't expect was just how strong these views are among the younger generation. If you're passionate about reaching the next generation, you cannot afford to pass up this book. There is a lot of statistical information, but it isn't a hard, technical read.

One of the things I liked was that the authors did a great job with their survey info... they don't give you just broad, sweeping stats of what "some people" believe, but they give very detailed, categorical breakdowns of every issue they're dealing with. For example, here's a quote from early in the book:

"Our most recent data show that young outsiders have lost much of their respect for the Christian faith. These days nearly two out of every five young outsiders (38 percent) claim to have a 'bad impression of present-day Christianity.' Beyond this, one-third of young outsiders said that Christianity represents a negative image with which they would not want to be associated. Furthermore, one out of every six young outsiders (17 percent) indicates that he or she maintains 'very bad' perceptions of the Christian faith... This group is at least three times larger than it was just a decade ago."

For me, one of the highlights of the book was the end of each chapter: the authors included responses by different Christian writers... such as Andy Stanley, Margaret Feinberg, Rick McKinley, and Brian McLaren, to name a few... to address various ways in which we can do a better job reaching this next generation by changing the perception of how they think about us.

Again... this is a MUST-READ for pastors and ministry workers, and anyone interested in reaching outsiders... especially the younger ones!

1 comment:

Jim Henry said...

Just started digging in to it...Love it so far!!!