unChristian?

Last night I picked up a copy of the new book by David Kinnaman, Unchristian. It’s being added to my large stack of books I’ve just got to read. I did read two chapters and the introduction last night and I can definitely say, I’m already intrigued.

In the last year or so I’ve felt a stronger hunger than ever before for something real and authentic in Christianity. I grow weary of what I call “formulaic faith” where everything we believe is spelled out in pity little sayings. Unchristian shatters our assertions that America is a place where Christianity is the popular and “in” thing. Instead, it opens the suggestion box where the world has deposited its opinions about Christ-followers.It seems that instead of being a people of irresistible influence, we’re a people who have yet to effectively communicate the redemptive message of the gospel well. In other words, we aren’t as respected as we think we are.

I’m not necessarily agreeing with the book’s premises. I am saying that we ought to be trying to think through the lens of non- and even anti- Christian sentiment. If we are called to be communicators of the gospel, then we must communicate it in a way that connects with how people are thinking today.

Enough with the simple formulas, nice cliches, and formulaic thinking - let’s get down to the tough stuff of faith and realize that our journey with Jesus is real stuff! Enough with the pretty little poems and half-true sob stories that get forwarded to inboxes around the world. Let’s hear some real stories of people who don’t know what to think of God. And let’s be better Christians to a non-Christian world. More on this later…

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