Most people are seeking a spiritual aspect of life. Spiritual transformation into Christ-likeness has always been the right thing to do. We now know that the reputation of Christianity and thus effective evangelism, hangs upon it. Current research shows that un-Christian, un-Christ-formed faith and practice is the single biggest obstacle to making new disciples of Jesus.

It used to be that people primarily listened their way into the faith; today they tend to talk and observe their way into the faith. Two of the primary roles of Jesus’ followers are listening and embodying authentic Christianity. Through re-practicing Christianity we can break the negative word-of-mouth of what has been called an “un-Christian” faith.

For a snap shot into this new, post-Christian reality, please consider the following:

David Kinnaman: His book Unchristian articulates the views of 16–29 year olds and describes the challenges presented by unchristian living.

• The most common reaction to the faith: they think Christians no longer represent what Jesus had in mind, that Christianity in our society is not what is was meant to be. They admit they have a hard time actually seeing Jesus because of all the negative baggage that now surrounds him.
• These days nearly two out of every five young outsiders (38%) claim to have a “bad impression of present-day Christianity.”
• The primary reason outsiders feel hostile toward Christians, and especially conservative Christians, is not because of any specific theological perspective. What they react negatively to is our “swagger,” how we go about things and the sense of self-importance we project.
• One outsider put it this way: “Most people I meet assume that Christian means very conservative, entrenched in their thinking, antigay, anti-choice, angry, violent, illogical, empire builders; they want to convert everyone, and they generally cannot live peacefully with anyone who doesn’t believe what they believe.”

The New Atheism: No Heaven. No Hell. Just Science. Inside the crusade against religion: Wired Magazine, November 2006. What is “new” about something so ancient?

• They condemn not just belief in God, but respect for belief in God.
• Religion is not just wrong, it is evil; thus atheistic evangelism is a moral imperative.
  Atheism is virtuous—like anti-slavery.
• Atheism seeks to deliver our children from God-based manifest falsehoods—like previous generations did with slavery and flat-earth: “bad ideas foisted on children are moral wrongs.”
• The war on terror shows that all religion is bad: the fatwa’s of Muslim Clerics and the decrees of the Pope regarding condoms are equally bad.
• Everyone who does not join the atheist revolution is an ally of the Taliban.
• Unless we renounce faith, religious violence will soon bring civilization to an end.

In a related article in The Economist called “In God’s Name,” the authors wrote: “A succession of bestselling books have torn into religion:”

• Sam Harris’s The End of Faith
• Richard Dawkins’s The God Delusion
• Christopher Hitchens’ God is not Great – How Religion Poisons Everything

The article concluded: “When historians look back at this century, they will probably see religion as the prime animating and destructive force in human affairs”.

Barna’s Revolutionaries and Alternative Church Realities
A recent Barna study shows that a majority of adults believe that there are various biblically legitimate alternatives to participation in a conventional church.

Several alternatives were deemed by most adults to be “a complete and biblically valid way for someone who does NOT participate in the services or activities of a conventional church to experience and express their faith in God.” Those alternatives include:

• Engaging in faith activities at home, with one’s family (considered acceptable by 89% of adults)
• Being active in a house church (75%)
• Watching a religious television program (69%)
• Listening to a religious radio broadcast (68%)
• Attending a special ministry event, such as a concert or community service activity (68%)
• Participating in a marketplace ministry (54%)
• Interacting with a faith-oriented website (45%)
• Participating in live events via the Internet (42%)

Christine Wicker: The Fall of the Evangelical Nation: The Surprising Crisis Inside the Church

• Basic thesis: Evangelical Christianity in America is dying. It is a remnant; every indicator that can be measured shows great losses: conversions, baptisms, attendance, giving, membership, participation, etc.
• Everyday America becomes a less Christian nation. The Evangelical version of Christianity has dropped from 42% of the population in 1900 to 15% today. Twelve hundred evangelicals leave the faith each day; overall 6,000 leave the faith each day.
• Many/most of these people say they are leaving out of deep, Bible-inspired values.
• Twenty million believers are now getting their primary spiritual experience and nourishment through small group. This is just the beginning of an ever widening trend.
• Non-believers are the fastest growing faith group in America in numbers and percentages. The outnumber evangelicals, more than 2/1.
• When asked to evaluate groups in terms of respect, non-Christians rated evangelicals tenth. Only prostitutes ranked lower.
• The core group of people volunteering at churches wants a deeper commitment to faith; one that transcends church walls. They want to live their faith in everything they do—business and recreation.
• Only half of all born-again adults do any witnessing at all in a year, and what they do, they do not feel good about.

Survey: U.S. religious landscape in flux: Poll finds Protestant churches in decline, unaffiliated ranks growing. (The Associated Press updated 7:28 p.m. ET, Mon., Feb. 25, 2008). Selected Highlights:

• The U.S. religious marketplace is extremely volatile, with nearly half of American adults leaving the faith tradition of their upbringing to either switch allegiances or abandon religious affiliation altogether, a new survey finds. The study released by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life is unusual for its sheer scope, relying on interviews with more than 35,000 adults to document a diverse and dynamic U.S. religious population.
• More than one-quarter of American adults have left the faith of their childhood for another religion or no religion at all…Factoring in moves from one stream or denomination of Protestantism to another, the number rises to 44 percent.
• One in four adults ages 18 to 29 claim no affiliation with a religious institution.
• Right now, there is a dropping confidence in organized religion, especially in the traditional religious forms.
• The religious demographic benefiting the most from this religious churn is those who claim no religious affiliation. People moving into that category outnumber those moving out of it by a three-to-one margin.
• Although evangelical churches strive to win new Christian believers from the “unchurched,” the survey found most converts to evangelical churches were raised Protestant.