By Steve

3000 copies of a new book were handed out for free by the Barna group, an organization that studies and researches spiritual trends. I don’t read books from the Barna group because they are usually filled with stats and survey practices and quite frankly, are not good reads (although “Revolution” by George Barna was an incredible exception). So I caught myself by surprise when I walked into Borders to purchase the book because I was not one of the first 3000 to request my free copy.
Not surprisingly, it is a more typical Barna book, but I continue to read. I just finished a section that was describing peoples perception of church and it took my mind back to a place where it spends plenty of time…making sense of church.
The emphasis of this section was that people found church to have little meaning. They eloquently stated this with phrases like: out of tune, lacking vitality, insulated from thinking and living in a bubble. These are the perceptions people who are not part of the church have of the church.
What’s sad is since this is the perception of the church, it is also the perception of what it means to be a Christian. It’s what people think of Jesus. It’s no wonder so many people could care less.
What matters? I have a thought. If we are too change these perceptions, we shouldn’t look at changing the church but each of us that are the church must change. If these perceptions are true, then is me who’s out of tune, lacking vitality, insulated from thinking and existing in a bubble…and it’s you too fellow church goer. If these perceptions are to change the bubble must be popped. We must be willing to ask hard questions about God and faith and life and our culture…and we must put forth the work required at answering some of these questions. We must not be boring, but alive and full of life. And we must not just be in tune with our own Christian concerns, but with what is really going on in our world.
But I also want to suggest that these perceptions may also reflect some problems with people that hold them. Maybe we are in tune with what really matters. Maybe people who have sought vitality and life in other places besides God cannot understand how I find life in something different than their pursuits. Perhaps we are thinking and working through hard questions, but are just not given the chance by these perception holders to talk with them. Maybe some have created an anti-God bubble that they exist in, and the fact is is that they are in a bubble too.
Truth is, whether or not I can make sense of any of this, I care deeply about what people are perceiving to be true about God and faith and the church. And the best way to help this perception is for me to work through what it means to be Christian, and live it out the best I possibly can. So maybe I’m not a huge Barna fan, but he has got me thinking again today about things that really matter to me…even if I did have to pay for it.