I Like Jesus but not the Church

Dan Kimball in an article, “I Like Jesus… Not the Church”, published in Outreach, March/April, 2007 and posted on Christianity Today’s website, looks at six misconceptions non-Christians have about the church and Christianity today. Most unbelievers, he says, are very open to discussing Jesus, his life and his teachings, but are very turned off by Christians and the church.

The six main objections are:

1) The Church is an organized religion with a political agenda.

2) The Church is judgmental and negative.

3) The Church is dominated by males and oppresses females.

4) The Church is homophobic.

5) The Church arrogantly claims all other religions are wrong.

6) The Church is full of fundamentalists who take the whole Bible literally.


He tackles three of these perceptions and gives some advice as to how we as Christians can help overcome these misperceptions:

First, we need to communicate how and why our church is organized the way it is, explaining clearly the biblical principles underlying the structure. We must assess the titles we give our staff and determine whether those titles are communicating accurately what we want. We must also be aware of our biases and not confuse them with Jesus’ teaching. Care must also be taken to listen to the younger generation and give credence to their viewpoints and opinions, getting them involved in important decisions and ministries.

Second, we must be careful that we don’t communicate a judgmental attitude while talking about sin. People are open to hearing Jesus’ views, even on sin, but it must be communicated in a nonjudgmental way. We should also spend more time talking about what we stand for and less about what we are against. We must also evaluate whether we are truly concerned about the things Jesus was concerned about, such as social injustice, the poor, the sick and the needy. We need to get out of our Christian bubbles and interact with those outside the church.

Finally, we need to realize that we live in a post-Christian, pluralistic society in which all world religions are present. We need to have a basic understanding of these world faiths and be able to interact with members of these faiths intelligently. We must also be able to explain clearly and calmly why Jesus is the only way and be able to answer their objections gracefully and intelligently.


You can read this article at: http://www.christianitytoday.com/outreach/articles/ilikejesus.html