Tonight I attended a speaking engagement by David Kinnaman, best-selling author of “Unchristian”. He’s promoting his new book, “You Lost Me”, and I picked up a copy. I’m excited for the read, but I wanted to share one thing from David’s talk that stuck out to me most.
David presented research and statistics on why young Christians are leaving the church. The stories are often the same–a kid attends church with his parents, and they do their best to raise him in the right Christian way. He attends youth group as a teen, and loves it. He goes on several missions trips and feels connected with the others at his church. Then a few years later, he finds himself in college, not going to church, and barely having any regard for what he’d been taught as a child.
The stories vary a little bit, but most of them contain this one element: each individual, somewhere along the line, is turned off to Christianity, and usually by other Christians. And that’s the problem. These individuals are looking to other Christians to understand their faith. They need to focus on Jesus Christ, not on other Christians.
The truth is that all of us Christians are seeking God. Some are pretty poor at it, and those people give Christianity a bad name. But those people should have no bearing on someone’s personal relationship with Christ. The facts have not changed: Jesus died on the cross for our sins so that we can have eternal life with God in heaven. If someone can disbelieve that fact because they heard one-too-many fire-and-brimstone preachers, saw too many Westboro campaigns, or watched one of their role models completely botch up, maybe they never believed the gospel to begin with.
Jesus died for all of us. We’re all sinners. Don’t let someone on this earth overshadow your perspective of God and what he’s done for us. Keep your eyes on Christ and let Him guide your journey.
Pingback: Who Are You Following? – evangelismofthegospelblogs