Challenges

We all face challenges, reach out to us with questions and we can schedule a consultation.

Surprise!

Or rather, no surprise that many people distrust and even despise the church.

That’s one reason I try and use the word ‘church’ as seldom as possible. Instead, I

say ‘congregation’ or ‘spiritual home’. Check out our resource on Language here. It does not

matter that we say, ‘the church is the people’. Those outside the church hear the

word to mean the building (boring!) or the institution (scary).

And its not just the church. The word ‘Christian’ has taken on some

baggage. In the mind of many people, ‘Christian’ is synonymous with extreme

right-wing politics, Christian nationalism, aggressive evangelism, hateful language,

etc. If those are not the attitudes a person is seeking, then the word itself becomes a

major turn-off.

Do you disagree? Well, let’s look at some research. This first study was

paid for by the Episcopal Church and conducted by Ipsos. Notice the question

asked of self-identified Christians, members of other religions, and non-religious

persons is “What characteristics do you associate with Christians in general?

People could select more than one answer.

One definitional difficulty is that we do not know how many ‘non-religious’

persons believe in God and therefore might be spiritual.

“Jesus in America” study conducted by Ipsos, funded by the

Episcopal Church.

Interestingly the ‘non-religious’ don’t have a terrible impression of

Christians. Bad, yes, but not terrible. Over half say Christians are hypocritical,

judgmental and self-righteous (ouch!). Frankly if all they have to base their

impression on is the media, those opinions are reasonable! Consequently, I was

surprised that the highest negative was only 55%.

Skipping the other religions, let’s look at what Christians think of other

Christians. 50% or more Christians say other Christians are giving,

compassionate, loving and respectful. Friendly is at 49%

Not bad – until we flip it over. Allowed multiple answers, 43% of

Christians would not say other Christians are giving.

44% would not say other Christians are compassionate.

45% would not say other Christians are loving.

50% would not say other Christians are respectful

51% would not say other Christians are friendly despite the fact that most

churches claim to be the friendliest church in town!

Where do these impressions come from?