My Heart Is Grieving

Read this today. Quote from the book, “unchristian” by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons

In virtually every study we conduct [speaking of The Barna Group], representing thousands of interviews every year, born-again Christians fail to display much attitudinal or behavioral evidence of transformed lives. For instance, based on a study released in 2007, we found that most of the lifestyle activities of born-again Christians were statistically equivalent to those of non-born-agains. When asked to identify their activities over the last thirty days, born-again believers were just as likely to bet or gamble, to visit a pornographic website, to take something that did not belong to them, to consult a medium or psychic, to physically fight or abuse someone, to have consumed enough alcohol to be considered legally drunk, to have used an illegal nonprescription drug, to have said something to someone that was not true, to have gotten back at someone for something he or she did, and to have said mean things behind another person’s back.

No difference.

One study we conducted examined Americans’ engagement in some types of sexually innapropriate behavior, including looking at online pornography, viewing sexually explicit magazines or movies, or having an intimate sexual encounter outside of marriage. In all, we found that 30 percent of born-again Christians admitted to at least one of these activities in the past thirty days, compared with 35 percent of other Americans. In statistical and practical terms, this means the two groups are essentially no different from each other.

And lest you think that the term “born again Christians” is referring to the the broad group of Americans who self-identify with that term, the actual grouping came from Barna researchers, who ask the interviewees if they have “made a personal commitment to Jesus that is still important and that the person believes he or she will got to heaven at death, because the person has confessed his or her sin and accepted Christ as Savior.” Pretty strict definition there.

“No difference”. That phrase is haunting me. What are we (as Christians and Christian leaders all across the nation) doing? Are we only interested in selling “Fire Insurance”? Is the art of making disciples completely dead? Have we forgotten how to walk arm-in-arm with people and do life together with them – loving them through lifechange? Are we so disconnected with the Holy Spirit that we wouldn’t recognize one of his works if we saw it?

Take it to the next level – make it personal? Would YOU have answered those questions any differently? If you were asked to report on your last 30 days of activities – would there be any difference between your life and the average non-believing American’s?

Dear God, “Create in me a clean heart, and renew a right spirit within me.” (Psalm 51:10)