David Kinnamon is president of The Barna Group. It provides research for spiritual transformation. He and George Barna report at www.barna.org. Gabe Lyons founded Fermi Project and Q, which educates Christians on their responsibility to renew culture.

This book was discussed in five evening meetings of a group at my church – Collegiate United Methodist Church of Ames, IA. Students here at Iowa State University were one of the groups that were included in the 14 telephone or online data-collection dates commissioned by Q for the research discussed in this book.

The book’s back cover grabs one’s attention: “Christianity has an image problem. Christians are supposed to represent Christ to the world. But according to the latest report card, something has gone terribly wrong. Using descriptions like ‘hypocritical’, ‘insensitive’, and ‘judgmental’, young Americans share an impression of Christians that’s nothing short of … unChristian. Groundbreaking research into the perceptions of sixteen-to-twenty-nine year-olds reveals that Christians have taken several giant steps backward in one of their most important assignments. The surprising details of the study, commissioned by Fermi Project and conducted by The Barna Group, are presented with uncompromising honesty in unChristian. Find out why these negative perceptions exist, learn how to reverse them in a Christlike manner, and discover practical examples of how Christians can positively contribute to culture.”

In Ch 1 – the Backstory: Seeing Christianity from the Outside – David Kinnaman says: “I invite you to see what Christianity looks like from the outside. In fact, the title of this book, unChristian, reflects outsiders’ most common reaction to the faith: they think Christians no longer represent what Jesus had in mind, that Christianity in our society is not what it was meant to be.” …”We need to understand their unvarnished views of us. Therefore this book reflects outsiders’ unfiltered reactions to Christianity.” His 2007 research analysis used four age groups: Mosiacs (ages 16-24), Busters (ages 25-42), Boomers (ages 43-60), and Elders (ages 61+). None of our discussion group had ever before heard of these names for the two younger groups!

In Ch 2 – Discovering unChristian Faith – Kinnaman says their survey in 1996 showed 85% of ‘unchurched’ individuals (including the young) were favorable towards Christianity’s role in society, but a decade later in a table How Outsiders Perceive Evangelicals and Born-Again Christians he shows that now a good impression by nonChristians of all ages is held by only 3% for Evangelicals, 10% for Born-Again Christians, and 16% for Christianity. “In studying thousands of outsiders’ impressions, it is clear that Christians are primarily perceived for what they stand against. We have become ‘famous for what we oppose, rather than what we are for’.” Our discussion group (and probably outsiders as well) could understand this for Evangelicals because of the negative impression they give as televangelists. We also think their negativity ‘spills over’ to other Christians who are not Evangelicals. Kinnaman says that their national surveys found the three most common perceptions of present-day Christianity are antihomosexual (91% of young outsiders), judgmental (87%), and hypocritical (85%). I think these numbers represent a spill-over from Evangelicals onto progressive mainline churches like mine – we try not to be judgmental (but I just was for Evangelicals – judging others is hard to resist). In Ch 2 Kinnaman says: “This book explores our research in six broad themes – the most common points of skepticism and objections raised by outsiders.” Ch 3-8 deal with these six themes – hypocritical, too focused on getting converts, antihomosexual, sheltered, too political, and judgmental – and each chapter gives some tables of their often-shocking interview results.

In Ch 4 Kinnaman says, “For the purposes of our research, we investigate a biblical worldview based on eight elements” defined in The Research (an appendix) that also defines Outsiders, Born-again Christians, and Evangelicals. The worldview definition of his is nearly, but not exactly, what a fundamentalist says one must believe to be a Christian, but it differs with what contemporary or progressive Christians of many mainline denominations believe. For these latter groups, what is crucially important is what one does, not what one says one believes in. In Ch 9 Kinnaman asks: “What will we do? How will we respond to what young generations think of us? If Mosaics and Busters say we no longer look like the people Jesus intended, what do we do about that? How do we move from unChritstian to Christian?” His answer is to change their perception of us: (1) respond with the right perspective, (2) connect with people, (3) be creative, and (4) serve people. Our group’s answer is that we do such now. So how can we do it better? An answer to this is, and will be, an ongoing one.

The Afterword by Gabe Lyons addresses the new perceptions: “Losing the theology and practice of common grace and focusing on conversion over discipleship have contributed greatly to Christianity’s perception problem.” …“It comes down to this: we must become Christlike again. This is both the good news and the hard reality of accepting the research of this book.” …”Being a Christian is hard work. Putting the needs of others above your own, loving your neighbor, doing good to those who would do evil to you, exercising humility, suffering with those less fortunate, and doing it all with a pure heart is nearly impossible.” Note the action verbs he used above – telling us that it is what we do that matters (not what we say we believe in). His answer is a wise one and “The perception of outsiders will change only when Christians strive to represent the heart of God in every relation and situation.” This is a long-term view: ”…if we are ever going to see progress in how Christianity is perceived in our culture, it will take several decades to accomplish.” Lyons Afterword is the “insightful wisdom” of this book; because of it I give a guarded recommendation to the book: Kinnaman’s chapters are most valuable for presenting the results of the research and Lyons has the wisdom to propose the response needed.