A Lesson for youth groups based off of the book entitled "Unchristian" by David Kinnaman and Gabe LyonsThe Issue: Too Political
The Perception: Christians are primarily motivated by a political agenda and promote right-wing politics.
Questions and Quotes for Discussion:
Name for me who you think the top 5 Christians of all time would be.
We are in full gear for a political season that will have a major impact on your JH/SH years. The next president could possibly have that office all the way into your college years.
1. First of all, what political issues do you feel strongly about?
2. Secondly, if you could vote, who do you think you would vote for in November and why?
3. Thirdly, should Christians be involved in politics?
Listen to Fermi Project Podcast: Episode of unChristian featuring Mark Batterson
Did anything that Mark Batterson had to say jump out at you? Why do you think outsiders equate Christians with being Republicans? How difficult do you think it must be for him to pastor a church in D.C. where many people feel very strongly about both political parties? What about our church - do you think we are tied to a political party? The stereotype out there is that evangelical churches lean right and mainline churches lean left. Is that always true?
1. The Impact of Religion on Recent Politics
A. In the last two elections George Bush was very outspoken about his faith whereas his democratic opponents did not. The results are obvious.
B. In this political season we have seen one very qualified candidate get eliminated more or less because he identified himself with Mormonism.
C. Democrats have turned the corner in being much more outspoken about their faith.
D. Both John McCain and Barack Obama have had to distance themselves from religious leaders they considered as friends and allies who have said things that were offensive to a vast majority of people.
E. And let’s not forget, it was a radical religious ideology that brought down the World Trade Center that initiated much of where we find ourselves today.
F. It is a radical religious ideology that is influencing Iran’s government today and will have major implications with the next American administration.
2. The Influence of Religion on Politics
A. Is there a connection between faith and politics? The Bible has a lot to say about issues related to life, human dignity, the poor, marriages and families, just war, environmentalism, good vs. evil behavior, wise vs. foolish decisions, the influence of the Spirit of God vs. our own selfish desires, etc.
B. What is a worldview? What factors help to shape our worldview? How important should our faith and knowledge of the Bible develop our worldview?
C. Do Christians agree on everything politically? So, is it possible that a biblical worldview can operate out of the Republican AND Democrat parties?
D. Should Christians align themselves with one specific party or should our faith rise above both parties critiquing the positives and negatives of both sides against a Christian worldview?
3. Political Change vs. Spiritual Change
A. In Barack’s campaign you have seen, and will see up until November, the word “change”. Also, McCain will work hard to show a difference (change) between Bush and himself, although Barack will argue against that (no change from Bush’s policies with McCain). What do you think he means by using that word? How does “political change” occur and how does that affect us?
B. Think of an issue you feel strongly about. If the government changed the law to go against what you believe would that automatically change you beliefs? Why? Example: my view on abortion.
C. What kind of change was Jesus interested?
D. How is the change that Jesus is interested in that different from the kind of change that comes through politics?
4. The Bible and Politics
A. Matthew 22:21 - Jesus does not dismiss the importance of politics but recognizes our duty to serve God and our leaders.
B. 1 Timothy 2:1-4 - Regardless of political parties or even faith, Paul calls us to pray, intercede and thank Him for those in authority over us. Bill Clinton was not treated like this by many conservative religious leaders, instead he was vilified.
C. John 18:33-40
1. Jesus’ kingdom is radically different from political kingdoms.
2. The political climate was used against Jesus to murder him.
3. Jesus was determined that he came to testify to the truth even in the face of death.
4. Pilate, the politician, questioned the idea of truth as his conscience is being battered by the demands of the people who wanted blood.
CONCLUSION
Politics: Under the right circumstances help to create laws that will deter people from acting out in evil ways. The hope is that the law will change people from the outside-in. Although a law may cause someone to hold back from making a bad decision, it does not and will not change the HEART of a person. They can still hate as long as they do not murder. They can still lust as long as they do not rape or molest.
Faith: This is a radical change from within in which the Spirit of God transforms us from the inside-out. We willfully open ourselves up to God changing and transforming us to be more like him. The change begins within the heart of a person.
THE NEW PERCEPTION: Christians are characterized by respecting people, thinking biblically, and finding solutions to complex issues.
The Issue: Sheltered
The Perception: Christians are boring, unintelligent, old-fashioned, and out of touch with reality.
Questions and Quotes for Discussion:
Has anyone ever treated you or someone you knew as stupid for believing in God? They state that your faith is just a crutch because you can’t deal with reality? My experience with Mitch as I pursued theatre in college. Mitch would frequently rage against Christianity and all religions as pathetic ways people cope with life because they can’t handle reality.
Listen to Fermi Project Podcast: Episode 11 of unChristian featuring Margaret Fienburg author of “The Organic God”
Did anything that Margaret have to say jump out at you? She mentioned the generational differences in that older generations tend to have a fortress mentality of pulling out of culture seeing it as evil. They escape into the Christian bubble. The younger generations see culture differently by wanting to engage people and be an agent of change within the culture. Local Example: Invisible Children. Would you agree or disagree with this observation? Should our faith have anything to do with our culture?
1. Christianity and its relationship to the WORLD
A. The Impact of Christianity on American Idol
- The typical “Christian bubble” response to the popularity of American Idol would have been to create a Christian version of it. Much of Christian consumerism caters to this: creating a second-rate “Christianized” product of something that is similar to a successful product in the world. Example: Christian coffeehouses, most Christian music, most Christian radio, Christian boat cruises, Christian theme parks, most Christian book stores, some Christian colleges, etc.
- How has Christianity come through the show this season? Group sang “Shout to the Lord”. Dolly Parton sang a song about Jesus, Neil Diamond sang a song about God’s amazing grace, the contestants sang songs by Switchfoot, and several other songs that had spiritual themes. This is a HUGE example of Christianity breaking through into mainstream culture and making a profound impact on one of the most popular shows of our time. Don’t miss this!
B. Read John 17:14-18
- Is Jesus intention for us to separate ourselves from the world like the Amish?
- Why would Jesus pray for our protection? What do we need protection from?
2. Christianity and its relationship to our INTELLECT
A. Read Romans 12:2
- Describe the difference here between Paul’s use of contrast between the words “conform” and “transform”.
- What happens with a transformed mind?
B. Read 2 Corinthians 10:3-5
- How is Paul encouraging us to use our minds?
- Would he be okay with Christians living out a sheltered, non-thinking faith?
- If we actually use our brains for God’s glory what kind of life does Paul show us we could have?
Just recently we have seen a bunch of books come out speaking against Christianity and promoting the cause of atheistic, humanistic philosophy. Many of the modern-day Christian thinkers of our day have appropriately responded by writing books in response to the arguments leveled at our faith. Check out these books:
The Faith: What Christians Believe, Why They Believe It, and Why It Matters By: Charles Colson, Harold Fickett
God and the New Atheism: A Critical Response to Dawkins, Harris, and Hitchens By: John F. Haught
The End of Reason: A Response to the New Atheists By: Ravi Zacharias
The Dawkins Delusion? Atheist Fundamentalism and the Denial of the Divine By: Alister McGrath, Joanna Collicutt McGrath
3. Christianity and its relationship to OTHERS
A. Read Matthew 9:12-13 - Who are we supposed to be helping as a response to our faith?
B. Consider this: according to the extensive research
1. Teens have grown up “in a social setting more violent than that of their Boomer parents.” (p. 126)
2. “More than one-third of children born in the United States are born to unmarried mothers.” (p. 127)
3. “Today’s young adults are more likely to view sexually explicit magazines, movies and websites.” (p. 127)
4. “Young adults experience substance abuse more frequently than do older adults.” (p. 127)
5. “One out of seven admits to dealing with an addiction.” (p. 128)
6. “One-sixth recognize they are already in serious debt.” (p. 128)
7. “One-eighth are lonely.” (p. 128).
8. “One-quarter feel unfulfilled in life.” (p. 128)
9. “Nearly half say they are stressed out.” (p. 128)
10. Many “live with an inner desperation that often leads to personal annihilation. Suicide is the third leading cause of death among people aged fifteen to twenty-four.” (p. 128)
- According to these statistics who would you consider those who are sick, those who are sinners in need of God’s grace, love and forgiveness? IT IS THE VERY PEOPLE YOU WALK THE HALLWAYS WITH EVERYDAY YOU GO TO SCHOOL, WORK, THE MALL, WHEREVER!
- Knowing all this, is it right then for us to live safe, sheltered lives or do we engage with those we know, realizing we can be used of God to help transform their lives and ultimately the culture of those around us!?!
CONCLUSION
Read Acts 17:16-34 together.
- What was Paul’s initial reaction to what he saw in Athens?
- What did he do then? Did he put up a big sign saying “HELL IS REAL” and walk away? Did he put a sign of the Ten Commandments in his front yard and a Jesus fish sticker on his car and hope that was enough? Did he level all the people with the charge of being sinners? Did he run and hide with only like-minded Christians thankful he was not evil like the pagans?
- Paul took these steps:
1. He engaged in CONVERSATION
2. He exposed his audience to God’s truth through observations of their CULTURE.
3. He accepted both POSITIVE and NEGATIVE responses to his message.
In a response to this chapter in the book Reggie Joiner states that:
“Eight out of ten students participate in church during their teenage years, but most of them will take a permanent detour from active faith at some point soon after they get their driver’s licenses. That’s right: only two out of ten of those celebrated teenage converts maintain Christian belief and practice between their teens and the end of their twenties. The vast majority will cross over to the other side: pronouncing Christianity boring, irrelevant, and out of touch.” (p. 142)
In his concluding remark he says that “We all know that our faith grows when our faith is challenged to DO something.” (p. 143)
What about your faith? Are you living out a safe, sheltered, boring faith that is lifeless? Or are you willing to step out and engage the culture, use the brain God gave you, and reach out to those how so desperately are searching for something to give them meaning in life?
The NEW PERCEPTION: Christians are engaged, informed, and offer sophisticated responses to the issues people face.
unChristian: Get Saved!
The Issue: Get Saved!
The Perception: Christians are insincere and concerned only with converting others.
Questions and Quotes for Discussion:
Have you ever been “targeted” by someone who made you feel like they were pressuring you into something whether a belief or a sale of some sort? My experience with Mormons, living in Grand Rapids with Amway kooks, telemarketers, political ads, and Brother Jed, etc.
Listen to Fermi Project Podcast: Episode 10 of unChristian featuring Rick McKinley
Read Matthew 28:18-20
1. What does Jesus tell us to do?
2. Is making disciples seen as just connecting them to God then we are done?
3. Is a relationship necessary to be able to accomplish all that is in Jesus’ command?
4. Will the relationship assumed to be short-term or long-term?
5. How have we messed this command up so bad?
Rick stated that while some Christians go overboard to the point of being arrogant in sharing their faith, most Christians really do NOT share their faith. Why is that? Don’t know how, guilt about their own lives.
In what ways does our own culture try to “convert” us? Every commercial, advertisement, show, etc. portrays a worldview such as materialism, hedonism, consumerism, narcissism, etc. With enough exposure and ignorance we can be “converted” to these philosophies.
On pg. 87-88 Chuck Colson states in response to this chapter: “When the local church is doing what the church is called to do – preaching the gospel, administering the sacraments, and exercising discipline – inevitably the surrounding culture will be affected. In other words, if we are really living as Christians, the church expands exponentially. Consider the rise of the Christians during the Roman era. People were drawn to Christians, not because of evangelistic outreaches or crusades, or through mass media – those didn’t exist. The church grew because Christians were doing the gospel and had community – a local church – where people really loved each other. . . . Christianity is a way of seeing all of life and reality through God’s eyes. That is what Christianity is: a worldview, a system, and a way of life. I believe that when you truly see the gospel in its fullness . . . it is the most exciting, radical, revolutionary story ever told.”
What do you think about this quote? Consider what he said about the Christians during the Roman era.
Read: Acts 2:42-47 How could those outside of the faith NOT be attracted to this? How have we gotten away from this way of living out our faith?
On pages 74-75, David Kinnaman states that in his research “We consistently find that the cast majority of teenagers nationwide will spend a significant amount of their teen years participating in a Christian congregation. Most teenagers in America enter adulthood considering themselves to be Christians and saying they have made a personal commitment to Christ. But within a decade, most of these young people will have left the church and will have placed emotional connection to Christianity on the shelf. For most of them, their faith was merely skin deep. This leads to the sobering finding that the vast majority of outsiders in this country, particularly among young generations, are actually de-churched individuals. . . this raises the question of the depth of their faith. If that many Americans have made decisions to follow Jesus, our culture and our world would be revolutionized if they simply lived that faith. It is easy to embrace a costless form of Christianity in America today, and we have probably contributed to that by giving people a superficial understanding of the gospel and focusing only on their decision to convert.”
What is the main issue here? Is it that we need to change others? Or is David telling us that maybe the focus needs to be that we take a good hard look at ourselves?
CONCLUSION
What does true spiritual depth look like? Last week we talked about how Christians should be different in that we should have “spiritual fruit” such as love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. But growing real fruit (and vegetables) takes a long time and hard work. You need good soil and lots of sun and rain! What are some of the ways we can take advantage of to nurture and grow spiritual fruit in our lives so that we move beyond superficial faith and we see deep transformation happen in our lives?
Defining Transformation (List from page 80).
1. Worshiping God intimately and passionately
2. Engaging in spiritual friendships with other believers
3. Pursuing faith in the context of family
4. Embracing intentional forms of spiritual growth
5. Serving others
6. Investing time and resources in spiritual pursuits
7. Having faith-based conversations with outsiders
Are you pursuing ways to deepen your faith or are you complacent with a superficial faith? CHOOSE WISELY!
The NEW PERSEPTION: Christians cultivate relationships and environments where others can be deeply transformed by God.
unChristian: Hypocrisy
The Issue: HYPOCRISY
The Perception: Christians say one thing but live something entirely different.
The Fact: 85% of those who were 16 to 29 years of age surveyed said that Christians are HYPOCRITICAL.
Listen to Fermi Project Podcast: Episode 9 of unChristian
Questions and Quotes for Discussion:
Define what you think someone means when they use the word hypocrite.
What would be your response to someone if they said to you, “The problem with all of you Christians is that you’re all a bunch of hypocrites.”?
“So how did Christians acquire a hypocritical image in America today? Let’s start with the most obvious reason: our lives don’t match our beliefs. In many ways, our lifestyles and perspectives are no different from those of anyone around us. . . . In virtually every study we conduct, 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 30 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 type of sexually inappropriate behavior, including looking at online pornography, viewing sexually explicit magazines or movies, or having an intimate sexual encounter outside of marriage. . . . In statistical and practical terms, the two groups are essentially no different from each other.” p. 46-47
Is this good or bad? Why?
If a person claims to be a follower of Christ how should that make an impact on their day-to-day life?
Read Matthew 23 together. It appears that the present-day church would get the same smack-down from Jesus if he were to come down today. What does Jesus have to say about hypocrisy? What are the mistakes of the Pharisees? How do we not become like them?
“ . . . spiritual maturity is demonstrated in a life as an OUTCOME of the condition of a person’s heart and soul, . . . behavior follows belief. . . Embracing personal integrity and rejecting compromises to personal purity are crucial goals for young believers. We cannot hope to shed our hypocritical label if our lifestyles offer no proof of the “fruit” of Christlikeness. These are tough realities to think about, but we must do so if we hope to shift our reputation from unChristian to Christian.” p. 54
What is the “fruit” of Christlikeness? Describe it. Look up Galatians 5:22-23 if you need help.
“Living with integrity starts with being transparent. . . Transparency simply means admitting what the Bible says about us: we are fallen people who desperately need God in our lives – every day. . . Transparency means not merely trying to act right, but being honest about our own lives – even being open about the problems our lifestyles have created.” p. 55
Do you feel like you have people in your life that you can be transparent with? Do you have a Christian friend or adult that you can be transparent with? Do you wish you had one?
CONCLUSION
UnChristian: Hypocrisy
- Acting morally superior to others
- Living a lifestyle of compromise
- Pretending to be something you are not
Authentic Christianity:
- Being transparent about the areas you struggle with
- Allow God into all areas of your life to be the source of transformation
- Humbly recognizing that we are sinners that are saved by God’s grace alone and not from our “good deeds”. Any good that comes out of us is a sign of the Holy Spirit transforming us to be more like Christ.
The NEW PERSEPTION: Christians are transparent about their flaws and act first, talk second.
This is a series of lessons based on the book called "Unchristian" by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons. This is an excellent book that is a MUST READ for all Christians. But more importantly I believe that it is imperative for us to prepare our students to engage in these conversations in order to help break some of these negative stereotypes. Here are the outlines to my class discussions.UNchristian: Introduction
Introduction Questions on Chapter 1
The Backstory Understanding Outsiders
A. What are the words that come to your mind when I say words like: mother, father,
pastor, teacher, politician, president, Christian?
B. Using the Bible as a reference, how would you define how a Christian ought
to be perceived by others? Take a look at Gal. 5:19-26; 1 Timothy 4:12; Col.
4:5-6; 1 Pet. 3:13-16.
C. Do you know any “outsiders”? Would you consider them to be friends? What
do you think their perceptions are of Christianity?
D. Make a list of ways in which these perceptions might have been developed.
E. How does the Bible teach Christians to behave toward outsiders? If the Bible
describes your life as an “open letter” (2 Cor. 3:2-3), what does it say about
the God you serve?
Agree or Disagree
“Our research shows that many of those outside of Christianity, especially younger adults, have little trust in the Christian faith, and esteem for the lifestyle of Christ followers is quickly fading among outsiders. They admit their emotional and intellectual barriers go up when they are around Christians, and they reject Jesus because they feel rejected by Christians.”
“The Title of this book, Unchristian, reflects outsiders’ most common reaction to the faith: they think Christians mo longer represent what Jesus had in mind, that Christianity in our society is not what it was meant to be. . . They admit they have a hard time actually seeing Jesus because of all the negative baggage that now surrounds him. . . . Christianity has become marketed and streamlined into a juggernaut of fear mongering that has lost its own heart.”
“One quarter of outsiders say that their foremost perception of Christianity is that the faith has changed for the worse. It has gotten off track and is not what Christ intended. Modern-day Christianity no longer seems Christian.”
“We heard many young believers say that in some circumstances they are reluctant to admit they are Christians. They don’t fear being unpopular, but they feel that raising the Christian flag would actually undermine their ability to connect with people and to maintain credibility with them. This is a major indictment of unchristian faith, that to bring those around them to Christ, they must distance themselves from the current “branding” of Christianity.”
So do perceptions matter? YES!
1. People respond on the basis of perceptions
2. These perceptions might make us more objective about ourselves.
3. Perceptions can change
4. Perceptions are framed most often through personal stories and experiences.
Some of the first century Christians were thought of as polygamist cannibals! It took some explaining to shift that perception.
Slide show: Preview where we are going for the next several weeks
Do any of these topics jump out at you? Which one are you looking forward to?
A Lesson for youth groups based off of the book entitled "Unchristian" by David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons
