Tuesday Review: UnChristian – Chapter 6: Sheltered

The image of being sheltered means the Christian faith seems dull, flat, and lifeless (123).

We are closed off from the world. Even if we wanted to reach out to non Christians, we don’t have time and we don’t know how. The only way we know how to reach out is to invite people to join in our Christian social circle (130).”

Many Christians shelter themselves out of fear, trying to barricade themselves against any and every threat. But the Bible says we should not be driven by alarm, because perfect love dispels fear (1 John 4:18). We should be motivated by love and confidence (2 Tim. 1:7 KJV). Also, Scripture reminds us that nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, so whatever could cause trepidation represents no real peril to us (Rom. 8:38-39). We need to think about and disavow the fears that keep us sheltered from the world (131).



As Christians, we should pursue both goals: purity and proximity—living in a way that honors God, but doing so in a way that can influence outsiders (133).

This may not surprise you, but the perception that Christians are sheltered is most significant among the subculture of intellectuals and influentials… The sheltered perception—that Christians are ignorant and uninformed—is most common among young intellectuals. They were more likely than average to describe Christianity as judgmental, old-fashioned, out of touch with reality, and insensitive to others… In other multigenerational research our firm has conducted, we have arrived at the same conclusion: upscale outsiders, regardless of their age, maintain the most negative views of the Christian faith (135).

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.
We’ve tried too long to educate their minds instead of engaging their lives…
What if our goal should not be to get them into church? What if they same energy could be applied to mobilize them to be the church (142)?
- Reggie Joiner (founder, ReThink)