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HURT HEALER
reaching out to a broken world
By TONY NOLAN
Baker Books
Copyright © 2010 Tony Nolan
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8010-1352-2
Chapter One
Know show
For we are to God the fragrance of Christ among those who are being saved and among those who are perishing. 2 Corinthians 2:15
Christianity sucks!
How could I say such a thing? Well, I didn't. They did.
Who are they?
They are not believers in Jesus. They are obviously put out with the church. They are young, middle-aged, and senior citizens. They have toddlers, toupees, and tattoos. They dance when no one is looking. They drool at the sight and smell of dessert. They nervously chew their fingernails as Ryan Seacrest pauses to reveal the next American Idol. They shed tears at funerals, weddings, and graduations. They feel strongly about issues like abortion, homosexuality, and injustice. They are very human. And what I know about them compels me to make sure we never forget that they exist. They are the reason I am writing this book, and according to God, they matter ... a lot!
And because they matter, we must reach out to them.
I want you to know that I was and in a lot of ways still am one of them. I am an unapologetic believer and follower of Jesus Christ. But I haven't always been a believer, nor did I grow up in church. So I get where they're coming from; I understand the negative ideas they have about Christianity. Most of these thoughts about Christians are false, and they faded from my own mind after my conversion. Other beliefs, however, have proven shamefully true.
If they had a MySpace or Facebook profile it would contain a disturbing detail: "turned off to all things Christian." It's hard to conceive people would be bent like that, but they really are. In the book unChristian, David Kinnaman and Gabe Lyons indicate that only 3 percent of young people in America have a favorable impression of Jesus as portrayed in the lives of evangelicals. You may not be surprised by this data; neither was I. But what I learned next stunned me. Get this: a high percentage of them said that they had been exposed to Christianity, meaning they had some kind of encounter with something or someone Christian. They visited a church, worked with a Christian, or sat next to a Christian in an English composition class. The point is that they heard or saw something that claimed to be Christian, and their impression about Christianity after the encounter was not very good. If you are a Christian, this data should make you concerned.
These numbers reveal that a spiritual pandemic has infected the church, resulting in a viral decline in church attendance. Consider the statistics provided by Dr. Dan Garland, director of pastoral ministry and church consulting for LifeWay Church. I recently sat in a conference with several hundred other leaders and cringed when he said, "In 1950 over 80 percent of our public school kids went to a Christian church, and now it is down to 4 percent." When I heard this, my heart sank. How can this be? When I was growing up, a few of my friends and family members and I didn't think too highly of Christianity, but I didn't realize that so many people had no interest in God. I didn't realize we are now on the cusp of having a Christless generation in America.
Well, I don't put much faith in statistics. I prefer to touch and feel the evidence of such claims. So I conducted my own little research project. In the last four years I have visited over 153 cities, speaking to well over a million people. Unfortunately, as I have traveled throughout America, I have seen that this negative mindset about Christians really does exist and goes beyond generational lines. Approximately eight out of ten nonreligious people I talked to said Christianity sucks. Some used the term sucks, others said it is dead, several claimed it is irrelevant, and many used words that would make even Bill Maher blush.
How can this be? How can so many people be turned off to this amazing, loving, gracious God that we know? The cause of this great dilemma points to a breakdown between the God that we know and the God that we show. And breakdowns can happen in the most innocent of circumstances.
I heard a story about the parents of a troubled teenager. They desperately needed to connect with their daughter, so they decided to have breakfast with her every morning. The idea was to use that time to connect with her before she connected with the harmful things of the world. Every morning they prepared a simple breakfast of eggs, juice, toast, and jelly. But the piece of toast they gave their daughter was the heel—the hard end of the loaf. This went on for a week until one morning the teenager in disgust picked up the piece of toast, slung it across the room where it stuck to a wall, and screamed, "Is this the extent of your love for me—heel toast? What have I done that makes you hate me so much?"
Dazed, the parents replied, "Honey, we're sorry. The heel of the loaf is our favorite piece."
Do you see it? What happened in that story illustrates our current dilemma in helping people understand Jesus. Innocently enough, we go to church and live our lives loving Jesus. We know how good he is, but it's not getting across to non-Christians. They have tossed back what we have been serving them through our religious lives, screaming their distaste. Will we chalk up their cries as mere outbursts of misbehavior, or will we pause a moment, take a good look at our attempts to connect with them, and make some deep life changes for the sake of reaching out to a broken world?
Remember, I was one of them. I haven't forgotten what it feels like to be broken, enslaved, and hopeless. I have done my share of toast slinging. But a group of believers heard my cry and cared enough to engage me. I am going to unwrap my story throughout this book with high hopes that you will experience a life-changing encounter with God so supernatural that after a non-Christian dines on your version of Jesus, they will be able to declare with the psalmist, "I have tasted and seen that the Lord is good, blessed are those that trust in God!" (see Ps. 34:8).
DELVE
Who are the people that you know who may have an unfavorable impression of Jesus? ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________
Briefly describe a moment when you had a conversation with someone who had a bad taste in his or her mouth about Christianity.
____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________
In this chapter the question is asked: Will we chalk up their cries as mere outbursts of misbehavior, or will we pause a moment, take a good look at our attempts to connect with them, and make some deep life changes for the sake of reaching out to a broken world? Briefly write down your response to that question.
____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________ ____________________________________________________________
Dear God, hearing that there are many people who are turned off to you, help my ears to hear your heart beat for them as I take this journey through the rest of this book. Amen.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from HURT HEALER by TONY NOLAN Copyright © 2010 by Tony Nolan. Excerpted by permission of Baker Books. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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