At Captain Cassidy’s excellent blog “Roll To Disbelieve” there is an interesting blog post about a list created by Lee Strobel to explain the “unchurched” to Strobel’s tribe, so that they can evangelize more effectively to the unwashed masses. Lee Strobel is a US Evangelical Christian, so “unchurched” in this case means people who attend church seldom or not at all, or people who attend churches of more liberal denominations.
According to Lee Strobel someone who is unchurched:
- Has rejected church but not necessarily God;
- Is morally adrift but secretly wants an anchor;
- Resists rules but responds to reason;
- Doesn’t understand Christianity but is also ignorant about own professed beliefs;
- Has legitimate questions about spiritual matters but doesn’t expect answers from Christians;
- Doesn’t just ask, “Is Christianity true?”, but often also “Does Christianity work?”;
- Doesn’t just want to know something; wants to experience it;
- Doesn’t want to be someone’s project, but would like to be someone’s friend;
- Distrusts authority but receptive to authentic biblical leadership;
- Is no longer loyal to denominations but attracted to places where needs are met;
- Is not much of a joiner but hungry for a cause to connect with;
- Even if not spiritually sensitive, is hungry for children to get quality moral training;
- Is confused about sex roles but don’t know the Bible can clarify for them what it means to be a man and woman;
- Is proud to be tolerant of various faiths but thinks Christians are narrow-minded;
- May try church if invited, but that may do more harm than good.
Much hilarity ensued in the comment section of Roll To Disbelieve regarding this description of the “unchurched”. However, the commenters over there are almost exclusively ex-Christians, whereas the commentariat here is much more diverse, which leads us to the questions:
- Which items in Strobel’s list ring true to you, and why?
- Which items in Strobel’s list are more like a straw man representation of the “unchurched” according to you, and why?