UnChristian

i loved this book! for me it was such a relief to finally read a book that describes the world as it actually is and people as they actually think. having been on both sides of the fence, i understand both sides of the issue. it was so hard for me personally to understand Jesus as he actually is because of all the stereotypes i held about His followers. my main frustration with the way that churches are still doing church is that they still have to make and effort to really outreach of meet seekers needs. my personal opinion is that if we are really doing church the way Jesus intended, meeting seekers and outreaching would be natural, the way we did things. i think a lot of the problem is that we plan for those sorts of services and so the youth we bring up in that also then has to plan to talk with and interact with seekers and nonbelievers. it is important for us to be teaching our children and each other how to just live in the world and love everyone unconditionally without judgement or labels. it is not our job to change someone's heart. that is God's job and He wants to do it! it is our job to just love people the best we can and LIVE (not always tell) the gospel so that people will ask us why we have the hope and joy we do. i think the moments where we are the weakest and most broken are the moments that nonbelievers are able to see our faith most clearly, and i think we often avoid nonbelievers in those moments. those broken moments are exactly what nonbelievers are looking for....they are looking for how to come to moments of intimacy with God. i think we as Christians need to check ourselves and make sure that we are not loving unbelievers because we hope they accept Christ, but we are loving them because they too are God's children and that is enough. if we teach our kids that, if we teach them to just love God and love people period....everything else will fall into place.

I am in the middle of this right now. I picked it up because of a 5 min interview on GMA & I thought, I have a 16 yr old I should know what my kind of enviroment my daughter will be going into. Imagine my surprise when after reading the first chapter that this isn't the world she's going into this is the world she is a part of! I am not done with it yet, have been real busy working extra hours and getting stuff ready for Mexico, but I hope to get back into on the plane. As the age group this book is talking about what where your thoughts? Especially as a believer. I worry that once Allison is away from the enviroment that she is in her faith will be challenged in a way she has never experienced. Anyway.....I am intrigued by the book because it isn't the authors view point on the matter but the actual view points of young Christians and young non Christians. Love ya and miss ya!!! hope to see you soon!