A survey of thousands of individuals by The Barna Group found that the three most common perceptions of present-day Christianity include:

• that we are anti-homosexual,
• that we are judgmental, and
• that we are hypocritical.

Among young people (ages 16-29), these numbers were found to be particularly high: 91% said we are against homosexuals, 87% saw us as judgmental, and 85% felt we are hypocritical.  We have become known for what we oppose, rather than what we are for.

If these statistics hold for our area, where literally 100,000 young people are attending colleges within driving distance of PAC, then we can assume that 80,000 - 90,000 of them will never be interested in attending our church.  And that doesn’t include the young professionals in our area.

So, how do we address this?  The answer is not as complex as we may think.

First, we have to leave our facility to reach our community.  If their perception of us deters them from approaching us, then we need to find them where they are.

Once outside our walls, we need to live and speak in such a way that people can experience the true nature of Jesus.  We will never change someone’s mind with a sermon — they have to see us in authentic action. They need to see that our love and concern for other people is real.  They need to see that we are open to talk about and struggle with difficult issues. They need to see that we do not consider them as objects to win to Christ but that we are interested in them as people.

They need to know us by our love.