In class, we talked about how the media views modern Christians. We are seen as radical, hateful, irrelevant, anti-women, closed-minded, and hypocritical. That reputation is far from the standard that Jesus set for us, to be known by our love. This reputation has become a stumbling block in our mission to reach people when presenting the gospel, we are often met with defensiveness and questioning our beliefs on topics. This culture is one that associates Christianity with acts of violence and hatred, so how do we change that narrative?

These two new generations have perceived Christians from the media as living in a place of stated perfectionism and yet they see them living out very different lives. Therefore, they have started to reject evangelism, thinking it’s a type of condescension, that Christians have achieved a state of perfection and are saying they haven’t and are trying to offer that to them. The best way to combat this incorrect perception is by living the life God has us to live and to live out of a state of genuineness. The call to do this and the good results of it are shown both in the Bible and in modern companies.

We see this being called for in the gospels when Jesus curses the fig tree. In Matthew 21:18-19, it says “Early in the morning, as Jesus was on his way back to the city, he was hungry. Seeing a fig tree by the road, he went up to it but found nothing on it except leaves. Then he said to it, ‘May you never bear fruit again!’ Immediately the tree withered”. This passage isn’t about Jesus performing a miracle out of hanger but is a call to live a genuine life. Every tree goes through different seasons of life, and so do we as Christians. The issue with this fig tree wasn’t that the tree was bearing no fruit, but that it had made itself look like it was in season for fruit. Similarly, it’s not wrong for a Christian to go through a bad season of life, but it is wrong to try and appear as if they were fine during that struggle.

In 2009, Dominos tried to revamp their pizza, and show their customers that they were changing. They had gotten many complaints online about the poor quality of their food and decided to fix it. The way they marketed this change, was being genuine about recognizing their failures in the past, and open about the changes they were trying to make. This got a wonderful reception, and their sales went up 10%. Through being genuine, they succeeded in their goal of reaching the public and changing the public’s opinion of them.

In Christian living, it is very important to live life genuinely. Not only did Jesus curse a fig tree for not being genuine, but it helps immensely to change people’s opinion of a group. This could help to change the public’s opinion away from Christians being hypocritical, and if we’re living life as God intended, that will also majorly help in improving modern cultures perception of Christians, which will help their reception of the gospel.

links:

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=matthew+21:18-22

www.youtube.com/watch?v=AH5R56jILag