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I was in Dallas at a conference this past week. While traveling up there and back, I passed a Baptist church right along the highway. The odd thing about this church is there was a 6 foot tall chain link fence topped with razor wire completely around the church grounds. The neighborhood around the church seemed a bit sketchy, but I don’t think I have ever seen a church fenced in like this. It got me to thinking, was the fence there to keep people out, or to keep people in?

This past week, Barna.org released a bit about a recent survey they conducted on why young adults leave the church. According to their story, these are the top six reasons:

• Reason #1 – Churches seem overprotective.
• Reason #2 – Teens’ and twentysomethings’ experience of Christianity is shallow.
• Reason #3 – Churches come across as antagonistic to science.
• Reason #4 – Young Christians’ church experiences related to sexuality are often simplistic, judgmental.
• Reason #5 – They wrestle with the exclusive nature of Christianity.
• Reason #6 – The church feels unfriendly to those who doubt.

I don’t know anything about that church that I saw other than what I saw from the outside. However, the idea of fencing off your church seems to fall right into Reason #1 which the Barna folks explain this way:

A few of the defining characteristics of today’s teens and young adults are their unprecedented access to ideas and worldviews as well as their prodigious consumption of popular culture. As Christians, they express the desire for their faith in Christ to connect to the world they live in. However, much of their experience of Christianity feels stifling, fear-based and risk-averse. One-quarter of 18- to 29-year-olds said “Christians demonize everything outside of the church” (23% indicated this “completely” or “mostly” describes their experience). Other perceptions in this category include “church ignoring the problems of the real world” (22%) and “my church is too concerned that movies, music, and video games are harmful” (18%).

In fact, the idea of keeping your church members cloistered in a building behind razor wire probably is relevant to all six of the reasons Barna noted why young people are leaving the church. It seems to me that it would be extremely difficult to fulfill the Great Commission if you’re afraid to come out into the world to tell people about Jesus or you even more afraid that “one of those people” might try to come inside the wire.

Part of the reason I noticed this church was that it’s pretty unusual to see a church building surrounded by razor wire. But there are other ways to build fences. Do you wall your kids off in a Christian ghetto by homeschooling them or sending them to Christian schools because you’re afraid they might have contact with kids or teachers who aren’t Christian? Do you only allow your kids to watch Christian movies or listen to Christian music? Do you question the faith of people who don’t vote like you do? When was the last time you spent time with someone of another faith or even another denomination?

I would probably not be considered a “young person” by the people that conducted the Barna survey. Yet, I can relate to nearly all of the six reasons that they cited. I want a Christian faith that helps me to live in the world outside the wire. I want a faith where I am not walled off in a Christian ghetto for fear that I might come into contact with others who may not believe what I believe. I want a faith that is secure enough to allow room to have conversations about the tough issues facing our world. I want a faith without fences.

Tagged: faith, Jesus