A recent Outreach Magazine article authored by George Barna offers some key takeaways from a recent study on how Americans view Jesus. In the report, Barna categorizes two extreme groups: the Committed Core and the Jesus Skeptics. The following two quotes from the article explains how he defines these.

Thirty-five percent of adults [are the Committed Core because they] affirm all four of the following statements:

• Completely certain that Jesus lived on Earth
• Believe Jesus was entirely human and fully God
• Have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ
• Believe Jesus will return to Earth one day

26% are categorized as Jesus Skeptics because they agree with at least one of these statements:

• I am uncertain if Jesus lived on Earth
• Jesus is a myth or just a man
• Jesus was not God
• There is no way to know if God exists or not

Barna also mentions a middle group, though he does not explain exactly what this middle group believes. Do they only affirm some of the beliefs the Committed Core has or do they hold to both some of the Core beliefs while also agreeing with some of the points held by the Skeptics? All he writes is, “A plurality of adults (39%) reside somewhere between the Committed Core and the Skeptics…[with] broad-but-not-deep beliefs.” He goes on to suggest that the existence of this group “should compel us to rigorously and creatively evaluate our discipleship outcomes.”

Given the large number of people in this last category, and the fact that Barna seems to think their existence tracks to how the church in America is forming people in the faith today, it would make sense to spend substantially more time understanding who these people are and what difference the church makes in their lives. For example, is this group made up largely of churchgoers who are still unconvinced about their faith? Or, is it made up of former churchgoers who have been hurt by the church and so have questions about Jesus because of how they experienced his followers? Or, is it made up of people who are “spiritual but not religious,” trying to piece together a spiritual faith without a community to help guide, instruct, and support them?

We do not have the answers to these questions. However, one observation I would make is this: The issue is not a lack of knowledge. In fact, my contention is that Americans today are more aware of who Jesus is and the traditional Christian teachings about him than they have been for years.

My proof for this is in popular culture:

• The Simpsons have a Christmas episode where they re-enact substantial portions of the biblical account of the Nativity and even make a reference to the eventual crucifixion of Christ.
• South Park, The Simpsons, and Family Guy have Jesus as a recurring character. While the jokes are often sacrilegious, they often are riffs on the biblical stories of Jesus, including his teachings and miracles, the Last Supper, the Passion, and the Crucifixion. They also consistently portray Jesus as the Son of God.
• Rick Sanchez, an avowed atheist character on Rick & Morty, leads his grandson Morty in the sinner’s prayer to accept Jesus Christ. While it turns out to be an insincere trick, the content of the actual prayer could have come out of the most conservative Christian gospel tract.

I could go on, but the recurring presence of Jesus and the traditional teachings about Jesus in these satirical cartoons is enough to make the point. People in the United States today know who Jesus is and they know what Christians believe about him. Years of evangelistic preaching has successfully ensconced the basic biblical story of Jesus into the cultural consciousness. The problem is not a knowledge gap.

In this sense, I suspect that most of the middle group would agree with three of the four “Core” statements: that they are completely certain that Jesus lived on Earth, believe Jesus was entirely human and fully God, and believe Jesus will return to Earth one day (on this last item, Barna states that 52% of all American adults believe that Jesus will return).

The problem is agreeing with the fourth statement, that they “have made a personal commitment to Jesus Christ.” It is one thing to accept Jesus as a character who healed the sick, taught with wisdom, who forgave sins, who judges evil, and who even had a unique relationship to God. It is something entirely different to believe that this Jesus has an impact on who we are and how we live today.

In this sense, Barna’s admonition that churches look at their discipleship outcomes should be less about trying to teach more about Jesus and more about forming the “Committed Core” to reflect the character of Jesus in how they lead their daily lives. As Christian philosophers have observed, the issue is not so much that people are skeptical about the message of Christ, but that they are suspicious of the character of the Christians that proclaim that message. Casting Crowns put it in a song many of us sang years ago: “If we are the body, why aren’t his arms reaching? Why aren’t his hands healing? Why aren’t his words teaching? … Why aren’t his feet going? Why is his love not showing them there is a way?”

The challenge presented to those of us in the church today is not one of making Jesus known. The challenge is demonstrating that Jesus is more than a caricature. The way to do this is to trust him enough to order our lives around his teachings and power. Only when we do this will we have the credibility to invite others to do the same. This will also answer the question used as the title of this blog posed by a demon-possessed man in Acts 19:15.