In 1975, Americans’ trust in “the church or organized religion” as at 68%. In 2019, that number was 36%. The study’s authors speculate that a variety of scandals involving everything from televangelists to Catholic priests is to blame.

Of course, we must remember that The Enemy has a rather brilliant PR department. He must, given that Jesus is the only perfectly trustworthy person that ever graced the planet.

Most of us work side by side with colleagues in secular workplaces. Put another way, most of us aren’t in places where we influence mass media or wield big platforms wherefrom to proclaim the truth.

And I’d argue most of us shouldn’t try.

Rather, even as messages of truth are dismissed, lifestyles of trustworthiness are hard to argue against. As Paul puts it,

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. The law is not against such things. (Ga 5:22–23, CSB)

What will happen is that people will wonder why you’re different, why you don’t spend time complaining the way others in their lives do, why you have joy despite the world being a mess. And that will create cognitive dissonance for them as they experience the reality of Jesus in and through you.

None of this is new. Remember Nero (falsely) blaming Christians for Rome burning?

Let them say what they want. Just make sure the people you know experience something different.

♱♱♱

ForTheHope’s Daily Audio Bible is, well, a daily audio Bible reading.. We read through the New Testament in about 10 months and the Old Testament in about 14 months with a passion for just keepin’ it real, having conversations like normal people, and living out the love of Jesus better every single day.

Roger Courville, CSP is a globally-recognized expert in digitally-extended communication and connection, an award-winning speaker, award-winning author, and a passionately bad guitarist. And all that blah blah blah means nothing if he doesn’t help you fall more in love with Jesus and the people in Jesus’ world.