A number of you have asked me?
This new book of yours, Your Secret Name, who did you write it for?
The Answer?
A 3D audience?
What do I mean by that?
The 3D’s stand for: The Disillusioned, the Disengaged, and the Dechurched.
Here’s a short video I did and a little write up about the 3D Target Audience.
- DISILLUSIONED
DEPRESSION – According to the World Health Organization, depression is one of the leading causes of disability, with approximately 121 million people suffering with depression worldwide. The National Institute of Mental Health states that approximately 18 million people suffer from depression in America alone. Depression does not discriminate across age, race, gender, or class. Among teenagers it is estimated that 20 percent will suffer from depression at some point by the time they reach adulthood.
SELF-INJURY – Experts estimate that 4% of the population struggle with self-injury. It has the same occurrence between males and females, even though in popular culture it can appear to be more prevalent among girls.
ADDICTION – The stigma associated with addiction is one of the greatest challenges to recovery. Each year only 10 percent of Americans who need alcohol and drug treatment get the help they need. Yet with treatment and support, people with addiction can lead productive lives.
SUICIDE -- The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that each year approximately one million people die from suicide, which represents a global mortality rate of 16 people per 100,000 or one death every 40 seconds. It is predicted that by 2020 the rate of death will increase to one every 20 seconds.
- DISENGAGED
Here’s the harsh truth:
55% of the U.S. working population is not engaged in their lives.
29% of the U.S. working population is engaged in their lives.
16% of the U.S. working population is actively disengaged in their lives.
That means that only 29% of us wake-up excited for life.
Pretty sad, hey?
Over half of us (55%) have these types of attitude:
“Take it or leave it”
”I could care less”
“Just punching the clock”
And unbelievably, a number of us (16%) are actively trying to sabotage our jobs, lives, and churches.
- DECHURCHED
Those without a past relationship to the church are called unchurched, but there are many with significant past church involvement who are exiting. They are the de-churched.
Matt Chandler, pastor of The Village Church near Dallas, explains the de-churched phenomenon in this video
Essentially, Chandler attributes the exodus of young people to the proclamation (explicitly or implicitly) of a false gospel of “moralistic deism.” This understanding of the Christian life says that if you obey God’s rules he will bless you with what you desire. This represents a form of the prosperity gospel which saturates the Texas soil where Chandler pastors, but it’s also popular beyond the Deep South. (How many teens have been told that abstinence will be rewarded by God with great sex within marriage?)
The problem arises when God’s blessing doesn’t come—or doesn’t come in the form we want. Divorce, illness, poor grades, failed relationship—virtually any hardship has the potential to destroy one’s faith in Christ and the church that represents him. So, according to Chandler, people walk away. They enter the ranks of the de-churched.
There is another group within the de-churched population that has not held to a false gospel of morality, and they haven’t walked away from faith in Christ. These Christians have simply lost confidence in the institutional structures and programmatic trappings of the church. For them the institutional church is not an aid in their faith and mission. Rather it’s become a drain on time, resources, and energy. It feels like a black hole with a gravitation pull so strong that not even the light of the gospel can escape its organizational appetite. (Excerpt from Skye Jethani).
Odds are you know someone in this 3D Target Audience. Maybe you yourself consider yourself to be part of this audience. My question is, What are you going to do about it? Are you going to stay there or are you going to take a step to get healthy, to discover who God created you to be, to discover Your Secret Name?
Here’s a few tools to help you on your journey.
If you are in the 3D Target Audience (or know someone who is) I’d like to know how I can pray…post a comment and let me know how.
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