I read a news story today about the top ten christian news stories of 2010.  I was shocked to see that at least 7 of the 10 were negative stories. A storng case could be made that 8 of the ten are negative.  Everything from Episcopal Church ordains first lesbian bishop, Pastor Terry Jones threatens to burn Quran, and Crystal Cathedral files Chapter 11 were in this top ten list. This made me ask 2 questions, what does this say about our world, and what does it say about us?
First what does it say about our world?  I believe Christians live in an ever increasing hostile world.  The news media craves all kinds of negative news, but negative news about Christians or the church seem to be the crown jewel for many these days. The world at large is not rooting for us but rather against us.  for most of history this has been the case, however in the past 200 years Americans in particular have not faced this kind of religious opposition.  However with church attendance falling across the board in America and with the rise of post-modern thought, and an ever increasing focus on materialism and ourselves, I expect that this problem will only continue to get worse.  The end game for our enemy is to strip God out of all meaningful areas of our lives.  This maybe prayer in school, in God we trust in our court rooms and on our money, or your front yard Christmas nativity scene, they want it gone.  The world at large is becoming increasingly negative about all things spiritual, in part due to the obsession with negative Christian news.  
But the larger question for me is what does this say about us? First is says that we are horrible marketers. We are allowing the world to define who we are as Christians.  We must become more proactive in stating our case, and marketing the great things that the church does, and stands for, so that the world at large might better understand us.  This also shows that individual believers and churches both need to really step it up when it comes to telling the world about Christ.  Christ is preached from hundreds of thousands of pulpits each weekend, however the gospel is rarely mentioned throughout the week by individual believers.  We need a revival of individual evangelism in America today.  This will no doubt lead to many coming to know Christ, but it will also lead to a more positive view of the Christian faith.  Churches need to become more proactive in their local media markets, to promote the positive things they do.  Many newspapers will run small public service articles for free.  There are millions of blogs churches can post their positive stories on.  Many small towns have local radio stations that will allow Pastors and other church leaders live air-time during the morning news.  We should not only advertise "come and see us this Sunday", but also "see what we did for you last week." Churches should put forth extra effort to promote the positive things Christ does through them. 
I hope that by the end of 2011 we will find that the top 10 Christian news stories include more positive things and fewer negative.