Editor's note: For research purposes, Dr. Thom Rainer classified unchurched people into five categories, U1 through U5. U1 is the most receptive group to the gospel and U5 is the least receptive.
One of the overall surprises of our study was that unchurched persons as a whole do not have a negative view of the church. The U5s proved to be the exception to this finding. Even the U5s were not in full agreement in their assessment of the church. We therefore said that U5s tend to have a negative view of the church.
One explanation for some of the negative views of the church can be tied to the U5s' view of the clergy. Remember, however, that most of the unchurched have a positive view of ministers. The negative views, as expected, increase with the more resistant unchurched persons.
Shauntez H. of Michigan saw little positive in the lives of clergy. Of the typical minister, he said, "Most of them are criminals. They are always recovering from something, but people let them get away with anything. These men are no better than anyone else, but they always get exalted."
Indeed, his attitude toward clergy was obvious as he responded to researcher John Tolbert, who is a seminary student. John asked Shauntez if he believed in the existence of hell, and Shauntez snapped back, "You tell me, Rev.!"
 Dr. Thom Rainer, "The Unchurched Next Door," Zondervan, 2003
