Stop Making Christianity Easy

Christianity and Culture, Part 2

Last week I wrote about whether we should try and make Christianity accessible for those on the outside of the Church. That post (along with this one and next week’s) were inspired by a online discussion/argument/free-for-all about whether non-Christians should be able to understand the lyrics to worship songs when they happen to attend church. I had said last week that I would write about worship songs and “Christianese” this week, but I’m pushing that to next week.

Instead, I want to spend time talking about something I briefly alluded to in a footnote in my last post: Making Christianity accessible does not mean trying to make its unattractive parts attractive. As my brother texted me in response to my post, there is a “difference between the Christian message and Christian faith.” He’s right.

Last week I wrote that the seeker-sensitive movement had insights into why people didn’t attend church, and their effort to address those things was worthwhile. Naturally, the seeker-sensitive approach has limitations. A common complaint is that such churches are “a mile wide and an inch deep.” In other words, that they are full of Christians who never grow up in their faith. Like parents who never encourage their children to move out, seeker-sensitive churches make sure everyone feels loved and accepted, but don’t push them to grow in ways that might be uncomfortable or difficult. That’s the charge, anyway.

There is definitely truth to that, I think. But critics who stop there, saying those churches simply need to “go deeper,” don’t realize they are criticizing a symptom and not the underlying cause. The cause is tied to what seeker-sensitive churches get right: People will attend church if it is “easier” to do so. While this insight is helpful at getting people in the door, it can also make churches afraid of anything that might make them leave.

This sometimes leads pastors to simply steer clear of anything in the Bible that’s difficult or weird. Worse, though, is when pastors decide to make the hard parts of Christianity easy. Seeker-sensitive churches are at their best when they articulate the Gospel in a way that anyone can understand. But when they veer into explaining away the hard parts of the faith, they end up articulating a sort of Christianity-lite. It’s good to make the message of Christianity accessible, but you cannot do that to the faith itself without twisting it.

For example, I’ve heard messages about Jesus’s teaching about divorce in Matthew 19 (no exceptions except for adultery) and Mark 10 (no exceptions whatsoever) where the pastor goes out of their way to explain what Jesus “actually” meant. I understand why they do this, because every church in America is full of people who are divorced, often more than once. Teaching what seems to be the plain meaning of Jesus’s words is incredibly hard and uncomfortable. But it would be better to acknowledge the difficulty in what he says than pretend it isn’t there.

What sort of Christianity are we articulating when we sing songs with lines like, “I sought the Lord and he heard and he answered, that’s why I trust him”? That’s why we trust God? Because he answers our prayers? That might be a good reason to praise God, but it is completely foreign to the kind of trust Abraham had:

He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah's womb. No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. Romans 4:19-21 (ESV)

In other words, Abraham’s faith was remarkable because he believed in God despite God seeming not to fulfill his promise. Yes, Abraham spoke with God, but he did not receive his “answer” for decades and trusted anyway.¹ A faith where we trust God because he answers us is easy and will falter the second we don’t seem to get an answer. I suppose “I sought the Lord and he heard and he didn’t respond in any discernible way, but I trust him anyway” isn’t as catchy a lyric, though.

Making Christianity accessible means clearly articulating the message of our faith while acknowledging that the faith itself it is a very difficult lifelong commitment.²

Photo by Ma lie on Unsplash

“But didn’t Jesus say that his burden was light?” Yes. He also called us to take up our cross and follow him; he said that others would hate us because of our faith; he warned that the cost of following him might be losing our family. That he said all of those things (and more) means that Christianity offers people freedom from what weighs them down, while also calling them to a life that is incredibly difficult.

When we minimize the hard parts of Christianity, we might get more people in the door at first, but they won’t stay. Those difficult bits will start cropping up sooner or later, and people will feel duped. Besides, people need a difficult faith because life itself is difficult. I am also a firm believer that what many people crave in our culture is not an easier faith, but a faith that demands something of them.

Here’s an example of what I mean. When the marines put out a recruitment ad, what does it convey? “You may have heard becoming a marine is tough, but actually anyone can do it.” Of course not. This would be the worst possible recruitment ad. It would probably discourage recruitment. Why? Because it’s a lie and everyone knows it. Because what potential recruits need to hear is, “This is incredibly hard. Only the best can do it. But those who can earn honor. Do you have what it takes?”

Too many churches are worried that people might think Christianity is hard. It is hard and we should be thankful that it is, because a difficult faith is a faith that has something to say to and about a difficult world. That is certainly the world we live in, and making Christianity truly accessible means showing people why it is the difficult faith they’ve been looking for.

Ok, next week for real, let’s talk more about worship songs, sermons, and what Christianese is and is not.

1. Also, I think Abraham in particular might have issues with this song since, on one occasion, seeking the Lord and hearing his answer meant having to go and presumably sacrifice his son.

2. This is actually the same sort of reason so many people have a completely warped view of marriage. Our culture likes to believe that marriage means finding a perfect person who will complete you and make your life better. The idea that marriage is something difficult that requires work seems decidedly unromantic.