It’s so easy to get pulled into the thinking that church is there to serve us, isn’t it?
People go to churches that they like, which is not always the church that they actually need. People soften the gospel message to make it nicer to hear. People can be more concerned with entertainment rather than Biblical preaching, and the list goes on. But is that what Christians are called to?
I don’t think that we are!
People are settling into a comfortable kind of Christianity in which we consume as opposed to serve. The problem with comfortable Christianity is that it doesn’t hold up to Scripture. Comfortable Christianity does not require people to deny self, take up their cross and follow Christ. Comfortable Christianity doesn’t allow for Christian accountability in life or doctrine, because that requires having an uncomfortable conversation.
This trend in the church is dangerous because it is influencing a future generation who will take it even further than before. If children are raised with it being normal to miss Sunday’s because the football is on or the sun is shining, they won’t understand the importance of Church. Quite the opposite, they’ll see it as another of the many activities that are available for people today to choose from.
Comfortable Christianity is not right because it does not confront people’s sin. It doesn’t call people to repentance. It doesn’t call people to share the gospel. All of these things and many many more are at stake when we settle into our comfortable Christianity and coast through life.
Jesus never called Christians to coast, instead he told them to deny themselves, take up their cross and follow him. That is not comfortable, but it is rewarding and it is an honour to serve Jesus.
So what should Uncomfortable Christianity look like?
Honest discipleship, accountability (in both life and doctrine), repentance, sharing the gospel and calling people to believe in Jesus.
Uncomfortable Christianity also means that you will be sitting in church next to people that you wouldn’t meet in any other place. You’ll be rubbing shoulders with people who are very different from you, but that’s a good thing!
If we all retreated to find our own little holy huddles that are exactly the same we would never be challenged and we wouldn’t grow so much. Uncomfortable Christianity means that we might sing songs that we don’t like, we might be in denominations that we don’t 100% agree with and we’ll be doing things differently that we might want. As long as these are with secondary things, go for it and don’t run away!
We are called to this uncomfortable Christianity and we should live like this out of a love for other people. We probably wont find a group that we agree with wholeheartedly. We probably won’t find a church where we ‘click’ with everyone. But we are called to love everyone, live alongside each other and spur each other on in our good works and he gospel.
Don’t settle for comfortable Christianity, strive to conform to Christ!
Chalmers' Blog 