Heartbreaking Truth from an Unbeliever

“If Christianity is such an inessential add-on, why become a Christian?”

Ben Sixsmith, The Sad Irony of Celebrity Pastors

I found an article yesterday that made me weep. As I processed it, I literally had to stop my Christmas baking to have a good cry with Jesus. The author identified as “non-religious” and yet from his outside perspective he managed to nail the major issue across every brand of modern Christianity.

Originally written as a response to yet another celebrity pastor stepping down because of sexual misconduct, the article ended as a critique of Christianity as a whole. I think the part that hit me the hardest was the fact that this young man, as an unbeliever, saw the whole situation with such clarity.

The author talked about how so many celebrity pastors want everything our secular culture offers just with a “twist of Christianity” thrown in for good measure. Then he went here and it rocked me.

We can see the ‘…with a twist of Christianity’ trend elsewhere. (Jerry) Falwell was representative of the right-wing, business-oriented evangelicals who offer capitalist self-enrichment and hubristic jingoism (I had to look these words up and they mean prideful chauvinism or nationalism)…with a twist of Christianity. Then there are progressive Christians of whom Nadia Bolz-Weber is an extreme example, who promote the usual left-wing causes…with a twist of Christianity. While different in beliefs, such people share patterns of thought: the former believe secular individualists mysteriously share God’s wishes for what should be done with money while the latter think that secular progressives mysteriously share God’s wishes for what should be done with bodies. So, if Christianity is such an inessential add-on, why become a Christian?

Ben Sixsmith, The Sad Irony of Celebrity Pastors

With one swoop, this outsider to Christianity put two opposing sides into the exact same basket. Many Evangelicals and Progressives both want this world to work their way with some Jesus on the side. Conviction…ouch.

Let’s be brutally honest as we examine our hearts.

We are in love with this screwed-up, temporary world and we are obsessed with making it into our own version of paradise. Far more in love and far more obsessed than we are with the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.

In fact, the author wrote an entire article about Christianity, church, and pastors without once mentioning the name of Jesus. The fact that he could do that so easily should break our hearts. Then he concluded:

I am not religious, so it is not my place to dictate to Christians what they should and should not believe. Still, if someone has a faith worth following, I feel that their beliefs should make me feel uncomfortable for not doing so. If they share 90 percent of my lifestyle and values, then there is nothing especially inspiring about them. Instead of making me want to become more like them, it looks very much as if they want to become more like me.

Ben Sixsmith, The Sad Irony of Celebrity Pastors

I’ve had a flaming passion in my heart for the past week and I almost wrote this blog post from a place of righteous anger. Then I read this article and I think I’m now writing from a place of broken lament.

The corporate church is a mess, you guys. We’ve lost our way. So much of what we call Christianity has turned into a business here in America. It’s a production, a show, a literal corporation with branding, and CEO’s, and merchandise.

We call ourselves Christians, but we care more about making this broken world work for us than we do about the Kingdom of Jesus Christ. We are far more passionate about personal freedom and liberty than we are about sharing the gospel. We value how we feel about an issue more than we value what the Bible says. We love comfort, and security, and being right. We don’t love Jesus.

If we are honest, God is often a distant concept or idea, but He is not a Real and Living Being. And the god we talk about is often a god we’ve created in our own image rather than the Real God of the Universe. Oh friends, as creatures we don’t get to decide who the Creator is, we only get to discover Him. Otherwise our god isn’t really God.

I thought maybe 2020 would shake the church in a good way. But I’m finding myself disappointed. There is a pandemic of pride within Christianity on every front that breaks my heart. Rather than accepting the brokenness of this world and running to our Savior, many in the church are focused on forcing their ideals on the world and being the saviors. But we don’t need to prove that we are right and they are wrong. We need Jesus.

Do we believe that? I don’t know if we do.

There is a burden in my heart as I write this morning. I am heartbroken by the fact that the world can see the pathetic thing that Christianity has become but the church is blind. If we — the ones who are supposed to have hope — have nothing to offer, then who does?

This is not a rallying cry to do more or be more. We’ve done quite enough on our own. This is a humble reminder that Christianity is more than a religion, or a culture, or a way of doing things. It’s not just another belief system. It’s supposed to be a new reality, a mysterious Kingdom, and a miraculous restoration because of a man-who-is-God named Jesus.

I pray for revival. I beg God to awaken His church.

Revival will start with truth and conviction. It will begin to rumble as God’s people respond in brokenness, repentance, and confession of our sins. Revival will spread as we humble ourselves at the foot of the cross and declare to a Very Real God that we need Him more than anything else.

May it start with me!

“God, my heart is broken. It is so heavy. I come to You today with a bowed head and open hands. There is nothing else I can do. You are the only answer. Jesus, as we celebrate Your birth this year, revive Your church. Send brokenness, and humility, and repentance so that we can seek and find the Living God for ourselves. It’s not about changing, it’s about being changed because of Who we have met. Jesus, let us meet You. You are our only Hope.”

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