Leave Religion, Embrace Faith

As I wrote the first part of ‘A More Authentic Faith‘, it occurred to me that a lot of what I wrote was very critical. Which was intentional, but that isn’t all that I wanted to accomplish. It does very little good to criticize without also pointing in the right direction.

Being more authentic in our faith means returning to everything that is real about our faith. Over the centuries, Christianity has picked up a lot of baggage. Some bad theology and unnecessary traditions. This is a tactic of the devil. If one can’t utterly stamp something out, then the backup plan is reverting to confusion. Muddy the waters so to speak. Flood the minds of people so they’ll never be able to see the real truth. It’s not just in religion, it’s everywhere else.

Why So Many Abandon Faith

I’ve been reading over the book of Acts, really questioning how much our lives resemble that of the Apostles. Asking how much our churches resemble the first century.

I drew a blank.

To me that’s a rebuke. It really is. We’ve strayed so far beyond our models for faith, it’s terrible.

We’ve lost so much of our power, so much of our passion. We’ve lost the good part of the Good News.

And we wonder why so many people are leaving the Church. We wonder why Christian youth grow up to be disillusioned. It’s why middle aged people go through a crisis of faith.

A Revival On The Horizon?

That being said, what should we be doing? Because I truly believe we cannot continue in this way. Something has to give, and the best thing we could do is to turn back to the Creator. What is shaping up to be a massive spiritual disaster could actually become a world shaking revival.

Personally, I believe there are many who feel the same way. I see it in the rising rates of depression and anxiety.

I see it in the dozens of books with titles about getting our ‘passion back’ How to ‘fall back in love with God again’. If these are bestselling titles, then that is indicative that something is seriously off.

It means we’ve lost something important. We’ve lost our why.

Stop Selling Jesus

We’re pretending to be more perfect than we really are. We’re trying to ‘sell Jesus, ‘sell the gospel’ as if it were some sort of product. We have this idea that we are salesman. Right down to the tacky three piece suits. This was not the way the Apostles preached, or the way Jesus Himself lived or taught. It seems that we think we’re better or something.

What I’m getting at is that we have got to get back to the origins of our faith. We need to go back to the way the New Testament Church did things. The strange thing is, I can’t remember the last time there was a book written on the book of Acts. Every couple of years someone makes a movie about Jesus (right now ‘The Chosen’ is doing an incredible job), but who ever makes a movie about Acts? What I’m getting at is why such a low interest in Acts? As incredible as the life and ministry of Jesus truly is, it’s almost as if we have forgotten that Jesus gave a mission to the disciples. The point wasn’t merely to preserve the message, the message was meant to be lived as well.

I’m not condemning anyone. I actually recognized this problem within myself a couple of weeks ago. I sat down and read the book of Acts, straight through, no breaks. I was enthralled and humbled. I read it again. And once more just for good measure. That’s why I am convinced we don’t place enough emphasis on Acts. I am now convinced that here in the West, we need a major spiritual revival. I’m not talking about the unsaved/unreached, whatever you want to call them. I am talking about the ‘church people’. The people who have grown up with Christian beliefs and still consider themselves Christians. We need a revival more than anyone else. We need to be awakened far more than the secular culture around us.

We Have Lost Our Community

I read about how the early church prayed together, they studied together, ate together, and ‘held all things in common’. Tell me, how close does our churches today imitate this example? Hold all things in common? If we are united in anything, we are united in our divisions. We are all divided equally.

As for spiritual community, well, let’s just say that we aren’t exactly ‘close knit’. Going to church for an hour or two every Sunday is great and all, but what about the other six days? How close are we during the weekdays? If you received a call from a fellow churchgoer going through a tough time, how many of us would really try to help? Would we put our day on hold to support our brother or sister? Would we even pick up the phone?

Free From Religion, Free To Follow Jesus

These are all things I’ve been working through in my own life. I have come to realize that following Jesus means abandoning the world, the opinions of others, and leaving behind the ‘religiosity’ of Christianity. It means stripping away all of the unnecessary fluff and toxic elements I have soaked up over the years. It is work let me tell you. I’m still untangling all of the junk from my mind. At the same time, it has been a freeing experience. When we follow the message of Christ, leaving behind the trappings of religion, we are finally free.

Free from gospel salesmanship.

Free from religion.

Free from sin, from guilt and shame

Free to live out an authentic faith.