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Commentary
GEN-X RISING: Avoiding discomfort sidesteps discipleship Andrew C. Thompson, Jul 8, 2008
By Andrew C. Thompson UMR Columnist
I’ll never forget the first time I saw it. Walking into church, I picked up the bulletin for that day’s service. And there it was, on the list of announcements.
There would be a “No-Stress Sunday” the next week, when those who wanted to join the church but didn’t want to stand up in front of the congregation could just meet with the preacher afterward and get added to the rolls.
Years later, I still wonder: “Could No-Stress Sunday be the beginning of a terminal decline in what it means to be a Christian in American culture?”
For real.
With the advent of the No-Stress Sunday approach to church membership, joining a congregation has become as easy as subscribing to Newsweek. Just let the proper authority know you want to do it, and—voila!—it’s done.
There’s no element of public witness. There’s no profession of faith before the congregation. Who wants that stuff, anyway? It’s uncomfortable!
Okay, let’s do a culture check here. Avoiding discomfort is a high American value. Shoot, our whole lifestyle is devoted to getting more comfortable, from air conditioning to SUVs. Turn on the TV set and watch how many commercials are aimed at selling you stuff to make your life easier.
The Great American Dream is to get a 6,000-square-foot house on Easy Street. Comfortableness is our national obsession.
Christianity, on the other hand, doesn’t tend to work that way.
“Do not be conformed to the ways of this world,” Paul said in Romans 12:2. “You will be hated by all nations because of me,” said Jesus himself (Matthew 24:9).
So how in the world have we gotten to the point where we’re so embarrassed to profess our faith in Jesus that we have to join the church in the privacy of the pastor’s study?
No-Stress Sunday is symptomatic of a larger trend in American culture toward the privatization of religion. This trend is leading to a “me and Jesus” approach to the faith, where nothing matters beyond an individual’s personal conviction—including the gospel’s implications for wider social life.
If nothing matters but you and Jesus, then you aren’t answerable to anyone for your discipleship. And you certainly shouldn’t have to admit to faith in Jesus and commitment to the church before a whole room full of people, right?
The No-Stress Sunday approach to church commitment seems harmless, but it may be the most insidious example of individualism of all, because it allows us to be anonymous Christians. If we Christians want the church to continue to exist as a body set apart from the ways of the world, we might ask ourselves if publicly professing one’s faith should be a non-negotiable baseline for inclusion.
And we also might ask ourselves a question: What if the ancient Christians of the early church had had the option of a No-Stress Sunday? You know, those ancestors of ours who got fed to the lions, had their heads chopped off and were occasionally crucified. What if some ol’ Roman governor had just said, “Look guys, we know you don’t want to bow to the emperor or offer sacrifice or anything like that. But just come into the back office, sprinkle a little incense before a pagan idol and we’ll forget all about this Jesus stuff.”
Well, actually they did have that option. And no doubt some of them took it. But the faithful ones—the ones we look at as true saints—gave up their lives in public witness to Jesus Christ.
Kinda makes No-Stress Sunday seem puny by comparison.
And really, is it too much to ask for someone who wants to become part of the body of Christ to say so in front of his new brothers and sisters?
The Rev. Thompson maintains a blog at www.genxrising.com. e-mail: andrew@mandatum.org.
