Feel Good Church

It seems to me that the majority of U.S. churches today are feed-good churches. They are designed to help people feel good. Good about themselves, good about God, good about the church.

Not necessarily to be good. But to feel good.

Consider the entertainment. We put our best singers forward with their multiple instruments. In some Evangelical churches, you might even find special lighting, such as colorful strobe lights, as well as fog machines and dancing. Some churches go so far with their leader worship, I mean, worship leading, that it feels more like a concert than a service and the congregation more like an audience than participants.

Then there's the sermons. The watered-down gospel doesn't challenge anyone, as that could be uncomfortable. Instead, the sermons are about love and happiness and Heaven. They are designed to make people feel good about themselves. They are designed to keep people comfortable. They may inadvertently or even deliberately make people feel like they are better than "others," the "sinners" or "those people" out there.

These churches worry about offending or upsetting people. They certainly never talk about anything controversial. They are afraid of being criticized. Afraid of people leaving the church. Afraid of division within the church walls.

Is this truly the church Jesus wants us to be?

After all, Jesus routinely offended people. He upset people so much, they had Him put to death.

In John 6, Jesus gave such a hard teaching that a large number of His followers abandoned Him. Gave it all up and walked away. We often forget that Jesus didn’t just have 12 disciples. Yes, He had the central 12, but there were multitudes of people following Him, men and women, who were also learning at His feet. Ever hear the story of the 72 He sent out and wonder about this additional 60 people? They were other disciples. 

How many of them turned away after this hard teaching in John 6?

The teaching didn’t make them happy. In fact, it made them mighty uncomfortable. Maybe even offended them. Did that stop Jesus? 

Nope.

Seeing all who were walking away from Him, Jesus turned to the 12 and asked, "Are you going to leave me too?"

I wonder about the tone of how He asked this question. Was it defensive? Was it angry? Was there a touch of vulnerability?

In whatever case, Peter is famous for his response: "Lord, to whom shall we go? Yours are the words of eternal life."

See, Peter got it. Being a disciple isn't about happiness or feeling good or being comfortable. It's about understanding our purpose and mission. It's about knowing God.

Being a disciple is not a call to happiness.

It's a call to holiness.

And a call to wholeness.

Feel-good churches don’t challenge people to be more than just a Sunday Christian. A Sunday Christian is someone who goes to church most Sundays (as long as there’s no big football game on), but what they hear on Sunday doesn’t necessarily translate to the way they live Monday through Saturday. They rarely ever talk about God outside of church. They rarely ever read their Bible or pray or ask God about decisions they make. They may try to be a good person and pride themselves on how they are better than so-and-so. Ultimately, though, their faith is shallow and easily broken.

Is that all we’re called to be? If so, it doesn’t sound very exciting to me. Doesn’t sound that much different from any other religion or practice or even the non-religious. Just going around, trying to be a good person, to live the best life they can.

But what if there’s more?

What if God is designed more for us? What if there’s more that he wants us to do?

I recently saw a TikTok video of a man who had a near-death experience and claims to have gone to hell. He admits that he was a Sunday Christian before he died. He had a church he considered his home, and he would go there sometimes. He called himself a Christian. But he didn’t pray often or read the Bible or feel like his private faith needed to influence how he raised his children or treated his wife or worked at his job. When he died, he appeared at Heaven's gate and Jesus said, I never knew you. He was then sent down to hell. But in hell, in the midst of his suffering, he saw Jesus standing there watching him. He says Jesus pointed to him and said to God the Father, I think we should give him another chance. And he felt himself being pulled out of hell and sent back into his body in the hospital bed. Immediately upon coming to, he gave his life to Jesus, and has lived since then a sold-out, committed life.

How many people might think they’re saved because they occasionally go to church and have heard the story of Jesus? How many people are going to be surprised by the realities of hell?

Yes, it is faith alone that saves, but as James says, what is faith without acts? What is faith if it doesn’t change who you are and how you live? What is faith if you don’t want to share it with others? What is faith that doesn’t move us to worship and spend time with the God we claim to serve? Can such a faith save us?

Churches that focus on the feel-good happy-go-lucky are doing a grand disservice to people. After all, when did Jesus ever say, build a beautiful church building and fill it with lukewarm half-believers? He said to go out and make disciples. Not even converts, but disciples! Disciples are people who actively follow their master. Actively seek to be like Him. To learn from Him at his feet.

Is your church making disciples? Or are they just trying to make sure everyone feels good?

Are you a disciple?

One last comment on feel-good churches. They are so unrooted in Scripture that the attendees can be easily misled. They may be easily swayed by anyone who comes along claiming to be Christian and/or to have heard from God. Since they’ve never been taught how to identify what a Christ follower is and looks like, they have no way to discern truth from false claims. They’re not taught critical thinking skills or how to check people's claims against God's Word.  They are sheep easily led astray.

That could be a large part of the reason why we have so many Christians supporting such unChristian things. They're being done in the name of Jesus, or by people who claim to know Jesus, so people merely assume that means they are good, without questioning or verifying.

They don’t know their Bibles. They don’t know their Savior. And they may not even truly be saved.

If we want to save the Church, first, we need to stop caring about whether or not people feel good, and instead, preach the Word. Preach Jesus' words, even when they are controversial or counter-cultural or difficult. We need to stop caring about being liked, and start caring about being faithful. We need to move from our goal to produce happy people, to produce holy people. We need to move from focusing on converts and numbers and bottom lines, to focusing on disciples who live out the life of love and service Jesus exemplified. 

Who's with me?

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