Is the Casual Approach to Church Producing Casual Christians?

Posted on 10/01/2014 by Paul Pavao

While our solutions won’t match, this blogger excellently portrays the problem inherent in post-Constantine churches, Protestant and Catholic alike. It is more accomodating than I would be, which may help those who disagree to be willing to consider the message.

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About Paul Pavao

I am married, the father of six, and currently the grandfather of five. I teach, and I am always trying to learn to disciple others better than I have before. I believe God has gifted me to restore proper theological foundations to the Christian faith. In order to ensure that I do not become a heretic, I read the early church fathers from the second and third centuries. They were around when all the churches founded by the apostles were in unity. My philosophy for Bible reading is to understand each verse for exactly what it says in its local context. Only after accepting the verse for what it says do I compare it with other verses to develop my theology. If other verses seem to contradict a verse I just read, I will wait to say anything about those verses until I have an explanation that allows me to accept all the verses for what they say. This takes time, sometimes years, but eventually I have always been able to find something that does not require explaining verses away. The early church fathers have helped a lot with this. I argue and discuss these foundational doctrines with others to make sure my teaching really lines up with Scripture. I am encouraged by the fact that the several missionaries and pastors that I know well and admire as holy men love the things I teach. I hope you will be encouraged too. I am indeed tearing up old foundations created by tradition in order to re-establish the foundations found in Scripture and lived on by the churches during their 300 years of unity.
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5 Responses to Is the Casual Approach to Church Producing Casual Christians?

  1. Paul Pavao's avatar paulfpavao says:
    10/01/2014 at 2:05 pm

    Carolyn: This is all true, and I agree with you. I’m not sure who might agree with me, but I would say at least two-thirds, probably more, of those who would define themselves as casual Christians never intend to be anything else. We can pray for a supernatural move of the Spirit, an amazing revival, and that might do the job, but God has only rarely supplied that for any nation. What is true is that if we press the need not to be a casual Christian, in most churches a lot of people leave. I’m rather amazed at Bellevue Baptist Church, just a couple miles from my house, that has 18,000 members, and they make it clear that casual Christianity is not acceptable. I’ve talked to numerous people from there, and they all seem to know that’s true. So, somehow, probably because they’ve been rejecting casual Christianity for at least a couple decades, they have avoided driving away most of their people by preaching a discipleship message. Most pastors who have tried that, however, find their membership drops rapidly, and it’s a rare pastor willing to risk it.

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  2. Restless Pilgrim's avatar Restless Pilgrim says:
    10/01/2014 at 2:04 pm

    > the problem inherent in post-Constantine churches
    Surely the controversies concerning the lapsed and the presence of rigorist groups show that there were varying levels of commitment among Christians, even in the early centuries?

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    • Paul Pavao's avatar paulfpavao says:
      10/01/2014 at 2:11 pm

      RP (the other comment was to Carolyn): What you say is true, as well. I don’t think the article is about varying levels of commitment among Christians. I think it’s about how comfortable we are with that. More specifically, it is directed at Protestants, and the problem being addresses is the “come as you are” message that is so common, but which is not accompanied by any sort of real call to discipleship. It’s one thing to have adulterers & lascivious in your congregation (2 Cor. 12:21), it’s quite another to be comfortable with that, and not “bewail” (KJV) as Paul said he would. That last part is what applies to Catholics as well.

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  3. Carolyn's avatar Carolyn says:
    10/01/2014 at 1:59 pm

    The obvious solution is to love our Father with all our heart, all our mind, all our might; then we will move out of our comfort zone to love others and Christ has loved us. We do need to repent (a change of mind that leads to action) but that means getting involved with people, sharing with them and loving them where they are and moving them forward. I wish I could say it was a done deal, but I am so self centered. 🙁

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