I was struck by a section in our book this week entitled, “Functional Consequences of Comfort Theology.” Our author traces some of the classic Sociological theorists’ ideas concerning the declining significance of religion. As a society, we find it unsettling to be poked and prodded by sermons from the pulpit. We go to church to feel good, so don’t remind us that there are starving Africans across the world – we just want to get through this and back home to our roast beef dinner. I believe our author makes a valid point, however, it also reminded me of a concept called “worm theology.” Rebecca of Rebecca Writes poses how certain uncomfortable phases have been excluded for even our hymnbooks due to the possibility of making one uncomfortable in the service. Another blogger, Andy, responds to some of Rebecca’s comments. Are we so self-possessed that we really are only out to make ourselves feel good? That concerns me. I don’t like to feel bad – who does? But I also feel a responsibility to be aware and actively involved in serving God however He might call me to do that. Seeking only comfort will not challenge me to expand my horizons nor broaden my knowledge about the world. So there is a measure of discomfort that I must endure to become the servant He desires me to be.
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30 responses so far ↓
Caleb Barton // April 20, 2007 at 2:46 pm
I know often I go to church and find my slipping into the comfort zone that church provides because I am surrounded by friends and I feel like hey I’m at church I’m doing what God wants. Often times when I go to church and find myself in this comfort zone and here even the challenging messages I find myself feeling o this doesn’t apply to me because I’m here at church. I want to get out of this comfort theology because if we stay in our comfort zones all the time how are we supposed to reach those who reside outside our comfort zones for Christ. I plan to challenge myself with every message to step outside the box and do something that be easy, but something that God desires.
Kristen Doles // April 20, 2007 at 4:41 pm
I agree that church has become a place of complacency. It’s hard to call it that and easy to avoid that word, but when it comes down to it, our lack of the desire to be real and transparent with God is complacency. It’s so sad that the one place that should be a place of true conviction and healing has been made into a boat where we will not even fix our eyes on Jesus to take just one step out of the boat. I’m guilty too, and I think that if our world is ever going to change, it needs to start with Christians within their own churces and homes.
Angela Horning // April 20, 2007 at 8:00 pm
The church that I grew up in is a very “feel good” church. I don’t ever remember feeling like I seriously need to change something in my life so that I will better glorify God. I always left feeling pretty good about myself. I also never realized how much more growing I could do until I came to Cedarville. Now I realize how much of a “baby” Christian I was… I was being fed milk when I needed meat. There are many times here that I have learned something new about myself and God and I feel like, for the first time in my life, I am growing spiritually. I am learning more about God and the world and I feel liberated by what I know now and can learn. Yes, I think that you need to learn what needs to change in your life before you can change it and I think that is part of the Churchs job.
Randi Raimer // April 21, 2007 at 3:29 am
I definitely agree that the church today is used to make everyone feel good regardless if they don’t mean too. I have been doing a research paper on Moralistic Therapeutic Deism in which categorizes youth today as having a feel good attitude about religion. Though they know about God they do not view religion as what they can do for God it is only what God can do for them. Therefore religion does not make a significant impact in their lives it is only planned in a background and so very few people have a conviction to help those around them, they are only centered on themselves and how they can fare in the world.
Kelsey Freed // April 21, 2007 at 5:13 pm
The church that I grew up in did a great job of making sure I was learning more about God and applying those principles to my life. I don’t remember ever going to church just to “feel good” instead of with the intention of bringing glory to God. I always left feeling as if I had learned something new about the character of God. However, I realize that I need to continue growing closer to God and desiring to be fed by the Word of God while at church if I want to grow spiritually. I do think that you need to be aware of what needs to be changed in your life before any progress can be made and I believe that God has chosen to reveal to us areas of our lives in which we are weak through the Holy Spirit speaking to us and through those around us.
Sarah Bresson // April 21, 2007 at 8:10 pm
Church has become a place that no one feels convicted for sins they have done. Sometimes I feel that we sugar coat instances that have occurred in our lives. I know I tend to go to church and do not feel convicted about anything. We go and have a “good time” but do not feel wrong for the past week. We need to remember the true reason for church and keep striving for the Lord’s guidance.
Emily Broersma // April 21, 2007 at 10:07 pm
I also agree that the church has become too much of a “hang-out” for Christians. Instead of being challenged from truth from God’s Word, we are often complemented and encouraged to see how good we are. This phenomenon has bothered me for a while. I think it shows that we Christians have become too comfortable in our own personal settings and do not want to face reality. The reality of life is that we are depraved individuals, desperately in need of a Savior. Consequently, without this truth church is really pointless. I am encouraged to know that not all churches are “feel-good” churches, but there are still churches out there that preach the doctrine of the Bible. Good, solid doctrine, no matter how uncomfortable it makes us feel, is the basis of Christianity.
Daniel Cho // April 22, 2007 at 2:25 am
I once left my home church for almost one year and attended one of the liberal church, because I just could not stand, what was going on, in the church. At that time(I think it was about 4years ago), I struggled with myself who was a Christian and went to church and mission trips regularly and had fellowship in the Christian community, however I was doing nothing to the society where I belonged.
So I attended a church where Sunday service was just about 30 minutes and the rest of the whole Sunday was serving in the “Angel Hospital” where everything was free for the homeless people.
I met pre-sem and medical students working there 10hours a day for free, who belived that love is not a talk but action. Even they were Christians they went drinking and talked about the Marxism and the heaven on earth.
Maybe I was arrogant and young however,
it was a good experience to me, since I decided to have a balanced view. I also want to be loved by God and the fellowship, however also want to share the God’s love to others.
Ruthie Plasterer // April 22, 2007 at 4:59 am
I think a lot of these “megachurches” fall into this category with their attendees going to the megaplex, having their ears tickled with what they want to hear, then going home to live, being a more “spiritual” person. We do squirm when we hear a passionate missionary talking about harsh, grotesque conditions God’s ultimate creation is enduring that we can help to prevent. We squirm when we hear that God is not only a God of grace, but a God of judgement. While I think hurting people (which is everyone in a sense) should find comfort in the church but I also think we should be pushed out of our cliched “comfort zone” to the point that we seek the truth in everything…even when it’s hard work, sacrificial, or “harsh”.
Ruthie Plasterer // April 22, 2007 at 5:30 am
I think that this “comfort theology” is an issue in many “megachurches” where the attendees flow into the grandiose buildings in droves, have their ears tickled with what they want to hear, and then go home, having done their spiritual duty and feeling good about themselves. We squirm when we hear a passionate missionary speaking about a grotesque condition effecting God’s ultimate creation that we could help to prevent. We squirm when we hear that God is not only a God of grace, but also of judgement. We don’t like to squirm.
While I think the church is a place that hurting people (which, in a sense, is everyone) should be able to find comfort, I would like to be challenged to step out of the cliched “comfort zone” I have routinely stayed inside to seek the truth in everything, even if it is harsh, hard work, or troubling.
Ruthie Plasterer // April 22, 2007 at 5:31 am
oops! I didn’t think my first one posted…I thought I lost it, so in the second post I tried to remember what I had said at first.
Ryan Hyde // April 22, 2007 at 7:52 pm
I agree with all three Ruthie Plasterer’s and the other comments. I think that many churches today do sugar coat messages and try to stay in the safe zone. We need to be challenged to grow spiritually. I know I have experienced the most spiritual growth when I have felt convicted. When your hear too many messages that just make you feel good and arent convicting, you can start to get the idea that you are good in your spiritual walk and dont need to continue to grow. Then our spiritual growth sort of reaches a plateau and we arent as effective as we possibly can be. We have to work to stay out of the comfort zone knowing that are still sinners and keep striving to grow spiritually.
Charissa Rowe // April 22, 2007 at 7:56 pm
I think that our desire for comfort is reflected in the “seeker sensitive” movement among many churches today. The seeker sensitive movement is a movement that uses any means–comedy, food, modern entertainment–to get people to come to church. Once they are attending church, the message they hear is that God loves them… but it is the only message they often hear. These churches claim to be sensitive toward the people to whom they are trying to witness. Their goal is to “not offend.” Unfortunately, the gospel is extremely offensive, as it tells us that we are incapable of anything on our own. So yes, I believe that some churches are moving in the direction of comfort rather than conviction.
Amanda Sutton // April 22, 2007 at 9:12 pm
The rampant existence of Civil Religion in America is just one of the problems in the Church today. Hopefully individuals in the Church do not so love this country that they would willingly be blinded to it’s faults in the face of God’s standards. There exists so much patriotism and “God bless America”-ism. May this not lead to the neglect of godly sorrow for our nations’ sins.
In the area of having our ears tickled, and being seeker friendly, it is unfortunate that pastors who truly desire to teach the Word of God would feel such pressure to cave in to comfort theology and the neglect of God’s Word. My father was once told that people wanted to hear more jokes. However, it is much better to ignore these pressures in the face of doing God’s will!
Chris Travis // April 22, 2007 at 9:37 pm
I agree with Andy; the author that responded to Rebecca’s article. I think as Christians we should make a valid effort to put ourselves in situations or involve ourselves in ministries that may put us out of our comfort zones. It is not enough to go through life engaging ourselves only in the things that make us feel happy or good about ourselves. However, I recognize that this is hard. I have little to no desire to sign up or volunteer for the dirty jobs or the unpleasant ministries, or to go hear someone speak on depressing issues, but we must. I think that when it comes to ministry, we should train ourselves to jump at the opportunity of a typically unattractive job. I think that if we force ourselves into these, so called awkward situations we will be more likely to think of it as unappealing in the future.
Sarah Hamilton // April 22, 2007 at 10:34 pm
I have always thought that if you are truly serving God and seeking after Him, its not going to be comfortable. That is because we are supposed to be leaning on our God to help us through whatever it is we are doing for Him. I don’t think that God would ever want us to get to a certain point in our walk with Him and then just settle right there and not go any deeper. He wants us to be growing and learning and reaching for more. This is not going to be comfortable. Its like the potter and the clay that we Christians always talk about. Don’t you think it would be a bit painful to be that pot that the potter is making? The potter is shaping and molding this substance that is used to being one big blob of nothing. This is exactly what our relationship with God is like. He is tearing away the impurities, so it’s not going to be comfortable. I think that we should be absolutely aware of what God is trying to work in our lives, even if it might be a little uncomfortable for us to think about.
Eric Smith // April 23, 2007 at 12:29 am
I think that there are many people that, even though they are doing godly things, they are doing them to get a good feeling for themselves. For example, one volunteers in a nursery because they feel good about themselves when they help little kids. I don’t think that there is anything wrong with that at all. However, we sometimes avoid doing something that we know is serving God, but it might just be a boring and uncomfortable task. We should still serve God when it makes us feel good, but we should always be looking for any possible way to serve Him.
Jihoi Hwang // April 23, 2007 at 1:50 am
At every sunday morning, I go to church with my family and come back home. Sometimes, after church service, I used to go out for dinner or lunch. Durinig service, although I am listening to the massage of the paster, I am also thinking about what I have to do today, or what I will do for fun.
I struggled myself against what it is meaning of church and what it is true view of christian in church.
I think church is not just for “warm and comfortable place”. church is a place to share God’s love with the other and to sacrify myself to God through going to a long way to get to God’s vision.
Amanda Beesley // April 23, 2007 at 2:38 am
Our culture today is all about comfort and staying in one’s comfort zone. I agree with what a few people said before that we, as Christians, need to be willing to go out of our comfort zones. We need to be willing to serve God in whatever way He asks us to. I agree with Eric, we need to serve God in any situation whether it makes us feel good or uncomfortable. In the end, we will ultimately feel good, because we obeyed and served the Lord.
Justine Ross // April 23, 2007 at 3:04 am
I think that it is important for sermons to tell the truth no matter how hard it is to take BUT at the same time, i’m not all about the whole fire and brimstone preaching that most baptists do. There is definitely an in between…
Caitlin Hull // April 23, 2007 at 3:41 am
This is actually a subject that has been bothering me a lot lately. We tend to live in our comfort zones at church, justifying ourselves by donating a little money to those less fortunate and going on a short-term missions trip every year or so. The problem is, the resources we give are often just part of what we have left over after we have enough to make ourselves comfortable. When we go on missions trips, we do tend to give of ourselves a little more, but when we return, we enter right back into our lives of comfort and convenience.
I think that comfort in the church is becoming a disease, and little is being done to cure it. I have visited homeless shelters as well as poverty-stricken cities in my own state as well as in other countries, and my experiences in these places have made me realize that we can do so much more for these people. I believe that we should not feel comfortable when we know about these situations. Instead, we should find ways to get out of our comfort zones and do something.
Cassandra Dobutovich // April 23, 2007 at 3:47 am
Comfort Zone! That is a phraze used so often in our society today and I feel is thrown around so often without thought. God has placed in circumstances that we need to be in and that we will learn and grow from. God has placed us in those “comfort zones” and has put us there for a reason to be filled, to learn and to grow and when in time God will call us to where He needs us to be next. I understand the whole idea of “just going home for your beef dinner” thing but I do not think that it’s talking about a “comfort zone” thing here. Let’s face it… that is pure selfishness. We need time to learn about the Lord and when all people can think of is going home to eat that is a selfishness issue. Those are my thoughts.
Katie McGee // April 23, 2007 at 4:00 am
I think we need to make sure we don’t overlook comments like Justine’s–except for maybe the Baptist preacher stereotype..ha:)
There is definitely a balance– the Bible’s truth stretches us beyond what we are probably comfortable with, but at the same time, part of the bedrock of it all is that God IS love.
Stacie Peden // April 23, 2007 at 4:46 am
I feel that our churches do try to be a comfort zone. Being able to try out different churches since I have been at school, I find it interesting how each church goes about how to draw in new crowds and how they response to these people. I think it’s important for our messages to touch our lives and show that we need God with every step. Yeah it’s nice to have that comfort in the church, but when we start going to church just to feel good and to show God we can get up early on Sunday then that creates a problem. I think its important to remember why we go to church and try to step out of our comfort zones.
Brad Muschott // April 23, 2007 at 5:26 am
Churches today seem like they are becoming more of a social event. Sure it’s great to fellowship with some of our friends from school and work. Maybe you try to meet a new person every sunday and there’s nothing wrong with that. I think that those who go to church just because their friends are going or they in a way, have to go, are going for the wrong reasons. We should want to go to church to learn more about Christ and grow in our relationhip with him. If we start going to church more for ourselves than for our friends, than i think the comfort zone we might have established before will remain there, but we will also buy into a routine where we are thriving for God’s word.
Ben Nebsitt // April 23, 2007 at 3:00 pm
“We go to church to feel good, so don’t remind us that there are starving Africans across the world – we just want to get through this and back home to our roast beef dinner. ” Ahmen keep it comin, Oh wait thats not what we are after is it. So how do you find the balance between convicting the believers and scaring away the visitors?
Laura Cover // April 23, 2007 at 3:16 pm
I feel that many churches today are catering more to the congregation’s emotional needs than they should be. It is important to hear those “feel good” messages every once in a while because our God DOES love us and he wants us to know that he cares for us and all, however we also need to hear about our responsibility to care for the needs of others who are suffering or even messages about our depravity and hell and such. Those dont seem to be popular sermon topics because they make people feel uncomfortable. Basically i feel that there is a balance that needs to be reached including compassion as well as pushing us out of our comfort zone.
Dani-Rae Morgan // April 23, 2007 at 3:28 pm
I think it is real ly important to step out of our comfort level and do something that we aren’t so comfortable with. If we dont even do that, we wont grow spiritually or in maturity. Imagine, if missionaries didnt step out of their comfort zone. THere would be so many lost people in the world.
Emily Santmyer // April 26, 2007 at 12:53 am
Church has become more of a place of therapy and making sure that we dont step on anyones toes. we sugar coat things that shouldnt be sugar coated. We need to realize that christ stepped on many peoples toes. we need to remember our role in the church and see where God leads us and what his plan is for us.
Justine Ross // April 29, 2007 at 4:34 pm
I agree with the author. This is a major problem in our society. I was just at a service today that was very wonderful and the pastor was great BUT when speaking about what Timothy meant when he said for believers to suffer with him, I think he totally missed the point. I think the word suffer has been dumbed down and softened up for Americans. To many Americans, it doesn’t mean to suffer without the luxuries that you are so used to, instead, it simply means putting up with stuff that annoys you or doing stuff that you don’t really want to do. I don’t think that is what Timothy was talking about. I think he was talking about acutally SUFFERING! Going where Christ went. Going without the luxuries that Americans are so used to, going where you will be persecuted for bringing your faith to those who do not know God…I think thats what Timothy meant…but, no longer do we read scripture that way. We read it in a way that it conforms to our life so that we don’t have to conform our life to what it says…