Series: Against Common Christian Clichés

Hello Everyone! Hope you are having a good weekend and you are dealing with COVID-19 ok. I know it can be stressful not knowing how the disease will progress exactly or what effects it may eventually have. I’m an essential worker so I’m at work like normal basically but my family is taking to heart the CDC precautions and watching the updates on how to best act in a way to aid in stopping the spread of this virus.

I wanted to write you all today to let you know that Anne and I are starting a series on Church Clichés. We’ve wanted to do this for a few years now, but we see the need more than ever of combating these today. A Church cliché is a statement or way of thinking that is often said or alluded to by Christians but is actually a malformed version of the view that was once held. They are passed on because they are often easier than the Biblical answers and require less thought. There are many of these in the Christian community. Interestingly, I think because of the way Christian history and missionary movements have gone out, these clichés are often across denominations and accepted widely. An example is something like “works are inherently prideful, Christians are people of grace”, “science and logic are incompatible with faith” or “most people are too busy to engage with God regularly”. While these ideas often have some Christian root, they fall far from the call that scripture gives again and again.

Here is a layout of my argument for writing against clichés:

1. There is a certain way of pursuing God that Jesus, Paul, and the earliest disciples lived out.
   2. We are called specifically to imitate them. (Phl 4:17, 1 Cor 11:1-2, Eph 5:1, 1 Pet 2:21, Luke 6:40… etc)
   3. The modern view of the Christian life today often works to cut Christians off from living like them.
   4. This is due to accepted clichés which are unbiblical.
   5. Therefore, they ought to be brought up and shown to be unbiblical so that they can be dismissed.

All this understanding that many people will disagree, simply refuse what scripture is saying or just keep on as they always have. “If it was good enough for grandpa, for preacher such and such then it’s good enough for me!” They might say. Be that as it may, there are also people who will hear and be inspired to search the scriptures themselves and ask God how they might live. Since these posts are four years in the making we have a lot of material to work with so stay tuned!