Checklist Xtianity:

A couple weeks ago my pastor and I were talking and he was asking for good ideas to put in his sermon about why we Christians sometimes suck. I told him Christians sometimes suck because we prescribe to what I like to call checklist Christianity. We make this long, or not so long, checklist of what Christianity is all about or how we maintain our “relationship” with Christ. For instance:

__ Pray at least once a day

__ Read my Bible

__ Go to church at least 3 times a week

__ Give my offering

__ Tell at least 2 people about Jesus

__ Have a Christian bumper sticker

__ Listen to Christian music

__ Act happy when in public

__ Read a Christian book

__ …

… and what ever else somebody might find to put on this checklist. Then we go out and live by this checklist that we’ve compiled. We get all these ideas and “formulas” of what others (pastors, videos, music, etc.) say Xtianity is supposed to be or look like and we make our checklist to live by. And we then fix our efforts to just go by each week making sure we can check off each thing on our list. The more “Christian” we are the more things we have on our list. And as long as we complete our task sheet we thing we are right on track with Christ.

And, it doesn’t stop there. We then proceed to look at our checklist and hold others up to that standard that we have adapted for ourselves. We see that some people don’t have a very long checklist, or that as far as we can tell, they aren’t doing these “very spiritual” things that are on our checklist. So we conclude that they must not be very good Christians; at least not as good as we are.

We have to be very careful to make sure that our relationship with Christ is not reduced to a set of ritualistic formulas that we check off of a list. Jesus never gave formulas for how to live for him or remain close to him. Please don’t misunderstand! Most of these things are very beneficial disciplines that we would do well to have as a part of our lives. But… not because it makes us measure up, not because it makes us better than others, not because it impresses God. Scripture makes it very clear that God looks only at our hearts, man looks at the outward. This checklist is all too often an outward thing, especially when the heart is not right with God. He only sees our hearts, and we as men can’t fully see another man’s heart, so let’s not judge their hearts. And, let’s not make checklists to follow. Let’s instead just follow our hearts and how God is prompting. Yes, develop spiritual disciplines, but make sure they are not part of an empty routine or checklist.

In Christ,

Geoff