The Vegetable Analogy

Going to church is like eating vegetables.

That simile right there is the perfect stance to hold when considering whether to go to church or sleep in.

This came to me after reading an article from The Federalist that attributed millennials' lack of interest in religion to Vacation Bible School. While I'm not totally onboard with the author's critique of VBS, his article makes a valid point about our culture's attitude toward church. It's an attitude that says that people in church must be entertained and enthralled at all costs. This can lead to vacuous and/or cornball attempts at teaching biblical truths to children. If you've ever gone to Sunday school or VBS, you'll likely remember a few things that even as a child you were rolling your eyes at. But this problem also extends to adults. It could be the person speaking or the subject matter they discuss. It could be the music played. It could be any number of things, but it mostly comes down to us not wanting to be bored.

If there's one thing that we millennials hate, it's being bored. Technology has largely alleviated that problem and when we do find ourselves deprived, it's absolute torture. We've come to associate boredom with wasted time, so any activity that is under-stimulating is immediately assumed as being unnecessary and not worth re-visiting. But boredom is important, especially for the mind. It fosters creativity and introspection. Virtually every post on this blog is the result of me not having anything interesting to do and just letting my mind wander.

Church is boring. A lot. Not all the time, mind you, but it can be very boring and that's a good thing. It makes it easier for you to quiet your mind and consider the words of the sermon. If you are able to do these things then you are more likely to apply the lessons and benefit from them.

Now about those vegetables. Vegetables are good for you but they generally don't taste all that great. Sometimes they're downright disgusting. But if you don't eat them, you won't grow and your health will diminish. In that same way, church isn't always pleasant. However, if you don't push past that then you can't grow spiritually.

Some of the greatest parenting to ever come from my mom and dad was when they would force me to go to church when I didn't want to. It sent a message that said, "Not everything that's good and worthwhile is fun." It's true and it's something I think about whenever the church vs. sleep issue comes up.

I'm not suggesting that churches should avoid tapping into pop culture altogether. Christianity is always relevant and sometimes it's helpful to do just that in order to illustrate a point. But it shouldn't be at the expense of the message or purely for the sake of putting butts in seats. Nor should we encourage a mentality that craves constant stimulation.

There's a few simple things that could reduce the boredom association problem while avoiding compromise. To start, it would probably be helpful to eschew the word "school" from the church setting. That is the last word that kids want to hear on their downtime. For adults, I think we should seek meatier topics to delve into. Apologetics, theology, and church history are largely MIA from sermons, which is a huge disservice and does nothing to cultivate intellectualism within modern Christendom. I have my issues with Roman Catholicism, but at least they don't forget where they come from. Christianity is a big deal, so let's stop treating it like a self-help course and start regarding it as the cultural revolution that it is.

-L. Travis Hoffman

8/20/2017