The Noise of Churchianity

Want to know what I'm really tired of?   I'm tired of accepting a sermon or the latest Christian bestseller or a really thought-provoking blog post as a substitute for God's voice.  Yes, God speaks through those things.  For me, though, it gets to be hard to hear what he's saying to me when I'm always being told what he's saying to some preacher or author or songwriter.

So, preachers and authors are useless?

Of course not.  In fact, I am married to a preacher, and I definitely want you to listen to what he has to say.  I've become convinced, though, that God has things to say to me.  Wow—GOD has things to say to me.  And as much as he does speak through preachers and authors, I think he wants to say some of it directly to me, without a filter.   As a life-long Churchian, I have a hard time hearing the actual voice of God.   I try, but He sounds a lot like my childhood pastor, or the author of the study notes in my Bible, or the guy who wrote the song we sang last Sunday morning.

I'm currently working on removing my filter¹.  When I bought a new Bible last year, way before I'd started to articulate the thoughts I'm recording now, I purposely chose one without study notes.   I recognized even then that the notes often distracted me from the actual Word of God.   Want to hear something really unChurchian?  For the time being, I've also, for the most part, stopped listening to Christian music and reading Christian books², because the noise of all of it has been drowning out the actual voice of God.

I just heard a gasp.

Oh, but I'm not done yet.  I've also abandoned Bible reading plans².  Having a good Churchian upbringing, I learned that keeping up with your “devotions” (usually defined as a daily time of focused Bible-reading, preferably early in the morning) is a super-important measure of how good of a Christian you are.  It's hardly surprising, then, that reading the Bible became little more than a way for me to check off a box, literally or figuratively, and reassure myself that I was a good Christian.

Well, guess what?   That's not why God gave us the Bible.   God gave us His Word so that we could get to know Him.  When I read the Bible now³, I read it for information about God.  For instruction from Him.   For de-programming from my Churchian mindset.   When I read the Bible, I do my best to shut out the Churchian noise and listen to what God actually has to say.  To get to know who He really is.

Nothing in my Churchian background prepared me for the fact that throwing out my Bible-reading plan and devotional guides would increase both the quantity and quality of my Bible-reading and deepen my understanding of who God is⁴.  Amazing.

¹Not removing all instruction and guidance—as this one preacher sometimes says, don't hear what I'm not saying.

²Again—don't hear what I'm not saying. These aren't bad things, and I'm not giving them up forever, or telling you to give them up.

³Yes, I do read it. Did I just hear a small sigh of relief?

⁴Your mileage may vary. Keep in mind that I'm writing about my own experiences, not telling you what to do.