Jesus famously called his followers to take up their cross. I think this is a message that much of the evangelical church needs to hear. Many of us are content with our comfort and seem to think cross carrying is designed to be super easy. We need to reckon with what Jesus has to say about that seriously.
For too long, the church has been driven by a beguiling functional god of comfort. We seem to think that when Jesus says take up your cross and follow me, we think he means move to a nice area, get a house, attend church a couple of times on a Sunday, have some kids, get them into university, graduate jobs and retire comfortably. I don’t think that is what Jesus had in mind when he spoke about cross-carrying, but it seems to be the broad plan of many in the church.
When there is a tendency like that – and it is widespread – the usual thing to do is highlight it and talk about it. So, we will get a some talk from certain quarters – often quarter like mine – that seek to afflict the comfortable a little. We want to shake them out of their comfort and encourage them towards the faithfulness that Jesus calls them to, cross-carrying and all. The problem with doing this is that some hear things that were not intended nor necessarily meant for their ears.
Sometimes it means, rather than afflicting the comfortable, we accidentally end up afflicting the afflicted. People who are already doing some significant cross-carrying start to feel “got at” or even more guilty because they hear voices speaking about many folk not doing so much carrying of crosses. It needs to be said that those who are carrying significant crosses already – and being quite faithful to Jesus as they do it and are not bowing out of his commands for the sake of their own comfort – are not the ones in view here.
It needs to be remembered in these sorts of conversations that we are calling those who could come, but won’t come, and challenging the frankly often lame reasons they content themselves not to do so. We are not discounting the reasons many might have for legitimately staying where they are. We are simply saying it can’t be right that nobody is called to harder callings. It equally cannot be the case that Jesus calls most people to the easiest and nicest of places en masse. Even if there are good and proper reasons to stay where you are – faithful, godly reasons – we are simply asking that the question is asked honestly. It is those who won’t even consider the question, who quickly dismiss any possibility without proper consideration, that we are often speaking to.
The other way that talk of cross-carrying and faithfulness is often misheard is in the sense that if everything is not extremely difficult for you all the time, you must be doing something wrong. Kind of like an inverse prosperity gospel that came out of Yorkshire or Scotland rather than America. A attitude that suggests you are only really doing right if you are properly suffering for it. If you were really being faithful, everything would be hard and miserable all the time. Then you would know you are doing right for the Lord.
I do think Jesus calls us to take up our cross and follow him. That will mean we will face some serious difficulties and hardships if we are being faithful for the sake of Christ. I do think it is legit to ask, if everything is always plain sailing for you, why that is? Why do you never face persecution, why is your life extremely comfortable all the time, why are the “difficulties” you face all relative and not really related to your following Jesus particularly at all? These would seem like reasonable questions to ask yourself if you never find these things. Are you really carrying a cross at all?
But, it ought to be said, just because things are easy going for you right now doesn’t mean you aren’t being faithful. Jesus’ Apostles were stoned, beaten and persecuted, but that wasn’t a constant 24/7 reality for them until they died. They had significant periods of time where that wasn’t happening. Acts 2 and Acts 4 seem pretty cushy and like things are going pretty nicely for them. Jesus wasn’t constantly being chased and hunted down; there were periods of relative calm and I suspect he enjoyed himself every now and then. Having periods of rest, where things seem easy, where ministry is going well, where life is not hectic is not, of itself, a sign of unfaithfulness. Sometimes I think in all the talk of cross-carrying we forget that Jesus does care about us and isn’t out to just make our lives miserable all the time.
Most faithful ministry (though, it has to be said, not all) I imagine will face times of real hardship and difficulty and yet have other times of relative calm, encouragement and growth. I know in the 10 years I’ve been at my ministry, there have been plenty of both. Often they come in concerted bursts. Sometimes they come over protracted periods of time. The first few years for us were rough with next to no let up. There have been times we have wanted to pack it in and even much darker thoughts of ending matters too. But there have also been times of great encouragement and relative calm, where the wheel not only haven’t felt like coming off, but people seem to be hopping onto the bus a really grateful that you are the one driving it. Whilst some of the particulars might be unique – both in the downs and the ups – I don’t think there is anything particularly unusual about ministry being a series of peaks and troughs. Just because you aren’t suffering right now and things aren’t very hard – dare I say, they’re even comfortable – doesn’t mean you aren’t being faithful. I’d only be wary if that’s all your ministry ever was.
In the end, we cannot ignore that Jesus calls us to take up our cross. He calls us to do difficult things and to persevere through hardships for his sake. I am of the view that much of the evangelical church – for all its good theology and talking a good game on mission and planting and whatnot – is driven more by its desire for comfort than anything else. Many in the church really do need a rocket under them to think about doing a bit of cross-carrying.
But I don’t want those who are already serving, enduring hardships for Christ, persevering with a seriously weighty cross, to feel harangued by that. I want them to keep going. To persevere. To see that they are not having fingers pointed at them, but rather they are being held up as the example to follow. Nor do I want people to think that “hard callings” are the only faithful ones. Neither do I want anyone to hear that unless they are suffering or in the hardest of places they are not being faithful. I recognise faithfulness may mean many things and the Lord does not only call us to continual hardship with no let up. We can be faithful while things are comfortable too.
But what I do want people to hear is that if we are content with our comfort, if we never have to move beyond comfort, there might be an issue with our cross carrying. If there is a gospel deficit in our country and we could do something about it, but we don’t because we’re just happy and alright where we are, we need to think about whether we are doing the kind of cross carrying Jesus was talking about. Of course, that doesn’t mean everyone must up sticks and move. It doesn’t mean if you enjoy what you do, and love being where you are, you aren’t being faithful. None of these things are necessarily true. But we should be willing to at least honestly ask the question. If Jesus asks us to carry our cross for his sake, might that mean moving? Might that mean going somewhere harder? Might that mean doing what is less comfortable to me for the sake of the gospel? You may determine, in the end, faithfulness means staying where you are and doing what you’re doing happily. But we have to ask the question and it must be an honest conversation. Does faithfully carrying a cross mean Jesus wants me to leave what is comfortable and serve him somewhere harder for the sake of the kingdom?
Hi Stephen. Read your blog regularly and I keep waiting for someone else to comment. You always stir up responses in my head, but I am a bit feart of social media. However, I am taking the plunge.
Really resonate with this post. I am working in my local parish church which is in a very “nice” area. It is a vibrant and living church with great leadership and I have a wonderful, fluid remit. My background is community work, so I look at the poorer areas round us and long to spread our reach out, and I am not the only one in our congregation that wants to do this. But you are right – in trying to challenge the comfortable, we often just put further pressure on the currently challenged. How to stir up the Spirit in comfortable Christians – thanks for getting me to pray for and think about that harder.
Social media is something of a trash fire (and, in part, why I’m not on any of it any more). I re-opened comments on here to avoid all that – so I’m glad you commented.
This post really is just asking for honest discussions to happen. I have written plenty about the need for people to come to hard places and to give up their comfort for the sake of the gospel. That message, for what it’s worth, still needs to be heard. I am convinced that remains the bigger issue here.
But I am conscious places like Oldham are not the only place to be faithful. Well-heeled places need the gospel too. I don’t want to lay burdens on people that they are in no position to undertake or fulfil for a host of legitimate reasons.
I just wish more people would ask the question honestly. Many seem very quick to content themselves with what they’re doing and don’t seem to honestly ask whether the Lord might want them somewhere less comfortable. I’d be happy if even some had those conversations more honestly.