Is Boredom The Problem?

A. W. Tozer thinks so.

'THAT THERE IS SOMETHING gravely wrong with evangelical Christianity today is not likely to be denied by any serious minded person acquainted with the facts. Just what is wrong is not so easy to determine.


One mark of the low state of affairs among us is religious boredom ... And that it is found to some degree almost everywhere among Christians is too evident to be denied.


Boredom is, of course, a state of mind resulting from trying to maintain an interest in something that holds no trace of interest for us ...


Christians who belong to the evangelical wing ... have over the last half-century shown an increasing impatience with things invisible and eternal and have demanded and got a host of things visible and temporal to satisfy their fleshly appetites.


It is now common practice in most evangelical churches to offer the people, especially the young people, a maximum of entertainment and a minimum of serious instruction. It is scarcely possible in most places to get anyone to attend a meeting where the only attraction is God. One can only conclude that God's professed children are bored with Him, for they must be wooed to meeting with a stick of striped candy in the form of religious movies, games and refreshments.


The striped-candy technique has been so fully integrated into our present religious thinking that it is simply taken for granted. Its victims never dream that it is not a part of the teachings of Christ and His apostles.

Any objection to the carryings on of our present ... Christianity is met with the triumphant reply, "But we are winning them!" And winning them to what? To true discipleship? To cross-carrying? To self-denial? To separation from the world? To crucifixion of the flesh? To holy living? To nobility of character? To a despising of the world's treasures? To hard self-discipline? To love for God? To total committal to Christ? Of course the answer to all these questions is no.'

Excerpts from: Man - The Dwelling Place of God, A. W. Tozer, Ch. 30, Religious Boredom

For more, click the link  Man - The Dwelling Place Of God, A W Tozer