more REAL

By Jon Brown

LESS > Fake
LESS > Shame
LESS > Masks
MORE > Real

Jesus promises ‘life and life to the full’. So why do so many people walk away from faith – and not just teenagers but people who have been in church for years?

The full life offered is one of genuine relationship with God and others, but has our tendency to fight vulnerability, mask weakness and hide disappointment cost us the real thing? Have we tried to keep it together, keep the faith, until we simply can’t do it anymore?

Following Jesus should not require fronts: when we fully grasp the love of God towards us, in all our mess and sin and doubt, we experience the freedom that vulnerability, honesty, and sacrifice brings. That’s real life; life to the full.

MORE > Real explores how we can build lives on truth, and cultivate a real faith that lasts through the storms of life.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IVP
• Release date: Feb 21, 2019
• ISBN: 9781783597697

Jon Brown

Jon Brown is a speaker, writer and photographer. He is part of the leadership team at New Community Church, Sidcup.

Book preview

Introduction

Was Jesus wrong?

As good Christians we know the answer: the Bible is the Word of God; Jesus is God, and what he says is true.

But sometimes it feels as though he got it wrong.

Sometimes it feels as though Jesus was wrong when he promised to offer ‘life, and . . . to the full’ (John 10:10

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).

Sometimes it feels as though the Bible got it wrong when it promised us that we could ‘taste and see that the L

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is good’ (Psalm 34:8).

Because if that’s God’s promise, why do so many people reject it? Why are so many Christians bored? Why do so many people walk away?

And it’s not just teenagers who are walking away in their scores, but also people in their twenties, thirties and beyond. People who have been in church for years. People who have tasted and seen and decided that it wasn’t good.

Is it that God actually isn’t good, or is it that people haven’t ‘tasted’ the real thing?

Have we misunderstood what it means to experience him?

Have we presented people with a relationship with God that isn’t what he really offers?

Whenever I look around at the bored faces in church, or hear statistics about rapid church decline, it doesn’t seem to add up. It doesn’t seem to align with Jesus’ claim of life to the full.

I’ve watched friend after friend reject God. Nothing breaks my heart more. Yet I understand it. I reached a moment in my own life when I could no longer believe that God existed. There were too many questions, too many frustrations, and, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t seem to shake off my doubts.

Eventually, after some significant supernatural encounters, as well as some further wrestling with the big questions of life, my heart and mind were convinced and I returned to my faith in Jesus.

That turbulent time was one of the best things that ever happened to me. It made me hungry for what was real. At that moment I decided to stop playing religious games, to stop avoiding the awkward issues and to stop pretending that following God was something that it’s not. I realized we have a choice. We can ignore the inconsistency between what Jesus claims and what so many are experiencing. We can brush it under the carpet and watch confusion grow, boredom spread and more friends reject Jesus – or we can address it head on.

The more we delve into the Bible, the more we see that real life comes from being in genuine relationship with our maker as well as the people he has put around us. Jesus explains that the heart of human meaning and purpose is to love God and to love our neighbour. It sounds pretty straightforward. But if we want this real life, it’s costly – because growth and happiness and love involve vulnerability, risk and pain.

Our tendency is to fight vulnerability, mask weakness and hide disappointment – which means we’ll never experience real love or a flourishing life. But when we fully grasp the love of God towards us, in all of our mess and sin and doubt, we experience the freedom that authenticity, honesty and sacrifice bring. That’s real life: life to the full.

In MORE > Real we’ll turn to the Bible to see what it looks like to follow Jesus – and not in a simplistic, Sunday-school, ‘because the Bible says so’ way, but in a way that wrestles with the complexities and nuance.

Together we’ll look at how we can build on truth, and build a faith that lasts through the storms of life. We’ll discuss heartfelt, raw prayer; authentic and vulnerable relationships; and the growth and faith that’s possible during times of doubt and disappointment. We’ll explore the hope and happiness that are available for us to taste and see when we really know who Jesus is and all he’s done.

Each chapter addresses a different issue and contrasts the real with the fake, the genuine with the counterfeit. The aim is not to say all there is to say about each topic but to grapple with some of the most common and unhelpful misconceptions.

At times it will be uncomfortable – being honest often is.

We’ll take a frank look at the struggles and frustrations that affect us all and uncover the real life that Jesus offers – and why we so often miss it.

And I’ll try to be as honest with you as I can. I’ll tell you about my phone addiction, my failed six-pack attempt and the time I gave up on my faith.

If you like things black and white, clean and simple, then this book isn’t for you.

If you know what it is to lie in bed at night wondering if anyone is listening to your prayers, if you have seen people walk away or think you’re about to do so yourself, or if you simply feel that there must be something more, then this book will hopefully be worth your time.

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Chapter one

REAL FAITH

I texted an old friend yesterday to see how he was doing. He replied with a list of all the great things that are happening in his life. One comment particularly stood out to me: ‘Not in church, which I’m happy with really.’

It unfolded that, after thirty years of following Jesus, my friend has decided Christianity is no longer for him. And he’s not the only one.

A 2003 study in the USA discovered that of all those who attended Sunday services weekly throughout their childhood, 58% will abandon church between the ages of 18 and 29. To give it some context, that represents around 8 million individuals.

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Those findings may be somewhat dated, but current trends would suggest that the percentage of those walking away is increasing. And while there are fewer studies available for the UK, the general consensus is that the church on this side of the Atlantic continues to haemorrhage teens and twenties.

And it’s not just young people who are walking away, but the older generations too. The percentage of those in the UK who profess to be Christians continues to plummet. In a 2017 survey, half of those aged 55 to 64 said they had no religion, which is the first time religious people have not been in the majority in that age group.

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The statistics are alarming, but what hurts me most is not the numbers but the names and faces of my friends who once followed Jesus and have now walked away.

As a child, I dreamt of my mates coming to know Jesus, but as the years have rolled by I have seen more leave him than come to him.

There are so many reasons why people turn away. Each person has his or her own story, with twists and turns and hurts and scars and questions. But in each story there came a moment when doubt entered in. For some, it may have started with doubting God’s goodness, doubting he was worth the effort, doubting he was better than the sacrifice required. For all, there was a moment when they faced the most significant doubt: is God actually real?

Why have so many who have ‘tasted and seen’ not liked the taste? These are people who have been in church for decades, served faithfully, run ministries and led others to Christ. It feels too easy, too simplistic to explain this away by saying that these people must not have ever truly tasted God.

This is one of the most awkward and uncomfortable topics for Christians to talk about, which is why we usually ignore it in our sermons and small groups.

No one has ever seen God . . .

No one can prove that God exists, and no one can prove that he doesn’t.

We can have strong convictions, strong beliefs and strong opinions. But whether we have the courage and honesty to admit it or not, we all have an element of blind faith. ‘For we live by faith, not by sight’ (2 Corinthians 5:7).

A false view of faith is