There are many reasons people choose not to follow Jesus. For some, belief in the supernatural is just too much. For others, the questions of eternity, meaning, and purpose are simply not a priority. However, the most devastating reason I hear from people who do not want to follow Jesus has nothing to do with Jesus. It has to do with His church. They are not interested in faith, not for some intellectual reason, but because they actually met a Christian, and found absolutely nothing compelling about their lives. Or worse, found something outright repulsive about their lives.

This reason, I’m afraid, has become more and more common in our culture.

Interestingly, it was not skeptics and doubters who first raised this problem. It was James, the brother of Jesus, and an apostle in the early church. James, who wrote the book that bears his name, has the audacity to ask us the same question we hear from the most hostile critics of Christianity: what good is your faith in Jesus if no one could tell by watching you?

For our own sake, and for the sake of a watching world, we are starting a new sermon series in James called Real Faith. The world needs our real faith now more than ever, and needs to see Christians living with integrity, with spiritual wholeness. So that what we believe, who we love, what we want, and how we act work together in seamless alignment. And how we spend our money, how we use our time, and how we speak point unambiguously to our obedience and apprenticeship to Jesus.

The world needs real faith, and Christians need it too. Of course, we will never do this perfectly. But that is the goal; ever increasing love for and obedience to Christ. Anything less than that, as James reminds us, is not only incomplete or immature faith; it is dead faith.

Let’s pursue real faith together this fall as we study the book of James. We hope you’ll join us!