Have spiritual takeaways become the church's menu of choice?

A survey last week revealed that in Britain over half of the meals consumed when eating out are at fast-food outlets.

This has been attributed to the current recession and constraints on people’s disposable income, forcing families to cut back on restaurant meals and substitute with the take-away burger or fried chicken type of meal.

The oft-cited statistics highlighting the national decline in Bible reading has made me wonder whether Christians are also substituting spiritual ‘fast food’ for a healthy diet. I find increasingly that people want to be Christians without bothering too much with the Bible. They subsist on what has been termed “spiritual pot noodles” – often a daily inspirational text with maybe somebody’s motivational comments about it.

Lest anyone should think that this is a characteristic unique to our present generation, the writer to the Hebrews himself laments that his readers ought to be on “solid food”, but were instead making do with milk (Hebrews 6:12-13).

My own observation of the Church in Britain is that, on the whole, it does little to promote “solid food” to nurture a mature and strong Christian faith. Bible exposition has largely been replaced by observations on current affairs, and I have been to church services on a Sunday where the Bible has not even been publicly read. In many evangelical churches (who in times past had a reputation for being Bible-based) the preoccupation with “user-friendly” worship has led to a spiritual fast-food diet that is geared more to entertainment than to discipleship.

The value of the constant drip-feed of Biblical teaching has been questioned both from within and outside the Church. Years ago, the writer of a letter to the editor of The British Weekly reflected the not unfamiliar mantra that he had been attending church regularly for thirty years and had probably heard 3000 sermons. However, as he couldn’t remember a single one of them, he wondered if preachers might more profitably spend their time on something else. A number of editorial responses ensued, finally ended by this letter which said: “Dear Sir, I have been married for thirty years. During that time I have eaten about 32,850 meals – mostly my wife’s cooking. Suddenly I have discovered I cannot remember the menu of a single meal. And yet, I have the distinct impression that without them, I would have starved to death long ago”.

Fast food churches will surely produce unhealthy Christians with little staying power. The risen Christ challenged the lukewarm church of Laodicea by saying: “I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with him and he with me” (Revelation 3:20). The outcome of a genuine commitment to Christ is that he comes in to bring a nourishing meal not a snack. His promise to dine with us holds the promise of a spiritual feast rather than a quick take-away.

Our society today is crumbling precisely because our culture doesn’t know how to tackle issues with a clear grasp of biblical principles of right and wrong. But many Christians are little better, victims of a famine of hearing the words of the Lord, as predicted by the prophet Amos. In such a scenario, Christians then regularly end up building their personal morality on the values of the world rather than the Word. The “Garbage in, garbage out” principle prevails. The famous preacher D L Moody used to inscribe memorable words in the front flyleaf of people’s Bibles. He would write: “This book will keep you from sin, or sin will keep you from this book.”

No wonder Jesus told his disciples, “Do not work for the food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life” (John 6:27).

Tony Ward is a Bible teacher and evangelist who was ordained in Zimbabwe. He currently lives and ministers in Bristol