Seventeenth-Century Puritan preacher and author, Thomas Watson, observed that “Many people are unsettled, ready to embrace every novel opinion, adorning themselves in as many religions as fashions, because they are ungrounded.”  Plainly put, people would rather preoccupy themselves with the popular than tend to the essentials of the faith.  They would prefer arguing peripheral issues over deepening their roots in the Gospel.  Consequently, these ungrounded Christians, wearing faith like the latest fashion, live like firecrackers: they’re lit, then ignite for a nice “Oooo” and “Ahhh” effect, and yet finish with nothing to show but a smoldering, busted up wick.

So we see the issue, but how are we to respond?  We’ll try to land this ship discussing the importance of planting your feet next.

Read the previous post: On Faith & Fads: The Wealth of Voices.

Image from FreeWiliamsburg.com

What are you? Four-Point, Five-Point, Emergent, Emerging, New Calvinist, Old Calvinist, Modern, Post-Modern, Late-Modern, Hipsta, or Skeptic?  The breadth of today’s voices, views, and influences in the Christian circle seems innumerable.  It is obvious that Christianity is nowhere near exempt from the tribal nature of the twenty-first century.  But beneath the cliquish nature of Christianity today resides a question that must be answered: how well do you major on the majors?  In other words, how important is the most important Thing in your life?  How deep are you in Jesus?  Or do you care?  Do you major on the minors and consequently minor on the majors?  Does the argumentative nature of peripheral faith issues excite you more than developing a deep life in God?

See, the truth of the matter is that we are prone to worship the idol of New.  What consistently tends to steal our affection and energy is the “latest and greatest.”  I recently drove by a billboard at Baylor University that read, “Two things every girl must be: classy and fabulous.”  Is it true?  Should we carry on living the Christian faith as if it’s fashion?  Or do we need to establish ourselves on Something more dependable?