Being Christian Doesn’t Mean Being Boring
By: Evan Robertson
Tags: Christianity, Perception, Boring, Joy, Religion

Christians are perceived as boring, fun sucking goody two shoes who constantly put others down.

Think drinking or doing drugs is fun? Well too bad, we think you’re a terrible person. Drugs are wrong, you should be boring like us. End of story.

These are common misconceptions I hear about Christians on a daily basis. Why is that?

It’s funny, people often find there’s something different about me. Maybe it’s the way I motivate others occasionally, or my lack of swearing. Perhaps they’re just surprised when they find out I don’t drink or smoke pot.

No matter why they see me the way they do, they generally don’t jump to the conclusion of, “Oh, he seems like a nice guy. Must be one of those fun, preppy Christian types!”

Whenever I’m speaking to a co-worker or peer and a topic like this comes up, they’re often shocked when I tell them I’m a Christian.

“You’re a Christian? That’s uh, not what I expected.”

And why’s that?

My next line is usually something like Why not? Because I’m not a cranky old lady telling you you’re going to hell?

This is me being sarcastic. Sadly, their answer is usually yes. I’m not boring, annoying, or constantly telling them they’re wrong and the way I live my life is right. I don’t scorn them for doing things I don’t approve of, and I don’t put them down.

Generally, I’m a fun person to be around. I motivate others to do better and work harder. I try my best to lift them up. All around, I try to be a better person. No, I’m not tootin’ my own horn. This is what I aspire to be, but I have my moody days, believe me.

Sadly, the positive traits I described above don’t come off as Christian to most people. Yes, I’m definitely different. I try not to swear, I don’t drink, and I don’t do drugs. But these traits don’t make me stand out as a Christian, just a nice, stand-up guy.

Total snore-fest

Christians can be boring. Fact.

Being a Christian means you have to be boring. False.

Let’s pick apart these two statements. First of all, not all Christians are boring. I’m aware of that. I’d call myself boring sometimes(?), but hopefully not all the time. Secondly, being a Christian isn’t making a commitment to never having fun.

People often think, “If I were to be a Christian I’d have to say goodbye to binge drinking at parties with my friends and sex before marriage.”

It’s a little obvious I’m not too sure what normal people think about. But I assume these are the general dilemmas plaguing folks.

My initial, non-religious response to that is, are those really the only ways you know how to have fun? Because frankly, that’s just sad. Haven’t you heard of Monopoly? Maybe some Mario Kart?

If I were to drag my theology into these conversations, I’d probably take the easy route out by saying no real good comes out of either of those two activities. Sure, it’s fun for the moment. But the repercussions usually aren’t worth the party. The Bible gives us plenty, plenty, of reasons why those are both bad ideas.

Either way you look at it, people take one look at our “rules” and hit the road. They usually don’t stop to consider that these rules are here for us to lead better, healthier, more fulfilling lives. All they see is restrictions saying they can’t do what makes them feel good at this given moment.

The common view of Christians

Being a person who is constantly barraged with popular ideas and opinions that conflict with my theology, I know exactly what it’s like to live in a world that looks down at Christians. To the rest of society, we’re boring. Rude. Restrictive. And apparently we hate gay people?

Last I checked, our handbook told us this…

My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you (John 15:12, NIV).

So it would be a poor assumption to say we hate anybody. We’re called to love everyone. Nevertheless, this is how the church is perceived.

Sunday church is an American classic; some would also call it nap time

This varies from congregation to congregation. Not every church family or pastor could put a toddler to sleep five minutes into the sermon. But ask any non-Christian what they think of Sunday church, and I guarantee you they’ll say something along the lines of “Well, it’s kind of boring.” I can’t count the number of times someones asked me why I go to church or have said they think it’s just a waste of time.

They say it because sometimes it can be true! I did not like going to church as a kid; I was always so bored. I didn’t like other kids very much, so Sunday school sucked, and the regular service was always dull as bricks. The songs we sang were out of hymnals and often repetitive.

It wasn’t, and still isn’t, the most appealing place for a kid to spend their Sunday morning.

I’ve seen change happening in the church with more kids coming to church on Sunday mornings. Not just with their families, sometimes with friends or alone. It’s changing, and it’s a good change.

As I grew up, I was able to better appreciate the sermons and learn something from them.

If you take a close look at the Millennial and Gen Z generations though, you’ll notice something funny.

Most of us don’t grow up.

What I mean by that is, we are the generations that have the same attention span of a three-year-old child. We never grew up.

Phones, TV shows, social media — all this technology we rely so heavily on has hampered our ability to focus on any one thing for more than five minutes. Don’t get me wrong, this doesn’t mean we can’t. After all, I see half a classroom of adults my age in college learning and paying attention. The other half of the class is usually on WoW or Facebook.

On top of that, we’re all highly opinionated. We all reserve the right to feel attacked and offended by virtually anything you say to us.

So you can imagine that spending 30 minutes to an hour listening to a pastor preach to you doesn’t sound so appealing to people my age. It’s the sad truth, but there you have it.

I’m blessed to attend a congregation that has an engaging pastor who’s a great teacher.

I take notes to stay focused, and even sing like no one is listening.

Appealing to our better nature

Having defined the primary reasons this generation of ours has a certain negative opinion towards Christians, what are steps we can take to come off as positive people towards those around us? Before we dive in, why don’t you take a moment to think of one way you stand out from the crowd because of how you walk in your faith.

Being supportive and non-judgmental

Try and understand that being supportive doesn’t necessarily mean you approve. People do a lot of things these days that we, as Christians, don’t condone. If all we do is tell these people how wrong they are and generally act in a negative light towards them, why would they want to be more like us?

When a Christian friend of yours is struggling with addiction, do you beat them down for falling into sin, or offer support and grace?

Getting relevant

We are so behind the times. The world is adapting and changing at what seems like a million miles a minute. The church is struggling to keep up with these changes. I’ve seen it happen, time and time again. Whether it’s politics, trends in fashion or health, or how people identify.

The church tends to turn a blind eye towards the changes we don’t like for as long as we can. Sooner or later those changes wind up on our doorstep though. It could be a stoner looking for salvation, but not from weed. It’s legal now, so clearly that’s not the problem here. Slow down, that’s definitely part of the problem. But we’ve been so preoccupied with fighting the change, we failed to adapt when it inevitably happened. Now you’ve got a whole country of people who are being told weed is fine and has health benefits. How do you approach and love someone who won’t listen to anyone who tells them their addictions are negative?

While the church is beginning to catch up, we need to be ahead of the curve so we can better relate to the struggles people are facing.

This was just an example of one of the ways our society has begun to change in just the last few years. While the church is beginning to catch up, we need to be ahead of the curve so we can better relate to the struggles people are facing.

Be a Jesus with skin on

This was a favorite saying from a pastor I follow.

If we want to really be a representation of how the Christian church is perceived, we need to act accordingly.

Christians are generous and giving. So give at the grocery store, pay for that single mom’s groceries.

Christians are kind and loving. So be kind, and love everyone equally. Invite them over for coffee, be their friend, no matter their political standing or sexual orientation.

Christians need to be the example. Set the pace for the rest of us. Be good human beings.

These actions may not make you the cool, fun, not boring Christian, but it’s a start towards becoming the joy-filled, loving people God has called us to be.