“By this Gospel you are saved, if you hold firmly to the word I preached to you. Otherwise, you have believed in vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:2)

Tuesday afternoon Christianity, that has been and always will be my goal.

So many people come to a Christian church on Sunday where they sing, cry, smile, and nod in agreement, but more often than not they lose their passion and love for Jesus by Tuesday afternoon. It seems as if faith in God is alive and well when the mood is right, but by Tuesday, that same faith gets swallowed by the cares and concerns and water-dripping tedium of everyday life. My goal as a pastor has always been to try to get the gospel to stick all through the week, even on a boring, lonely Tuesday afternoon when you need Jesus most.

I came to this conviction early on in my ministry.

When I started working at the church I am at now, the Youth Ministry I began to take over had a well-attended event called the “Victory Party”. After every home football game, the church would borrow three big yellow buses from the nearby high school and take students to a huge Christmas Tree farm to play games, have pizza by a bonfire, and hear a testimony by a fellow student on what it means to “Believe in Christ”.

The fire would shoot sparks and flames high, while junior and senior high students would listen to how a life was changed by Jesus while chomping on some free Little Caeser’s Pizza. After the message I would get up on the stage – it was nothing more than an old wooden hay trailer – and invite students to accept the Gospel by believing in Christ and giving their lives to God. After I did this I would hand out papers for the students, who believed, to fill out so we could follow up on their decision.

Over the eight years of running “Victory Parties,” I collected a large pile of cards. Some of the students who filled out a card eventually attended our ministry, but a vast majority never came back. While eating pizza and playing games in the woods was enjoyed, the message of the good news of Christ didn’t really seem to stick. Over the years I have found this to be the norm in almost every area of life: We are the generation that lives by the moment! People can whole-heartily say they believe in something – even getting emotional, tears shed, hands raised, hearts broken – but the commitment to that belief doesn’t last long. If something more exciting or completely contradictory comes up, even a few minutes later, many will forget the first thing they believed and move merrily along.

Over and over again I found this to be true in my ministry. People hear the words, get excited, but forget what they heard the moment they walk out the door. Hype and emotion are about as long-lasting as an early morning fog in the summer. This isn’t just true in the church, researchers say this wishy-washy tendency is an identifying mark of our culture as a whole. We have no roots, and our promises and convictions have no teeth.

When you are a pastor, this can be very frustrating. As Paul said, our job is to “To equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:12-13) This is a difficult task in a world saturated by hype.

So what is the answer? Give up? Stop trying? Or do what you can to help maturity be reached? I choose the latter because that is what Christ has called me to do. To do that I have tried my best to develop tools to help people get past the seduction of emotions and to ground themselves on what is solid and true. And that is God’s word, “For truly I tell you, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.” (Matthew 5:18) That is why I have developed a study of God’s word that is meant to help people get past the hype.

The goal of this study is to ground a New Believer on the authority of scripture. In this book, you will learn what faith is really all about, and how Jesus will be with you even on a lonely Tuesday afternoon. You are not meant to believe and go back to life as normal, you are here to glorify and enjoy the God who saved you.

If you want to learn more follow this link and know that singing, crying, smiling and agreeing is not enough if you have been called by Christ to follow. Love walks as Jesus walks.