Below are a few pointers on some parts of the Christian practice that are commonly encountered

What does it mean to live the Christian Life?

What is the Christian Life?

Many people claim to be a Christian or to live according to Christian values, but only occasionally come to church. For such people, they are aspiring towards living the Christian-Life, but haven’t quite got there yet. That is because Christianity is about more than just being good, it is about wanting to live in proper connection with the source of all goodness – God. As we move through the journey of life, many things may draw us into greater awareness of God’s presence – a belief that death cannot be the end, the loss of a loved one, a sequence of events in our lives that have been challenging, the arrival of a new life in the family, an awareness of the immense magnitude of blessing one encounters in the natural world. But once we begin to become more aware of God, we cannot leave it there. If that awareness is to grow and transform us into a more rounded and peaceful person, we need to encounter God in our lives more fully; we need to begin living the Christian-Life.

There are traditionally four aspects to the Christian Life:

Prayer, worship, devotion
Study and thinking
Work and serving the community
Rest, relaxation and recreation

1. Prayer, worship and devotion

Engaging in the Church’s liturgy is one of the most important elements of the Christian life, because it is when individuals come together into community in order to encounter Jesus through the tradition and teachings of the Church; to think about Christ’s goodness and how it calls us to change so that we may live more in tune with that goodness. We come together to give thanks to God for his many blessings, even life itself, and we also come together to become more in tune with Christ’s presence. A person cannot encounter Jesus properly on their own. As we follow the cycles of the Church’s year together, so we experience the full repertoire of God’s engagement with the world through his son, Jesus Christ. That is why attending church regularly, ideally every week, is so important.

This is not always easy, especially in a society that encourages us to be so busy, to nurture other obsessions and distractions. But being a Christian calls us to place church high up our agenda. Of course there are many things we could be doing instead, but to truly live the Christian life means uniting with other Christians regularly in prayer and devotion in order to experience God and focus on him, especially in the Eucharist. In the Eucharist, we encounter Christ most intimately as he gives himself to us in the gifts of bread and wine and we share in it as one community. This is central to our growth and self-understanding. Being a Christian is not always easy – it is a life-long journey. But it is in perseverance that we move closer to God and overtime become more open to allowing him to guide us, walk alongside us, and ultimately bring us into his eternal life.

2. Study and thinking

In order that we may begin to know God better and feel more comfortable in his presence, it is important that we engage in some kind of study and reflection. Our God is mysterious and compassionate. He offers us endless mercies in the struggles of life, but we have to learn to recognise them and see them as coming from his hands. God reveals himself through every avenue of experience. Reading the Bible and what other Church thinkers have to offer is important too. Study and reflection is central to the Christian life as we look to move closer to God by knowing him better.

3. Work and serving the community

Combining aspects of the Christian Life – serving and partying.

Living the Christian life also means putting into practice what we have learned about the way God, in Jesus Christ, wishes us to live. This calls us to make the world a better place, one little act at a time. Because it is the Church that draws more people into knowing God and living in his goodness, our first responsibility is to serve the church and help build it up. Then we have a duty to serve the wider community in ways that reveal God’s goodness. We can do this by supporting charities, engaging in church outreach or simply offering support to overcome need, wherever we find it. Money forms a part of this service, but as Christians we should not only share our wealth, but also our time and talents. Our work places should be included in this area of the Christian life. What we do for employment and the way that we do it are important for our own integrity and can transform the lives of others around us.

4. Rest, relaxation and recreation

God gave us a Sabbath so that we might rest. This is supposed to be a day of relaxation and prayer. Unfortunately, our ever busy world has stripped many of us of the ability to properly rest on a Sunday. Nonetheless, rest, relaxation and recreation remain central facets to the Christian life and we must work at making space to do the things we love. These must, of course, remain in balance with the other aspects of our Christian life, but we can do all things for the love of God and God gives us the ability to rest, relax and enjoy recreation in order that we might recharge our batteries and stimulate our bodies.

Can you believe and not go to church?

Yes. No question!

However, if you choose to be a Christian without sharing that experience with others, you choose to exclude yourself from many of the good things that an active relationship with God can bring. Service sits at the centre of the Gospel narrative, and service, by its very nature, requires us to be committed to others. Service starts with a simple ‘putting up with’ everyone else. And true service requires us to serve everyone, even those we don’t much like. Throughout the Bible, this begins with those who are walking the same journey and aspiring to the same joyful enlightenment. The small community we see Jesus walking with has its ups and downs, but in every example, the Bible shows us that the long journey is necessary if we are to be included in the richness of what follows. But that means bearing with and being generous to each other. It would be far easier to just walk away every time we feel aggrieved or less inspired, but it is in the commitment and faithfulness, over a long period of time, that our faith bears fruit. From this stable foundation, service then explodes out into the wider world helping to bring the same benefits to those outside, especially those in the most need. There is nothing more pleasing to God, nor beneficial to us personally, than being faithful to Christ’s church community for a lifetime, through all the ups and downs.

The Bible contains a description of what the followers of Jesus did in the days following his death and then the weeks following his resurrection. Following his death, they moped around, not knowing what to do. They weren’t very good company and they no doubt argued and bickered – allot. But they stuck together and continued trying to work out what it was that Jesus wanted them to do next. Of course, all he wanted them to do for that time, was to stay faithful, and they did.

Following the Resurrection things changed. Their life together is then described as being full of excitement and joy. This group of disciples were the first church and they had overcome the first difficulty with remarkable faithfulness. It is unquestionable that Christ designs the Church to become the home of the faithful and the guarder of faith, he even calls it a Church (Upon this rock, I will build my Church – Matthew 16:18). Ever since then, the witness of the Early Church has given Christians a model of how the experience of being a follower of Christ, part of the church, rather than just an individual, could and should be:

It focusses on two tables
- The Altar – The Eucharist (Holy Communion – Sharing Bread and Wine)
- The Dining Table – Sharing of Meals
Welcoming each other into their homes and offering hospitality
Learning from their spiritual leaders (Bishops and Priests) what the way of Jesus should mean in practice, and supporting these leaders in their vision to grow God’s kingdom locally (through the Church)
Praying for their shared concerns and the concerns of the world
Praising and worshipping God with reverence and awe
Rejoicing and celebrating – Jesus loved a party!
Recognising God’s action in doing miraculous things in the everyday world
sharing any excess personal possessions and money so that they could be used to grow God’s kingdom further.
Trusting each other that when a need arose, help would be at hand.
Being generous about each other’s faults, giving each other the benefit of the doubt and forgiving each other – constantly!

In the New Testament we see how this was so appealing that the group grew and grew, with people who had never met Jesus coming to faith, putting their trust in God and committing themselves to the Church and through it, Jesus’ way of life.

It is undeniably true that some people’s experience of church in the UK is not entirely positive. But Church should not be held up in comparison to entertainment, or sport, or shopping, or a caring profession, or a service industry. Church is all about something much less tangible and far deeper than any of these things and it has something to do with our personal commitment to God and each other. Christianity is a whole way of life, often quite at odds with the negative values of the world (such as personal success at others’ expense, personal wealth accumulation ect.). But those who open their hearts often find the church community entirely transformative.

Churches are places where people receive what they give, but often not in the way they expect.