Member-only story
I have already made a short attempt to answer the question of why one should be a Christian in 2020, but it is now time to answer a different kind of inquiry: how can I stay a Christian in 2020? When I can’t physically gather at a church or sign up to serve somewhere or do much of anything with other people…what should I do? How can I remain encouraged? And how do I go about “remaining” when I doomscroll every night to clips of terrible politicians talking past each other on the way to an uncertain election which will occur in the middle of a plague? That too. How do I do that?
This is not an article to tell you to engage in the things all Christians have engaged in for centuries, that we pastors have told you to do for about the same amount of time: prayer, Scripture reading, small community, worship, fasting, and generosity. I’m assuming you’re doing these things because, well, every Christian throughout time who has lasted has practiced these essential things. If you want that kind of primer on staying encouraged, I suppose I have good (or bad?) news: my book, Distant God, essentially covers all of that material in what I hope is an accessible format.
But let’s say you’re doing that stuff. Let’s say you’re a Christian at this moment but you’re kind of afraid you may not last. You watched the debate this week and were…
