Lowest Common Denominator Christianity

I don't like to play games.

At least ones that involve putting on a mask, pretending that being a Christian means being perfect, or even just being good.

What happens oftentimes when we attach the label "Christian" to something is that we don't get a product that looks like Christ. We end up with something akin to processed food: some real ingredients, boiled way down, and a bunch of plastic that results in something uniform and shiny, tasty and most likely unhealthy. We get Lowest Common Denominator Christianity.

If you are in leadership, if you are a public figure, or even just the average person representing Jesus, then there is this idea that you need to be as good as possible so you can be a testimony to the outside world. But the real world is a bit more honest, and they are onto us. The know that know one can live up to that perfect image, so they wait until we fail and then they cry hypocrite. LCDC is the clean cup act the Pharisees perfected, though they certainly didn't invent it. No one sees the inside, so as long as you shine up the outside real pretty, you'll be fine.

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Any of that resonate with you?

Those words are excerpts from my essay "Lowest Common Denominator Christianity" that is a part of a collection of essays in Agenda Music, a Conversation on Faith and Art with Derek Webb, Seth Tower Hurd, and Friends. (I am one of the friends.)

The ebook begins with a transcript from a conversation between Seth Tower Hurd and Derek Webb about the Christian music industry. My essay wasn't so much limited to music, but about the general ideas of...well, everything I said above. The interview was really enlightening.

And guess what? The book is free on Seth's site and only 99 cents on Amazon. Go check it out! And if you want the full story behind my essay, you can read more about that HERE.