Let's overturn these tables

Spirituality and religion have been shown to be beneficial to our wellbeing. They make us feel better or live better.

Christians believe we are in contact with the God of the universe. We believe Jesus is establishing his kingdom on earth. We believe the Holy Spirit lives in us, guides us, empowers us.

What could be more exciting and meaningful than that?

So what if we find religion boring sometimes?

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People can get bored with spiritual practices

Have you ever fallen asleep in a sermon? Or watched someone else struggling to stay awake?

Have you ever kept looking at your watch, wondering how long before this church service finishes?

Or have you ever grown tired of a popular worship song but the worship leader keeps choosing it, and you just can’t sing it with enthusiasm?

Or do you attend a liturgical church and the words just don’t mean anything to you any more because of constant repetition?

There may be several reasons why you’ve had any of these reactions, including simply feeling tired. But boredom is probably part of it.

You’re not the first

Boredom has a long history within Christianity:

• Falling asleep during sermons has been a standard joke for years, as the cartoon shows.
• Monks recognised the struggle of staying awake during afternnon prayers.
• There were disputes during the Reformation between ministers complaining about people falling asleep and people complaining ministers preached for too long.
• There was even a time when churches would employ someone with a big stick to whack people who fell asleep.

How common is spiritual boredom?

A psychologist who has studied boredom did some research of five different spiritual; practices (Christian and other): yoga, meditation, silent retreats, Catholic sermons & pilgrimages. He found:

• More people weren’t bored with their spiritual practices than were, but a few were very bored.
• Least boring were pilgrimages, presumably because they involved action in ever- changing surroundings.
• Most boring were the sermons, because they “tend to be much less dynamic, requiring passive listening and offering fewer opportunities for engagement.”

What makes us bored?

Boredom can be caused by external circumstances or personal factors, or both. The main issues, apparently, are:

• feeling either over-challenged (bored because we can’t succeed) or under-challenged (lack of novelty or stimulation); and
• not perceiving the activity has value for us.

So being bored with the same liturgy, sermons on the same topics or on topics that don’t interest us, or singing the same songs, are examples of being under-challenged. We may find an academic sermon on some fine point of theology boring because we don’t see the relevance, or because it is just too hard to understand.

Being in a group setting, there’s always the danger that what will appeal to one person may be boring to another, because of our personal needs or situations.

And familiarity can lead to practices like prayer, worship or learning becoming habitual, which is also a recipe for boredom.

Boredom inhibits our mission

If we want to make disciples who carry on the mission left to us by Jesus, we want our church services and activities to motivate, encourage, teach and empower. And boredom works against this.

Banishing boredom

It would be nice if we could banish boredom from our churches, or at least reduce it. There are ways we could work towards this.

Recognise boredom for what it is

Boredom may not be a person’s “fault”, but may be because they have aspirations that aren’t being met. It can be an indicator of somewhere that change could be helpful.

Appropriate change is good

Christians seem to often like things to stay the same. But too much the same can be boring and not achieve the church’s mission. We need to find ways to value both tradition and innovation.

Different people, different needs

Not everyone is going to benefit from the same activities and topics. Recognising different needs and interests, and catering for them will help keep everyone satisfied.

Active learning

If we want people to learn and grow, they need to be actively involved in their learning and discipleship. They need conversation, not just passive listening. They need ways to practice what they have been taught. They need to feel what they are doing has value and relevance to their lives, faith and aspirations. The minister needs to be more of a life coach than a lecturer.

Review the vision, reinforce the vision

Is the church fulfilling Jesus’ vision for us? Do we ever evaluate whether activities are fulfilling that mission or just doing what we’ve always done? And if we’ re on track, make sure everyone in the church sees the value of that vision and their part in it.

Be open to new ideas, even criticism

Boredom can be a wake-up call, a means to help us get back on track. But leaders need to be open to being taught by other people’s boredom.

Jesus isn’t boring

Jesus wasn’t boring. He taught imaginatively. He was dynamic. His teaching was interesting, revolutionary and attractive. People flocked to him.

And he’s not boring now. His kingdom is like yeast, bubbling and active, making a difference.

He calls us to follow him. To obey his commands. And (amazingly) to do even greater things (John 14:12).

If his church is boring, it’s somehow lost the plot.

Let’s see him more clearly, follow him more nearly and love him more dearly …. and we won’t be boring.

Graphic: The Sleeping Congregation by William Hogarth, 1762. The Met, public domain. Cartoon by ASBO Jesus.

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