This post is part of a series where I present my approach to discipleship and spiritual formation, which I call Slow Cooker Faith.

Click the links below for previous entries:
Slow cooker faith, part 1: “on fire” for Jesus?

Slow Cooker Faith, part 2: Trying to re-kindle the flame

The “on fire for Jesus” culture is primarily a youth culture. But you still see elements of it in most pop Christianity events, concerts, etc.

This fast-burn environment creates many different kinds of victims, all of them blistered or scarred or even numb, to some degree. All of them will require different kinds of triage.

• You will have many false converts. They got caught up in the heat of the moment. Either they will assume they are saved because of a decision they once made; or they will be cynical towards the faith (what goofy things I was into as a kid).
• You will have many others whose knowledge of God and other holy matters is a mile wide and an inch deep.
• You will have others who perhaps came to Jesus primarily for moral healing. Once their outward sins have been sufficiently dealt with, they will probably hang around … but will grow no further in the Gospel. These erstwhile prodigals sadly often turn into elder brothers.
• Many, who are self-starters will by nature internalize the rhythm of panicking when the fire begins to wane, and they will be able to light their own fire, of a sort. They’ll have periods of self-examination, followed by renewed zeal and intense activity, which will gradually cool down until they enter their next period of “renewal.”
• You will also have many who suffer in silence, until they cycle through a similar guilt / shame —> repentance cycle. They suffer because they don’t feel safe speaking up in a crowd of the happily morally reformed, the inch-deep club, or the self-starting cheerleaders. They suffer because they lack the easy assurance the others seem to have. These, however, are close to the kingdom. They are bruised reeds (Matthew 12:20).

So those are the burn patients of the “on fire” culture.

In future posts, I will begin to explain a sustainable alternative to this destructive way of spiritual (de)formation. It’s what I call Slow Cooker Faith. It’s a healthier way of envisioning the ordinary Christian life, rooted in historical commitments and pastoral realism of the Great Tradition of Christianity.