Content Christianity vs. Communion
Prayer as learning again that God is closer than breath.
Content or Communion?
Let me be real with you... The most underrated spiritual discipline is the one I trip over daily: Prayer.
Most of us were discipled into what I’d call “content Christianity.” Listen to this sermon. Watch that YouTube theologian. Read this book. Read that other book. Install the Bible app, and do the plan, and maybe do the bonus plan.
None of this is bad.
Scripture is sacred. Wisdom is sacred. Learning matters.
But take it from me... you can fill your brain with a small seminary’s worth of information and still struggle to talk to God like a Person who is actually in the room.
I used to forget that He is closer than breath.
Then I started paying attention to the wind.
The way it touches your face unexpetedly. The way it moves the leaves even when you are too busy scrolling to notice.
God’s presence is a lot like that. Always happening. Always available. Always reaching toward you.
You can ignore the wind and keep about your business... or you can stop to experience the way it feels, the way it changes your direction, the way it connects you larger than yourself.
Prayer is stopping to experience God.
Which is why I know I desperately need to pray more.
The Deeper Problem
The more I sit with people, the more I realize the content trap runs deeper than we admit. It’s not just that we consume too much. It’s that we’ve quietly redefined discipleship as consumption.
Honestly… you’ll never move forward in your faith until you realize this: discipleship is not content consumption.
It is not binge-watching sermons or hoarding books or mastering Hebrew verbs. It is not the endless parade of podcasts, journals, lectures, seminars, newsletters, conference livestreams, or two-minute reels of someone else’s spiritual high.
Discipleship is whole-life apprenticeship to Jesus.
The content is helpful, yes! It is the scaffolding. It holds shape while the real structure is being formed. But the content is not the house. It is not the point.
It is not the fire on the mountain.
Jesus looked the Pharisees dead in the eye and said, “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about Me, yet you refuse to come to Me that you may have life.”
He was speaking to the card-carrying Bible nerds.
The spiritual experts. The theological elite.
They knew the most… and yet somehow knew Him least.
You might be reading this and feeling quietly disqualified. You don’t feel like you’re becoming like Jesus.
You’re not a rabbi. You’re not a teacher. Maybe you’ve never preached a sermon.
You work a boring job. You sit in traffic. You scroll your phone. You make your kid’s lunch.
You feel invisible. Small. Not holy. Not powerful.
And yet…
This is where He forms you.
Not on stages. Not in seminar rooms. But in the ordinary hush of a thousand Mondays, in unseen sacrifices, in whispered prayers in the dark.
You’re being formed.
Jesus is in it. All of it.
What does he want from you?
For you to open your eyes and see Him right in front of you.
Perhaps to learn what it means to not just consume content, but to actually learn His rhythm of contentment.
See the words of Paul.
Phillipians 4:10-14, as worded by Eugene Peterson (The Message.)
10-14 I’m glad in God, far happier than you would ever guess—happy that you’re again showing such strong concern for me. Not that you ever quit praying and thinking about me. You just had no chance to show it.
Actually, I don’t have a sense of needing anything personally. I’ve learned by now to be quite content whatever my circumstances.
I’m just as happy with little as with much, with much as with little. I’ve found the recipe for being happy whether full or hungry, hands full or hands empty.
Whatever I have, wherever I am, I can make it through anything in the One who makes me who I am.
What He’s Actually After
Something I need to hear often: the God you serve isn’t impressed by your perpetual exhaustion. He’s grieved… because He loves you.
He didn’t create you to run yourself into the ground.
He created you for communion.
With Him. With your family. With His people.
Thank the Lord that even when we are too tired to feel, the table of communion is always set.
Come, and partake this morning.
Jesus is waiting with a feast of His own presence.
Enough writing. Time to go pray.
-Aaron
For more on this:
We Told Gen Z to Build a Platform. Now They Don't Know How to Build a Soul
You posted about serving at the homeless shelter. Got 247 likes. Felt warm inside, like you’d done something good.
If this work has fed you, challenged you, or pushed you closer to Jesus, then I need your help!
I’m Aaron, a former long-time church staff pastor now doing ministry out in the wild. Since 2018, I’ve been building GoodLion Ministries to help young adults follow Jesus deeply in a post-modern, post-Christian age that pulls them in a thousand directions.
On Sunday evenings, I lead the GoodLion School of Discipleship, a multi-year formation program where young adults wrestle with Scripture, ask hard questions, and build a faith that can handle doubt and chaos. Through this work, I watch students move from confusion to clarity, from fear to faithfulness, from being spiritually adrift to knowing how to walk with Jesus in real life.
I also write here on Substack, mentor young leaders, and create resources for people who want substance over hype.
Our mission is simple: We believe in Jesus, the King who is not safe but is very good. We’re here for the doubters, the deconstructors, the burnt-out ministers, the church kids haunted by legalism, and anyone tired of shallow faith.
Here’s the reality: I’m bivocational. For years, I’ve supported my family through freelance work while building this ministry in every spare hour I can find. My goal is to transition to doing this work full time so I can expand the School, write more, travel to teach, raise up more leaders, and serve every single person who need what GoodLion offers.
This is my life’s work. For nearly 20 years, I’ve been helping Gen Z learn to think deeply, wrestle honestly, and follow Jesus in a world that tries to pull them apart.
If you believe this work matters, I invite you partner with me! This is not a side hustle for me. This is a mission. Even $10/month helps me teach more, write more, and disciple more young adults who genuinely need it.
👉 Support GoodLion Ministries Here
Thank you for walking with me.
– Aaron
Links
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🎓 GoodLion School of Discipleship
Well written. The biggest word you write here ? Apprentice … sitting at the feet of The Rabbi yet also following so close behind him that we pick up the dust from His sandles. Yet still - not only that we are Him but that He is in us…… Using us as His instrument.
Our feet - His to take us to where He wants to use us in this moment.
Our hands - to do His will.
Our lips, tongue and voice box - His to speak the words as He directs.
Without Him we can do nothing (Jn 15)- yet in Him we can do all things (Phi 4:13) Missio Dei - His work but He wants to use us.
All about surrender and obedience that can only come out of intimacy.
Thank you again! You clearly write what I know and often struggle to communicate!
Thank you for being willing to go on the journey God has invited you, and sharing it with us.