church attendance.
bible reading.
counting conversions.
evangelistic engagements.
mission trips.
church camps.
bible studies. 

the potential for legalism
and performative spirituality
is endless in Christianity.

ignore the fact that the
promotion of external
spiritual performance
is in complete negation
of salvation by grace
and through faith alone.

insert: religion over relationship.

insert: institutionalisation of faith
over intimacy with the Father.

insert: instructions over invitations.

the great risk of presenting faith
as a performance of external acts
is the deterioration of the internal.

…

perhaps we should not ask:
where is their name on the serving roster?
where is their bible study attendance?

but instead ask ourselves:
are they okay? do they need prayer?
what is assaulting their heart in this season …
that may have stolen their desire and ability
to serve others in this season like they usually do?

…

why not ask, instead of assume?

Jesus himself, calls us to this very act:

“ask, and it will be given to you;
seek, and you will find;
knock, and it will be opened to you.”
———————- matthew 7:7

why not ask, instead of assume?

…

whilst serving on the rosters,
one may be suffering internally
and just need prayer and intercession.

whilst teaching children at sunday school,
one may be grieving miscarriage after miscarriage.

whilst singing from the front on Sundays,
one may be silenced in a corporate job
every other day of the week.

whilst taught to submit to her husband,
the wife may experience abuse from said husband.

whilst leading on Christian camps,
one may be sacrificing their annual leave,
or battling with crippling chronic fatigue.

whilst praying from the pulpit on Sundays,
one may pray in the form of weeping
every other day during cancer treatment.

there is a great danger that if we
do not seek to first ask and enquire
after the heart of another, that
we will unknowingly place judgement,
assumption, and condemnation on them.

instead of showing compassion
to our brother or sister in Christ,
we may be critical of how they show up:
how they serve on Sundays,
how they present their faith to the world.

…

if we fall into the trap
of performative spirituality,
we fall into the trap
of condemnation.

…

when faith becomes wedded to works,
there is a tendency to seek
external evidence of one’s faith.

we focus on how they show up,
not how they sow behind the scenes.

we focus on how they dress,
not on their devotion.

we focus on their bible knowledge,
not on the desires of their heart.

we focus on the fruit, but do not
discern the difference between
man-made fruits (concocted for
performance, fruit born of works)
versus fruit cultivated by the Spirit
(the result of true repentance).

…

it is a true statement that
the external fruit of our lives
is evidence of the work
God is doing inside of us.

but it may also be a true statement
that one could falsely present fruit
by means of external practices.

performative spirituality gives
the illusion of bearing fruit,
but without the substance.

…

there is the (wrong) assertion
and implication that if you do not
exhibit certain spiritual behaviours
then you are not a true Christian.

you are condemned
for non-conformance.

instead of being a new creation in Christ,
you are called to meet a Christian criteria.

instead of being convicted by the Spirit,
spiritual authorities challenge you to
confess and conform to a collective standard.

salvation is no longer a means of faith by grace,
but a performance of spiritual conformance.

you are set a performance metric to meet:

daily confessions.
evangelistic door-knocks.
scriptures memorised.
tithings committed.

if you are not actively producing
this works-based fruit
there will be an intervention.

your faith will be questioned.
your priorities challenged.

assumptions will be assigned
to your salvation “status”.

because when your outward behaviours
and works are not compliant with the spiritual
standard set in a performance-based system,
you will become a threat to the system.

listen to this excerpt from
the incredibly eye-opening book
‘the subtle power of spiritual abuse’
by david johnson and jeff van vonderen:

“it was assumed that her questions
were coming from a wrong spirit,
not simply from an honest attempt
to have a give-and-take dialogue.

in other words, the worst was
assumed of her, not the best”

in this example, a woman, struggling with depression,
sought help from a spiritual authority figure, only to be told
that her problem was not depression, but rebellion against God.

the pastor assured her that her depression would lift
once she overcame her ‘sinful self-centeredness’.

after more months of struggle,
she returned to the pastor,
without seeing a change in her life.

(despite her active attempts to apply
the pastor’s solution to her ‘problem’)

she questioned the pastor
on his spiritual diagnostic
of her depression, but this
only led the pastor down
the path of confirmation bias.

her rebellion towards him as a
spiritual authority figure was all
he needed to assure himself
that his assessment was correct:

she was rebellious.
she was the problem.

he was more concerned with
his own correctness
(enter: performance)
than tending to the hurt,
confusion and suffering
of one of his church members.

you can already tell just how this
kind of spiritual authority figure
would handle being approached
with questions and matters of faith
by members in his congregation,
not just with pastoral care issues.

in this example, the spiritual authority
applied an assumption to her behaviour by:
treating her curiosity as a threat,
labelling her as a problem, and
devaluing her spirit and intentions.

…

unfortunately, one of the unhealthy beliefs underpinning
performance-based spiritual systems is the mindset that
the problems in our life are inevitable due to the plague of sin.

instead of receiving prayer,
this woman was told her lack of deliverance
was a direct result of her rebellion (sin).

instead of being understood,
this woman was told her depression was not
a problem, but that she was the problem (sinful).

notice the subtle shift of focus from
the emotion to the person, assigning
her vulnerability (state of feeling)
to her identity (state of being).

this damaging perspective reveals the
performative nature of this spirituality:
that one’s identity, righteousness or worth
is attached to or associated to one’s sin, and
therefore is earned through elimination of sin and
rebellion, and submission to certain standards.

of course, when spirituality is not
performance-based, but grace-centred,
Jesus is the source of all identity.

there is no means of earning or performing
in a grace-based spiritual system.

we learn that all fall short of the glorious standard.

self-righteousness will not lead to salvation.

and….

(this will feel wrong to performative Christians)

… sin is not the defining agent in our story.

heartbreakingly, i know many in the body of Christ
who have been misguided and abused by these
performance-based spiritual systems,
who have been treated the same way as this woman,
with life-defining problems dismissed or spiritualised:

cancer, epilepsy, infertility, etc.,etc.
the list goes one.

they who, when seeking spiritual guidance,
were told that their ‘problems’
remained due to a lack of faith.

who, when looking for hope,
were told to repent and be free.

who, when hurting, were told
healing was on the other side
of unconfessed sin in their lives.

who, when grieving, were told
their loss was God’s divine retribution.

all of these are incredibly inconsistent with scripture, and revelatory of
the deceptive and harmful tactics of performative spirituality.

honestly, walking with a friend who had internalised this lie
that she was not healed of her medical diagnosis due to
her lack of faith and inability to pray, or perform miracles was
not only absurd to me, but it was extremely aggravating.

it makes me so angry …
that this level of injustice exists.

that shepherds and sheep
can be masked in wolves clothing.

and interestingly, when you search the scriptures, you will see
that this is exactly what made Jesus angry. in scriptures, they are
labelled as Pharisees, pious religious leaders, or self-righteous.

unfortunately, for us today, as with many realms of society,
those who deceive and manipulate have more and more
cunning tactics and strategies to masquerade their intentions:

this is why it is so hard to see the abusive nature of unhealthy,
performance-based spiritual systems when you are in them.

johnson and van vonderen equip you in their book with means
of not only identifying these systems, but also healing from them.

but today, let’s just stay focused on the damage of these systems.

…

let me say again:

if we fall into the trap of performative spirituality,
we (are more likely to) fall into the trap of condemnation.

…
under the trap of performance spirituality
we are more likely to condemn someone
even when they do reveal or show us their heart.

instead of listening to their vulnerability,
and appreciating how hard it may be
to bring honest feedback or concern,
to share personal burdens and opinions,
we may assume and assign a wrong spirit.

“it is possible to become so determined
to defend a spiritual place of authority,
a doctrine or a way of doing things,
that you wound and abuse anyone who
questions, or disagrees, or doesn’t “behave”
spiritually the way you want them to.”

when a spiritual system focuses
on behaviour not belief,
on works not faith,
there is a blindness that occurs:

there is no longer an ability
to see with a clean, pure heart.

performance-based spirituality
fills out heart with judgement.

we will assume the worst.
we will misinterpret motive.

…

performative spirituality
has many shapes and forms,
but the performance element
is tightly bound to perception.

if we believe perception is reality,
then we allow outward performance
to influence our interpretation of
right and wrong, true and false.

this translates to us condemning
or even demonising the other,
because we subconsciously
require them to live up to a standard
of conformance and performance.

…

when speaking recently
with much wiser souls than myself,
i was taught a new way
to approach hard conversations.

instead responding with
opinion, judgement, emotion:

enter into hard conversations
with “tell me more about that”.

curiosity is a preventative medicine
to assumption, misunderstanding and animosity.

when we are given the analogy of love
as turning the other cheek,
we are invited to turn the other ear.

instead of listening to respond,
listening for self, listening with
our own preconceived thoughts
shaped by our own experiences:

we are invited to listen to learn,
to listen for other, and to listen
to appreciate another’s thoughts
and another’s lived experiences. 

the atrocity that is modern day,
and ancient day, Christianity is
the permeation, subtleties, and even
acceptance of spiritual abuse.

we have only had language for
spiritual abuse in the last century.

johnson and van vonderen define it as:

“the mistreatment of a person who is in need
of help, support or greater spiritual empowerment,
with the result of weakening, undermining or
decreasing that persons spiritual empowerment”. 

there is no solution or answers for why
spiritual abuse is so prevalent in
Christianity or even other religions.

but when i reflect on mistreatment,
i notice how interconnected it is
with that notion of misunderstanding.

…

earlier i stated the great danger
of assuming instead of asking
after the heart of another.

the great damage of this, is that
our assumptions are like arrows,
wounding the hearts of others.

…

the command to love God and love others
is a command wrapped up in the heart.

we are called not to assume or wound,
but to serve, to love, and to lay down
our lives for one another (not to condemn).

we are not called to convict, but to counsel.

(many do not know the distinction)

a commitment to dismantling abusive,
performance-based spiritual systems
is a commitment to loving and tending
to the hearts of others, and more,
submitting our own heart before God.

we are called
to purity of heart.

we are called
to spiritual formation.

we are called
not to maintain outward appearance,
but to inward devotion and obedience.

…

consider this simple truth:

service is not about
the act of serving, but
the heart of serving.

(mary and martha
helped us see that!)

…

serving in spiritually abusive systems
becomes an obligation, a requirement
in order for one to prove their faith.

to be able or willing to serve
is not always
a case of our own strength.

sometimes, we may be called
to divert our strength to others,
or our hearts may be positioned
on a frontline, battling warfare
that the human eye may not detect.

but an able, willing and servant heart
never says yes from a place of duty.

an able, willing and servant heart
says yes from a place of devotion.

…

ultimately, performative spirituality
is a subtle blurring of will.

God’s will and man’s will.

God calls us to submit to his will,
and to surrender our own will.

“your will be done”

Jesus is our perfect example of a submitted will,
a will, not conformed to performance, but cruciform.

there is much more to say on this topic
but for now, i’ll leave it here.

i hope and pray that you may takeaway
from this post some simple, practical
factors for your church interactions:

not to assume.
not to look to the outward.
not to equate salvation to performance.
not to give the pedestal to sin.

ironically, this list sounds performative
in and of itself…. (the do’s and don’t’s)

in all honestly, the only reason i can speak
to this topic is because i acknowledge that
i have been a part of these unhealthy systems.

i’ve been educating
myself,
and i hope you will too.

if you’re here and you stayed this long,
stay tuned, because my heart has been
dissecting a lot more on this topic.

by grace and grace alone,
let’s keep our eyes on Jesus.

xx