Lori Gottlieb’s New York Times article, “What Brand Is Your Therapist?” is the personal story of a woman struggling with a profession whose goals are increasingly at odds with a changing culture. She cites a 30% decline in the demand for psychotherapy and says that the reason is that there are “fewer and fewer people coming in and saying, ‘I want to change.’” Instead, the trend is that people want someone or something else to change.

She tells the story of a colleague who was ignored at networking events when she put the word “psychotherapist” on her name tag. At the next event, she decided to rebrand herself as a “happiness locator,” and she walked away with several referrals.

To Gottlieb, this kind of rebranding changes something essential about her mission. She’s been trained to help people change, not just make them feel happy. But she fears for her profession. She writes: “Will we throw away so many doctrines of our training that we cease being therapists entirely? The more we continue in this direction of fast-food therapy — something that feels good but isn’t as good for you; something palatable without a lot of substance — the more tempted many of us will be to indulge.”

I fear that a similar dynamic is at work in the church.

In the rush to gain an audience, churches can rebrand themselves in ways that “feel good but aren’t as good for you.” They can offer “fast-food Christianity” that is palatable but lacks much substance. And so many doctrines can be thrown away that churches cease to be churches entirely.

When Jesus began His ministry, His message was simple: Repent. Matthew summarizes His message as “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). Mark reports it, similarly, “Repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). While repent has been turned into a religious word, fundamentally, it describes the change of mind that takes place when you realize you’re going in the wrong direction and need to turn and go a different way.

In a culture where “fewer and fewer people … want to change,” you and I may be tempted to look for churches and listen to messages that make us feel better while we stay the same. But if repentance isn’t foundational to a church’s message, it has lost Jesus’ message. It may have even rebranded itself into something that’s not Christian anymore.

Christianity is about more than repentance. There’s good news and lots of grace. But if we want more than fast-food therapy, there are a few things that all of us can do:

1. Invest yourself in a church where repentance is preached.

2. Practice repentance by regularly asking yourself, “Where do I need to change?”

3. Remember that repentance is never just about turning away from sin. It also involves turning to Christ and the better way He offers.

Make repentance central to the way you respond to the grace God has given you. And may Christ build strength and maturity in your life as you do.

If this is new to you and you think it’s something you’d like to explore, I’ve written a free, 12-week course called The Unstuck Life that walks you through the essentials of Jesus’ teachings in daily, bite-sized messages that you can read or watch by video. To learn more, go to gracebc.ca/getunstuck.

In awe of Him,

Paul