When the Church was first starting out in the book of Acts, Christianity was illegal. Roman emperors would execute citizens that didn’t worship the Roman gods. In fact, eleven out of the twelve disciples were killed for spreading the gospel message. Living a life in the church shouldn’t have been appealing, yet the church’s numbers grew by thousands daily (Acts 4:4).

So what made the early church so appealing? And why isn’t Christianity spreading at a faster rate now that there are no legal restrictions? The simple answer: authenticity.

The early Christians in the church were risking their lives to hear the gospel message. Being a Christian wasn’t just something to throw on their Instagram bio, it required danger, risk, and adventure. Therefore the ones that were bold enough to put their lives on the line, were truly interested in learning about the message Jesus delivered. These early Christians must have been deeply in love with the messiah. I also believe, while scared at times, these Christians must have been filled with such joy to learn they could have a relationship with the creator of the universe. The early Christians knew that the gospel message was to die for, and because of the extremity of their actions, many were intrigued.

In America today we’ve lost that willingness to die for our faith. People identify themselves as Christians without following any sort of commitment. The result is, the rest of the world views our actions as no different than anyone else's, and therefore sees no intrigue or appeal to Christ. The first members of the church must have been craving a love only the Savior could provide, therefore, they would be thrilled when they learned God was longing for a relationship with us. Since many of us have grown up in the church, the joy that comes with Christianity has lost its authenticity. We’ve grown numb to just how amazing the gospel truly is.

So how do we find that authenticity to make the church appealing again? We aren’t called just to die for our faith. We’re also called to do something much more extreme — live for it. Donald Miller says, “Dying for something is easy because it is associated with glory. Living for something is the hard thing. Living for something extends beyond fashion, glory, or recognition. We live for what we believe.” Even though persecution of the American church doesn’t seem as prominent, our faith still requires the same level of authenticity as the early church needed. In order to make the church appealing and intriguing again, we must regain the passion that the early church had.

(Written with help from Trent Bianco and Tommy Royce)

The other day I asked my Bible teacher if it felt like work to read the Bible. Since it’s his job to explain, elaborate, and preach the Bible, I thought it would be difficult to read the text without the stress of work. He explained to me that it’s always work to read the Bible, regardless of your career. He then explained that it takes discipline, but it’s reward makes the work worth it. He compared this discipline to my running. It’s always work, but some days are better than others, and ultimately the run is always worth it. This simple statement became profound to me the more I thought about it.

My freshmen year of running cross country was great. Most races I beat my personal record, lead my team, and finished in a good place. I loved every minute of running and hated when the cross country season was over.

During the next summer, going into my sophomore year, I felt a lot of pressure to perform well. I followed my coach’s training plan down to each mile. I even finished the summer running 500 miles in the span of two and a half months. I thought the upcoming cross country season was going to be exceptional. I was quickly knocked down a peg, and discovered this season was incredibly harder. I only broke my old record once, and only by a few seconds. I became the second runner on my team, with the leader seemly miles ahead. I ignored my place because I knew I wasn’t getting any better.

This past year was my junior year. Going into the cross country season I wanted anything but to repeat the mistakes of my previous season. I felt like if I did things a little differently, I could regain that positivity I had my freshmen year. I changed my training over the summer, and tried different race strategies to crush my old record. Unfortunately this season ended similarly to the previous one. I only broke my record once and ended a few races 5th on my team. I would cross the finish line to some races with tears in my eyes, defeated, and wondering why this was happening. I often struggled with just quitting running altogether.

I think our relationship with God is very similar. We spend so much time doing “all the right stuff,” but we don’t see the immediate results. We expect instant gratification, and then get discouraged when we feel we aren’t going anywhere. We want to feel a sense of whimsy every time we open our Bibles. Ultimately when we feel defeated, we are tempted to just walk away. I’ve seen many people who were great runners and then, after graduating high school, never ran another mile again. This is not unlike Christianity.

I think the solution to this problem is to be patient. Like my Bible teacher said, the work is always worth the reward. My friend Rachael once said, “Sometimes patience feels like heartbreak, but it yields so much discipline, deep joy, and peace to know you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be.”

I still struggle to get up and run everyday. It’s hard to fight the good fight. But I have to tell myself, ‘I am runner and always will be a runner.’ Again this is not unlike Christianity.