Why Modern Christianity Feels So Shallow (And How to Build Real Faith)

Modern Christianity is popular…but often hollow.

Jesus offered living water, yet today many believers feel thin, fragile, emotional, and spiritually inconsistent. Why?

In this powerful episode of Behind the Mike Podcast with Mike Stone, we walk boldly into one of the most important conversations happening in the Church today—how our faith culture traded depth for convenience, discipleship for consumption, and transformation for emotional experience.

This message is firm, loving, and grounded in Scripture. If you've ever looked around and wondered, “How did we get here?”—this episode is for you.

🔥 In this episode you’ll learn:
  • Why “celebrity pastor culture” is quietly reshaping modern Christianity
  • How emotional-only Christianity creates fragile believers
  • Why TikTok theology and short-form spirituality are hurting discipleship
  • How self-help disguised as Scripture weakens the Gospel
  • The difference between consuming Christian content and truly following Jesus
  • What Jesus actually says about denying yourself, taking up your cross, and abiding
  • The FOUR steps to rebuild a deep, rooted, unshakable faith

📖 Key Scriptures Mentioned:
Jeremiah 17:9 — “The heart is deceitful above all things…”
Luke 9:23 — “Deny yourself…”
John 3:30 — “He must increase, I must decrease.”

#Christianity #FaithPodcast #BehindTheMike

⛓️ Timestamps
00:00 – The problem with modern Christianity
00:38 – How we traded depth for a comfortable imitation
01:45 – Why pastor celebrity culture is damaging faith
03:07 – Emotion vs obedience in spiritual life
04:21 – How TikTok theology is replacing discipleship
05:00 – Christianity becoming self-help instead of Scripture
06:35 – Consumption vs discipleship
07:51 – The gap that creates shallow faith
09:02 – Inspiration vs intimacy
09:34 – What Jesus actually calls His followers to
11:18 – Abiding in Christ during every season
11:55 – 4 steps to rebuild real faith
14:12 – Why maturity can’t be microwaved
14:48 – How to recognize empty wells
15:18 – Hope, renewal, and returning to Jesus

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Transcript

0:00

Do you ever look around at modern Christianity and think, how did we get here? How did something that Jesus described as living water, abundant life built on the rock? Become something that feels for many people thin, fragile, emotional, inconsistent, and honestly shallow? And let me say right up front with love, humility and clarity. Christianity is not shallow, but the version that many of us have settled for is absolutely shallow. Not because God changed. Not because Scripture changed. Not because Jesus became less powerful, but because many of us have traded the real thing for a comfortable imitation. So in this episode, we're going to peel back the layers and we're going to talk about it openly. We're going to talk about how celebrity pastor culture is reshaping our faith, how emotional only Christianity sets believers up for collapse. How our TikTok theology is replacing biblical discipleship. How self-help disguised as Scripture is weakening the gospel, and most importantly, how to rebuild a faith that is deep rooted, enduring, and unshakable. This will be a loving but firm conversation because the truth is, if your faith feels shallow, God isn't the one who drifted. Let's get into it. All right, let me start here. Pastors matter. I have a pastoral ministry degree, and I've seen pastors and watched pastors for years. And leadership matters. I'm grateful for faithful pastors and shepherds who are out there working hard. It's a hard job. It's a hard calling. Because people don't always recognize the fact that you're human, too, and you deal with some of the same things that that we all deal with. But somewhere along the way, we've built a culture where the pastor becomes the brand, the product and the personality, and Jesus kind of becomes the background. You know, people know their favorite pastors voice, their catchphrases, their sermon series, their social media clips. But I'm afraid that they don't know Jesus actual teachings. We see Christians are devastated when a pastor falls. Why? Well, it is devastating, but I think it's mainly because their faith was anchored to a man, not the Messiah. God never asked us to make celebrities. He asked us to make disciples. Let me be clear here. Emotion is not the enemy. Emotion. Emotion is a gift. But emotion was never supposed to be the engine of your faith. Today, many believers measure God's presence by how they feel during worship. Did I cry? Did I get the chills? Did the chorus hit just right? But here's the danger in that. You know, if if your faith is built on feelings, man, your faith is going to collapse as soon as your feelings do. Some Christians worship passionately, but walk away anxiously. Why? Because they've learned to feel God but not follow God. Emotion sparks you. Obedience sustains you. We live in an era where TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube have become the main discipleship tools for millions of Christians. And hear me online content like this can be helpful, but it can't replace the depth of Scripture or the accountability of community. This is meant to be a encouragement for you. Not your soul. Bread. So the problem is short videos that prioritize novelty over accuracy. Influencers preach without any oversight. An esthetic spirituality replaces biblical discipline. We're raising Christians who they can quote trendy reels, but not the passages that the reels are talking about. Christian vibes have replaced Christian values. Christianity has become content when it was always meant to be commitment. We've replaced biblical doctrine with therapeutic positivity. So just check me here. Have you heard the lines? Follow your heart. Live your truth. You're enough. God just wants us to be happy. The problem? None of that is in the Bible. In fact, Scripture says the opposite.

Jeremiah 17: 5:23

9 says, the heart is deceitful above all things.

Luke 9: 5:28

23. Deny yourself

and John 3: 5:30

30. You must decrease, and he must increase. Self-Help says you have the power inside you, but the gospel says you need a savior because you don't have the power. Self-Help centers on the self, the gospel crucified as the self. And when you substitute therapy for theology, you get a Christianity that encourages you. But it never transforms you. So, and don't get me wrong. There are a lot of great Christian counselors and therapists out there, and they're very important. Just be careful about going to the ones that want to offer this type of self-help stuff, because that's different. It's not founded. It's not based on God's Word. So let's move deeper. These symptoms aren't random. They flow from something underneath. We've replaced discipleship with consumption. We are now the most Christian content soaked generation in history. Podcasts like this. Sermons, reels, devotionals we consume spiritually. Like we binge Netflix. But consumption is not discipleship. Discipleship requires obedience, accountability, surrender, conviction, and transformation. Consumption requires headphones, passive listening, and entertainment. Jesus didn't say, binge my teachings. He said, follow me. And there's a difference. Transformation requires pruning, discipleship, sacrifice, and losing your life. To find that comfort requires. Well, nothing. Modern Christianity says I want God to fix my life, as long as he doesn't ask me to change anything in it. But Jesus didn't come to polish the old you. He came to crucify it and raise a new you. Comfort never produces character. Convenience never produces conviction. I've learned that it's a hard learn. It's a hard thing to understand, but it's true. And this is where many believers get stuck. We want good things, right? We want peace, purpose, joy, clarity, strength, blessing. We want calling. Those are good things. But we resist repentance. We resist confession and sacrifice. Obedience. Accountability, holiness. We ask God to bless what we refuse to surrender. We want a Savior, but not a Lord. We want the promises, but not the process. And shallow Christianity is born right there in that gap between what we want from God and what we refuse to give God. Inspiration feels good, right? It lifts your mood. It motivates you. But inspiration fades. Intimacy forms. Intimacy is built in prayer, in Scripture, in repentance and obedience in waiting. Not my strong point. It's built in warship endurance, and it's built in community. You cannot build a deep faith on vibes and reels. You build it in the quiet, in the consistency, the obedience, in the hidden life that no one sees. Inspiration encourages you. Intimacy anchors you. Christianity in the Scripture is not the Christianity that most people experience. Let's see what Jesus actually says. Okay, first of all, deny yourself. Our culture now says, be yourself. Express yourself. Follow your truth. Jesus says, no, deny yourself. And that means denying selfish urges, denying sinful patterns, denying cultural lies. Deny the version of yourself that refuses to surrender to God. The gospel calls us to crucify the old self. Take up your cross. Right. You've heard that. And that was not poetry. It was death. The cross that Jesus died on is dying to pride. It's dying to lust, dying to bitterness, dying to unforgiveness, dying to selfish, sinful passions. You can't follow Jesus and follow your flesh. One of them has got to die. That's the difference between someone who's following Christ and someone who's not. He says, follow me. Not follow your heart. Follow influencers. Follow trends. Follow hype. Follow him. Meaning. Imitate his humility. Obey his commands. Value what he values. Reject what he rejects. Live like he lived. Love like he loved. Abide in me. Abiding is deeper than believing. It's deeper than agreeing. And it's deeper than feeling. Abiding is daily. It's relational. It's intentional. It's persevering and rooted. It means you stay connected through every season the dry seasons, the heavy seasons, the confusing seasons, and the painful seasons. Abiding produces the fruit that shallow faith will never get you to. Here's the part that people skip. You can fix shallow Christianity. It's not complicated, but it's costly. So let's walk through that. First of all, return to Scripture, not hurried Scripture, not verse of the day. Scripture, not what's trending on Instagram. Scripture. That's all fine. But that's not where the growth takes place. I'm talking about slow reading, deep meditation, context, prayer, and study. If you want deep faith, you've got to drink from the deep wells. Number two choose repentance over rebranding. We live in a generation that rebrands sin. They say things like, that's just who I am, or it's my personality, or it's just a struggle. Or even God knows my heart. But repentance is freedom. Repentance is healing. Repentance is transformation. You don't heal what you keep renaming. You heal what you surrender. Number three surround yourself with people who push you toward Jesus. We talk a lot about finding your people, but spiritually, your people should challenge you. They should sharpen you and confront you. They should pray with you and push you. They should call out, compromise, and hold you accountable. That's true love. Spiritual environments shape spiritual outcomes. You grow in the right circle or you drift in the wrong one. Number four trade inspiration for obedience. Most Christians aren't struggling with information. They're struggling with obedience. We know enough scripture to live transformed lives. We just don't apply it. Obedience builds spiritual strength. Obedience turns belief into transformation. And obedience is where God meets you most powerfully. I have a confession. I love fast food. Always have. But fast food. Faith is quick. It's easy. It's emotional, it's shallow, and it's comfortable. It won't sustain you. If I ate at McDonald's every day, my life would start falling apart physically. Real faith takes consistency. This discipline. Sacrifice. Patience. Surrender. Commitment. Maturity can't be microwaved. Look, I want to speak directly to you. If your faith feels shallow or counterfeit, it's not that God is distant. It's probably that you're drinking from empty wells. If your faith feels weak, it's not that you're broken beyond repair. It's that the world has handed you a cheap version of Christianity. And you were told that that's all there was. But deeper faith is available, stronger faith is available. Wholly rooted. Anchored faith is available. And the moment you turn back toward Jesus, he meets you with grace, strength, and renewal. Shallow Christianity may be very popular right now, but deep Christianity is powerful and Jesus is still enough. Hey, thank you for joining me today on Behind the Mic podcast. If this stirred something in you, would you please share it with someone who needs that depth and not just the hype? Don't forget to click subscribe and like it. Share it. I appreciate you joining me each week, and I hope that you follow me on those Instagram and, TikTok and YouTube shorts. Those are there because I want to encourage you on a daily basis. There are days we wake up and we just feel like it's going to be a bad day. That's what those are for. And I hope that you're digging deep into God's Word and not just finding those things online. Join us next week as we dig into another topic, and make sure that between now and then, you're spending time with the Lord and not being sucked away by that false Christianity. It's easy to fall into. So make sure you're being transformed each day by Jesus Christ. It's a daily commitment. Thanks again for joining.