God Is a Verb — Stop Making Your Faith Into a Noun

By the Rev. Dr. Ronald Moore

October 7, 2025

 The Church in the West is dying not because God has grown weak, nor because the gospel has lost its power, but because we have turned the living, acting God into a tame abstraction — and our faith into a spectator sport. We speak of Him as if He were an idea to be admired, a concept to be discussed, a memory to be venerated. But He is none of those things.

Our God is a verb. He creates. He commands. He calls. He judges. He redeems. He restores. He returns. Every page of Scripture is an action, and every revelation is movement. And yet we, His people — those who claim to follow the living Christ — have reduced our response to sitting quietly in a pew once a week, consuming spiritual content, and calling it “faith.”

We were never meant to be spectators. And the world is burning while the Church watches from the bleachers.

The Curse of Convenience

In the early Church, there was one Body, one faith, one baptism. If you walked away from the Church, you walked away from the faith. Today, we have a buffet. If First Baptist offends you, try Tate Baptist. If the Baptists in general are too much, there’s a Presbyterian church down the street. And if they preach anything uncomfortable, there’s always a non-denominational place with better coffee and a rock band.

We have turned the Bride of Christ into a marketplace — and the customer is always right.

The result is predictable: no accountability, no discipline, no commitment. A Christianity that costs nothing, demands nothing, and therefore means nothing. The first believers risked their lives to gather. We’ll change churches because the sermon went five minutes too long.

If faith is a noun — a label we wear, a box we check — then of course we drift to wherever it feels easiest. But if faith is a verb — a costly, daily act of obedience — then we will stay, endure, and grow even when it hurts. Especially when it hurts.

The Entertainment Gospel

Too many pulpits have traded the Word of God for a weekly dose of soothing affirmation. We no longer preach repentance because it might offend. We no longer call sin by its name because it might empty the pews. We avoid the Cross because it might interrupt someone’s brunch plans.

But the apostles did not die to deliver motivational speeches. They did not endure imprisonment and martyrdom to proclaim a gospel of self-esteem. They thundered the truth of a holy God before kings and mobs alike — and they did so knowing it might cost them everything.

Christ did not say, “Come and be comfortable.” He said, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow Me.” (Luke 9:23, NKJV)

The verbs are the point: deny. Take up. Follow. A Christianity without verbs is no Christianity at all — it is a hollow shell dressed in religious language.

The Cost of Action

The Church we dream of — the one that cares for its members, shapes its neighborhoods, raises up saints and missionaries — will never exist while Christians treat faith as a hobby. It will only come when we accept that discipleship is work.

It means showing up when it’s inconvenient.It means serving people who may never thank you.It means sacrificing money, time, and comfort.It means speaking truth when silence would be easier.

And yes — it means staying in a congregation even when someone wounds your pride, because the Church is not a club designed to please you. It is a crucible designed to sanctify you.

If our faith is alive, it will act. If it acts, it will cost. And if it costs, it will change us.

Clergy: The Fire Must Begin in the Pulpit

If the sheep are weak, it is because the shepherds have grown timid. If the people are passive, it is because the preachers have been polite.

We do not need clever talks. We need prophets again — men and women who will stand in pulpits and declare, “Thus says the Lord,” no matter the consequences. The Church needs sermons that wound our pride so that grace can heal our souls. We need pastors willing to lose members, donors, and even positions rather than compromise the truth.

The Church does not need to be popular. It needs to be holy. And holiness does not come from comfort — it comes from the consuming fire of God.

A Verb-Faith Changes the World

The world is not hungry for another church service. It is starving for a people who live as if God is real — as if the gospel is true — as if eternity is near. When Christians act, things change: orphans are adopted, widows are cared for, schools are built, prisons are visited, slaves are freed, and nations are transformed.

When Christians sit passively, the opposite happens: families crumble, injustice thrives, and evil advances unopposed.

We do not overcome darkness by analyzing it. We overcome it by lighting lamps. We do not silence lies by lamenting them. We silence them by proclaiming truth.

If the Church rediscovered this — if we stopped making faith a noun and started living it as a verb — the decline of Western Christianity would end almost overnight. We would see conversions not because we marketed Jesus better, but because we embodied Him more faithfully.

A Final Word of Thunder

The lukewarm church nauseates the Lord (Revelation 3:16). That is not my opinion; it is His Word. If that rebuke stings, it is meant to. We have been complacent long enough. We have mistaken safety for faithfulness, numbers for fruit, and busyness for mission.

Our God acts — and if we are His people, so must we.

So, Church, stop trying to make Christianity comfortable. Stop searching for sermons that never cut, and churches that never challenge. Stop consuming faith as if it were entertainment. Take up your cross. Deny yourself. Follow Him.

Do not call yourself a Christian. Be one.

Our God is a verb. Our faith must be as well.