This is the Truth Network. Are you tired? of just checking a box. of just treating church like business. What about the true authentic faith?
Recovering that and following Jesus. breaking out of counterfeit Christianity. Ryan Shea. Brother, you are from a star baseball player to a big-time author. You've encouraged so many people with your book, Counterfeit Christianity.
You've been on this show before, live, recorded everything. This is really your passion, isn't it?
Now you're serving as a pastor, a college pastor, at a church in High Point, North Carolina. Talk about your burden for our country, for this next generation. I mean, they're looking for authenticity, aren't they? They are. And I think, unfortunately, the world has sold us a dupe.
A counterfeit, right? And so you just look around at the church today, and so many people are going through the motions, checking the boxes, and they think that activity is what keeps them in the kingdom of God, which, like, ultimately. your gratitude because of a faith. Is what? Has gotten you into the family, it's what's gonna keep you in the family.
And so, I think just there's so much focus on what am I doing and what boxes am I checking, completing. It's like, do you actually love Jesus? I think that's missing. We don't actually delight in the character of God. And you're trying to bring people back to that delight, to that place of, like, like Paul said, or not Paul, but you know, in Revelations John.
Where Jesus is talking to that church in Philadelphia. You've left your first love. You've got all these other things right, or its emphasis. You've got all these things right, but you left your first love. How is your love relationship with Jesus, as opposed to all this surface?
Facade stuff. Yeah, I mean, ultimately, I think it's because we have just a wrong view of what God wants from us. Like, so many people grow up under this ideology that God is the place in the sky, just waiting for us to mess up, you know? But until we understand God's love for us, we'll never see a real reason to love Him back. And, like, people ask me all the time, it's like, How do I grow my love for God?
You have to meditate on God's love for you. The answer is not to read more and worship more and sin more. That stuff is great. But he doesn't need that. Like, he doesn't need your quiet time.
He doesn't need your prayer. Like, he's fine. You do. You need it.
So you have to understand and reflect on God's love for you. That's what the scripture says, right? 1 John 4: We love because He first loved us. And so if you understand his love for you, the reciprocated back response is, I will love you back. It's a back and forth relationship.
Ryan, speak to the performance treadmill, because so often we put the gospel in the box of this is what I do for him. I received him, and I work for him, and I'm earning his favor, and I'm out here busting it for the Lord. Really, you're speaking a lot about how the gospel is what he's done for us. Yeah, I mean, the gospel in and of itself is that you can't do anything else. It's not that you shouldn't, it's that there's literally nothing you can add to the fact that the cross has already done everything and it's completely sufficient for you, right?
And so. The question that I would raise is: what if God doesn't want you to perform as much as He wants you to pursue? Like what if our job is to pursue God? Instead of trying to impress him with all of our nicks and crannies, I mean, the scripture says it, right? Our righteous deeds are like filthy rags.
He does not count our sins against us.
So it's like our activity doesn't really determine our identity and our place in God's family. And so, like, what do you do with that? You gotta pursue him. That's a good father, you know? Speaking of background noise, one of my favorite things to do is interview people in coffee shops, and I'm at the.
coffee shop. The Shiro coffee shop, which means grace, in City Lights Church, which is now your, you tell everyone a little bit about what you're doing, this new chapter of your life as a pastor, a shepherd, you know, an under pastor under Pastor Matt out here. Yep, college young adults pastor here at City Light, and every Thursday night at 7:30 we gather. To lift one name for college young adults. We're going through a series right now on my book, Counterfeit Christianity.
It's a great time, great community. And we just launched.
So if you're a young adult in the area or a college student, or if you want to just come crash, we'd love to have you and join us for a night of just lifting up the name of the Lord. We're here to grow. Talk to the old fuddy-dud parents like me and grandparents. I guess I'm one of those two. About where these kids are.
What do they think? You get all these kids that are coming here from college. They come in here and they're... You had a bunch of them go forward this past week just to repent and just to do business with God, you know, in the church. But they're coming to hear you speak and they're worshiping God.
There's a unique dynamic happening among young people. There's a kind of a. They want to be baptized. They want to be bold about their faith. They're tired of being placated and pampered and kind of talked down to.
Can you give us a pulse of where these kids are and how we can be a part of supporting the? The revival happened among our youth as opposed to getting in the way of it. Yeah, I mean, my generation's looking for something, and so whether or not you understand it, they're being discipled by something. Unfortunately, it's not the church all the time, but someone's discipling them, right? Whether it's like TikTok, social media, or whatever.
And so, the charge to the older generation is to finish well, you know, instead of trying to control and dictate and be a part, like you live your life as an example and lead them to the cross so that Jesus can take it from there and do something radical in our generation. Take that into the church setting because so often. We we philosophically agree, okay, they need to Grow in authentic faith. They need to grow in the love for Jesus primarily pursuing Him, focusing on being with Him, much more than doing for Him, because that comes out of a heart. That performance comes out of pursuit, because it's His performance through you.
The church, is that not God's plan A? For where this is the incubator? And talk about how important it is. We're here doing this interview. On the same evening, that you got a bunch of young people about to come through those doors into this coffee shop, back in the worship center, and it's going to be a great time.
But how important is and central should the preaching of God's Word? Be to the growth and development and discipleship. Speak to that. The word and discipleship. Yeah, I mean, it's everything.
I think. The older generation does all this talk about where's Gen Z going. But it's like, if you're not actively involved in participating in your church, why in the world would they? You know, like, why are they gonna get bought in? Why are they gonna serve?
Why are they gonna volunteer if you're the same one coming in, sitting in the back seat of the church and leaving right after service? You know? And so, you gotta set the example. You gotta make a priority to challenge the next generation and be a part of what's going on. Grandfather them in, you know, invite them into what's going on, whether that's like life group or community group.
It doesn't have to be a one-generation thing, you know? Like, include the people who are coming behind you so that as you finish, they can start well. I love it. And we're here, and you've heard the grinding of the coffee beans over there. They've got some good coffee here.
I love their lattes. And you got the kids coming here in a couple hours. I'm just so encouraged by that, Ryan. I'm encouraged by. A young man like you writing a book, you've seen the posers.
You were one of the posers, weren't you? I mean, this is part of your testimony, isn't it? This whole book is really, you're in there a lot for a lot of first person. I mean, laying your heart out there, sharing about your struggle and you're not really getting it, even though you were all around the church, all around a Christian university, hearing the word all the time, but it really didn't get from your head to your heart, did it? That's exactly right.
I lived a counterfeit life for a year and a half where I knew all the verses, memorized all the things. People would ask me about spiritual questions, but at the end of the day, my life looked totally different. And so, for some reason, the love I had for the Lord didn't equate to surrender. It was just like I believe. And the scripture tells us that even the demons believe, right?
And so there's something to our faith that actually should propel us to action. And so what I would tell your listeners is gratitude has to be your doorway to surrender. It's not white knuckle, it's not try harder. You have to come to the cross to the end of yourself. and to realize that I have no life apart from him and so you can take it in return.
It's a full submission to the one who's given you his life. We open this little conversation talking about how true, authentic Christianity. following Jesus isn't just checking a box. But speaking of boxes, I just saw on your IG, which parents, grandparents, I mean his Instagram, I saw A bunch of boxes being packed with your book, Counterfeit Christianity, on its way to prisons with Prison Alliance. Talk about that incredible ministry and how we can pray for this outreach.
It's just so good to see God using this book to touch a lot of souls and turn them back to the Lord. Yeah, it's such a blessing, man. Prison Alliance is the organization. They go into prisons and distribute curriculum to inmates. And so they don't just tell people about Jesus and leave them like what we were talking about earlier, but they stick with them through the whole process.
And so they walk them through who is God, who is Jesus, what is God's love for me, how do I get saved? And so the book is going into the innermost parts of prisons around the country where people are. Easily equating what they do and what they've done in the past to where they are and where they stand. And what we're trying to do is tell them that, look, your past does not define you. Christ Jesus does not count your sins against you.
And ultimately, because of His grace, you can walk in newness of life and live an all-in life, and your past doesn't define you whatsoever. And so it's an encouragement to me because they literally have that life sentence where we can look at it and relate to them in a way where Christ forgives all of us. Yeah. Website, folks can hear more of your content, get the book, be encouraged by your ministry, support your ministry too. What's a good website?
www.ryanshay.com and then Instagram is RyanC Shay, S-H-I-E-H. We'd love to connect with everybody. Yeah. True to the I
