If you’re a new Christian, chances are you’ve wrestled with a question like this:
“Can’t I just follow Jesus on my own?”
Hey—I get it. I’ve been a pastor for over 20 years, and I’ve heard that question asked (and felt it myself, honestly) more than once. Church is messy. People sing off-key. Someone might sit in your seat. And sometimes you leave thinking, “Was that even worth it?”
But C.S. Lewis—yes, the same guy who wrote The Chronicles of Narnia—used to feel the same way. And then he changed his mind.
Here’s how he put it:
“When I first became a Christian, about fourteen years ago, I thought that I could do it on my own, by retiring to my rooms and reading theology, and I wouldn’t go to the churches and Gospel Halls; … I disliked very much their hymns, which I considered to be fifth-rate poems set to sixth-rate music.
But as I went on I saw the great merit of it. I came up against different people of quite different outlooks and different education, and then gradually my conceit just began peeling off. I realized that the hymns (which were just sixth-rate music) were, nevertheless, being sung with devotion and benefit by an old saint in elastic-side boots in the opposite pew, and then you realize that you aren’t fit to clean those boots.
It gets you out of your solitary conceit.”
Whew. That’ll preach.
Let’s break down a few things Lewis saw that matter immensely for someone who’s just getting started with church—and might not see the value yet.
1. Church Breaks Your Pride
Lewis thought he was above it—above the corny hymns, the awkward people, the weirdly dressed worshippers.
But something happened when he rubbed shoulders with saints he would’ve previously overlooked: his conceit started peeling off.
That’s a major insight:
You cannot grow humility without community. You need someone in the next pew with boots that squeak and theology that’s still in process to remind you: “I’m not the center of this story.”
2. Church Isn’t Supposed to Be a Club
One of Lewis’ most piercing critiques of modern church-hopping comes from The Screwtape Letters. Remember, in this book, a senior demon is coaching a junior demon on how to keep a Christian from growing. So everything said here is actually opposite of truth:
“Surely you know that if a man can’t be cured of churchgoing, the next best thing is to send him all over the neighbourhood looking for the church that ‘suits’ him until he becomes a taster or connoisseur of churches.
The reasons are obvious. In the first place the parochial organisation should always be attacked, because, being a unity of place and not of likings, it brings people of different classes and psychology together in the kind of unity the Enemy desires.
The congregational principle, on the other hand, makes each church into a kind of club, and finally, if all goes well, into a coterie or faction…
The search for a ‘suitable’ church makes the man a critic where the Enemy wants him to be a pupil.”
Lewis is saying:
Stop being a consumer. Start being a disciple.
Disciples don’t pick churches like Netflix series. They plant roots, even when it’s uncomfortable—because that’s how unity grows deep and character grows strong. I’ve written more on why community is crucial for discipleship here.
3. Church Will Disappoint You—And That’s Exactly Why You Need It
One of the most moving passages in The Screwtape Letters is also one of the most convicting for a new believer. It describes the moment when a new Christian walks into a church… and feels a little crushed by how unimpressive everything is.
“All your patient sees is the half-finished, sham Gothic erection on the new building estate… the local grocer with rather an oily expression… one shiny little book containing a liturgy which neither of them understands… one shabby little book…
When he gets to his pew… he sees just that selection of his neighbours whom he has hitherto avoided.
You want to lean pretty heavily on those neighbours. Make his mind flit to and fro between an expression like ‘the body of Christ’ and the actual faces in the next pew.”
It’s almost chilling how well Lewis diagnoses this.
You go to church… and you expect glory.
But what you get is an odd mix of awkward handshakes, squeaky boots, and someone singing off-key behind you.
And yet… those very people are the body of Christ.
“He has an idea of ‘Christians’ in his mind which he supposes to be spiritual but which, in fact, is largely pictorial… full of togas and sandals and armour and bare legs… the mere fact that the other people in church wear modern clothes is a real—though unconscious—difficulty to him.”
Lewis reminds us:
Church will always disappoint your imagination before it transforms your character.
4. The Danger Isn’t in the Church—It’s in Your Heart
Here’s the dagger. Screwtape writes:
“If the patient knows that the woman with the absurd hat is a fanatical bridge-player or the man with squeaky boots a miser and an extortioner — then your task is so much the easier…
Keep out of his mind the question:
‘If I, being what I am, can consider that I am in some sense a Christian, why should the different vices of those people in the next pew prove that their religion is mere hypocrisy?’”
Do you see what Lewis is doing? He’s saying that your own sense of spiritual superiority is the biggest barrier to real church community. Not the awkward people. Not the boring sermons. Not the old carpet.
It’s the part of you that thinks you’re above it.
Final Thought:
If you’re a new Christian, let me say this with all the love in my heart:
Don’t wait to feel like church matters.
Start going now. Plant roots now.
Even if the music is awkward. Even if the people are odd. Even if you feel like a spiritual outsider.
Because when you stick around, God peels back your pride. He teaches you to love people who aren’t like you. He helps you see yourself clearly. He trains you in humility and courage and grace.
And slowly, you’ll discover what Lewis saw:
“…the Church as we see her spread out through all time and space and rooted in eternity, terrible as an army with banners…”
(I’m a huge Lewis fan. Check out this brilliant insight from CS Lewis on perfection here.)
