We have become very good at building lives around our preferences. We choose the music we want to hear, the shows we want to watch, the people we want to follow, and even the opinions we want reinforced. So it should not surprise us that we often bring the same expectations into church. We want a community that fits us, affirms us, and rarely asks us to endure anything awkward, inconvenient, or difficult.
That is precisely why Brett McCracken’s Uncomfortable: The Awkward and Essential Challenge of Christian Community is such an important book. McCracken puts language around something many Christians already know but do not always want to admit: real Christian community is often inconvenient, frustrating, awkward, and deeply good for us.
McCracken pushes against the increasingly common idea that church should be customized around personal preference. We look for the right music, the right preaching style, the right programs, the right people, and the right atmosphere. When something becomes uncomfortable, our instinct is often to leave.
What I appreciated most about this book is McCracken’s insistence that discomfort is not necessarily evidence that something is wrong. Sometimes it is actually part of how God forms us.
That idea resonated with me because I have spent much of my life in and around the local church. I have seen its beauty up close, but I have also seen the messiness that comes with people trying to follow Jesus together. Churches are filled with different generations, personalities, backgrounds, preferences, and expectations. They can be places of extraordinary grace and, at times, extraordinary frustration. Yet some of the most formative relationships in my life have come precisely because the church placed me alongside people I probably would not have chosen for myself.
McCracken reminds readers that Christian community is not ultimately built around affinity. It is built around Christ. That distinction matters. The church is not simply a gathering of people who enjoy the same things or see every issue the same way. It is a family created by the gospel, and families rarely get to choose every member.
I also appreciated that Uncomfortable does not romanticize the church. McCracken recognizes that churches can disappoint us and that Christian community can be difficult. His argument is not that every discomfort should be tolerated or that serious problems should be ignored. Rather, he challenges the consumer mentality that assumes discomfort itself is a sufficient reason to disengage.
Perhaps the book’s greatest strength is its reminder that spiritual formation rarely happens through convenience. Patience is learned by dealing with difficult people. Humility grows when our preferences are not always prioritized. Grace becomes more than a theological concept when we have to extend it to someone who irritates or disappoints us.
Uncomfortable is a hopeful and necessary book for Christians who want to take the local church seriously. McCracken makes a compelling case that the very things we are tempted to avoid in Christian community may be some of the tools God uses most powerfully to shape us into the likeness of Christ. The church may not always be comfortable, but perhaps comfort was never the point.
