Two Men, One Sword, and the Cure for Church Shopping
If you've ever browsed churches the way you browse a grocery store aisle — comparing worship styles, scanning for the "best" kids program, checking if the sermon length fits your Sunday — you're not alone. It's just how most of us have been trained to approach almost everything, including faith. In a recent message, Pastor Dave at Courageous Church named that instinct directly, and then offered something better.
He took the story from 1 Samuel 13-14, where Israel is at its lowest point. No weapons, no blacksmiths, and forced to pay their enemies just to sharpen farming tools. Into that scene walks Jonathan, the king's son, who decides he's done waiting. He tells his young armor bearer — likely a teenager — "let's go over to the Philistine outpost." No plan. No backup. No certainty God would even show up. Just a willingness to move.
What happens next is the real heart of the message. The armor bearer doesn't hesitate or hedge. He says, "Do all that you have in mind. I am with you heart and soul." Two men, one sword, climb a cliff toward an entire enemy outpost — and end up routing them. As Pastor Dave put it: remarkable things happen with remarkable ownership.
That phrase became the thread for the whole message. Because here's the pattern he pointed out: we tend to believe breakthrough is on the other side of more resources — a bigger building, more staff, more money. But the story suggests otherwise. The miracle happened because of ownership, not abundance.
That idea lands hard when you consider the numbers Pastor Dave shared: in the year 2000, 68% of Americans said they belonged to a house of faith. Today, that number is 37%. And only a third of Christians in America believe being part of a local church even matters. Attendance is one thing — ownership is another.
The message didn't shy away from why that gap exists. For some, it's simply busyness or distraction. For others, it's real pain — the failures of church leaders, disappointment, or just never having a reason to trust the local church in the first place. Pastor Dave acknowledged that weight honestly, without minimizing it, before pointing to something worth rebuilding trust toward.
He closed with four practical postures for actually living this out: willingness, trust, grit, and expectation. Not abstract ideals — a heart posture that shows up in ordinary decisions, like choosing to show up on a hard week, or being part of the solution instead of the critique.
For anyone new to Charleston sorting through the city's many church options, anyone who's never been part of a church before, or anyone who's walked away and isn't sure they want back in — this message wasn't asking for blind loyalty. It was an invitation to stop shopping and start belonging. To bring something instead of just looking for what you can take.