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June 29, 2026

No Degree Required: How God Uses Ordinary People

By Jason Neill

Scripture reading: Nehemiah 1-13; Luke 5

In 2024, I wrote a blog on the topic of toxic faith inspired by a book I read during college titled Toxic Faith: Experiencing Healing from Painful Spiritual Abuse by Stephen Arterburn and Jack Felton. I’d like to revisit that topic this week.

Toxic faith, according to Arterburn and Felton, is “a destructive and dangerous involvement in a religion that allows the religion, not a relationship with God, to control a person’s life” (p. 19). Following the definition, the authors write:

Toxic faith has nothing to do with God and everything to do with men and women who want to concoct a god or faith that serves self rather than honors God. In short, toxic faith is an excuse. It is an excuse for an abusive husband to mistreat his wife because he believes God would want her to submit to him as if he were God. It is an excuse to put off dealing with the pain in life. It is an excuse to wait for God to do what he wants you to do. It provides a distraction through compulsive ‘churchaholism’ or religious ritual (p. 19).

Tragically, Christians can adopt toxic beliefs which, instead of building a genuine relationship with Christ, really foster a pseudo-relationship. In the book, the authors list twenty-one toxic beliefs of a toxic faith. I’d like to discuss just one.

Toxic faith belief #11 states, “God uses only spiritual giants.” There’s a great Greek word for that: hogwash. I’ve seen it too many times where fellow Christians think God can’t use them because they don’t possess a seminary degree, don’t have a presence on social media, and aren’t as “impressive” as a pastor on television.

This belief is easily disputed by looking at the characters in the Bible. God has a history of choosing people whom society would call “misfits.” Any of the twelve apostles are a case in point. Peter, James, and John, the closest of Jesus’ followers, were fishermen. These are guys who knew how to get their hands dirty, to be persistent in difficult times, whom first-century society would have written off as blue-collar workers, and who didn’t attend seminary, yet they made a significant difference for Christ.

Never underestimate your ability to make a difference for God. God can take the most insignificant among us and make a difference. To further illustrate my point, you may want to read up on the following characters in scripture: Moses (see the book of Exodus), Aaron (see the book of Exodus), Nehemiah (see the book of Nehemiah), Jonah (see the book of Jonah), Amos (see the book of Amos), Peter (see Luke 5; Acts 2), John (see John 1), and Barnabas (see Acts 4–5; 13–14).

Discussion Questions

  1. Arterburn and Felton define toxic faith as letting religious rules or rituals control your life instead of a genuine relationship with God. In what subtle ways can "churchaholism" or ritual sneak in and replace an actual relationship with Christ?
  2. Belief #11 claims that “God uses only spiritual giants.” Why do you think it is so easy for everyday Christians to fall into the trap of feeling unqualified or "not impressive enough" to be used by God?
  3. The post points out that first-century society would have written off fishermen like Peter, James, and John as ordinary, blue-collar workers. Who are the modern-day equivalents of the "misfits" or ordinary people God uses today?
  4. Looking at the list of scriptural characters at the end of the post (like Moses, Jonah, or Peter), which story resonates with you the most when it comes to God using an imperfect person?
  5. How does letting go of the pressure to be a "spiritual giant" change the way you view your own daily opportunities to make a difference for God?