One of the reasons for the current malaise of the Christian church in the West is that Christians tend to blend in too well with their neighbours. Followers of Jesus are supposed to live a radically different lifestyle, but somehow we have managed to reduce the lifestyle to a matter of assenting to a number of doctrinal propositions. In the second chapter of his letter, James had this to say about those who claimed to have faith but did nothing to show it:
Friends, what use is it if you claim to have faith, but do not do anything? Can that faith save you? If a brother or sister has no clothes or food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warm and well fed,” and yet you did not give them the things they need, what use is it? Faith by itself without action is dead. Someone might say, “You have faith, and I have actions.” Show me your faith without actions, and by my actions I will show you my faith.
Smiling at people and thinking nice thoughts is not enough. If we make a decision to follow Christ but it does not cost us anything and there is no change in how we live an interact with others, then we are not actually following Christ at all. The malaise of the Christian church in the West is a crisis of discipleship: faith in Jesus is very much a matter of actions, as well as beliefs.