Claiming a New Name
How the name “Christian” is killing our rapport with others
I hate religion. It’s just that simple. But before you all get up in arms and say I’ve fallen off the boat, I preface this blog post by saying this is something I’ve been chewing on for quite some time. I’ve been reading a lot, thinking a lot, journaling a lot, talking a lot (my friends can vouch for me on this one), and going back to the core of what my faith is about. Over the last two years, I’ve seen a lot and experienced a lot. I’ve wrestled with and I’ve doubted my own faith. Faith no longer fits into that neat little box that I grew up with. I’ve asked a lot of hard questions about what faith is, what’s important and why I believe what I believe. My views of the church and Christianity in general have changed a lot. Fundamentally, my beliefs are the same, but the extra superfluous things have changed. Over the last few weeks, I’ve been reading the book The Barbarian Way by Erwin Raphael McManus and what I’ve found within those pages is echos of yet another soul who is speaking my own heart cries… just explaining it in a better way.
“Jesus is being lost in a religion bearing His name. People are being lost because they cannot reconcile Jesus’ association with Christianity.” — Erwin Raphael McManus
When people not affiliated with the mainstream church hear I’m a Christian, they immediately assume I’m a right-wing, conservative, Bible-thumping fundamentalist who hates Democrats and opposes anything that is even remotely centrist or liberal in thought. While some, all, or none of that might be true about me, their view of me is altered based on that assumption. I do want to note that those things that I just listed are not wrong by any stretch of the imagination, they have altered the way that unchurched people see Christians. However, I have a variety of friends from many different backgrounds and I love them all deeply. One of the biggest complaints from some of my friends regarding Christians is how hypocritical and judgmental Christians are. The other complaint I hear is that Christianity is just a list of chores, rules and regulations — it’s just not fun. While that is true to some extent, I firmly believe that the response to this is simply how McManus stated it:
“We are all hypocrites in transition. I am not who I want to be, but I am on the journey there, and thankfully I am not whom I used to be.”
I’ve come to realize that faith looks a lot different for the Millennial generation than it did for the previous generation. This has proven true as I’ve talked with friends and come to understand what we are all feeling. For those of us who grew up in the church, we often spent hours at church with our families — Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night. While I look back fondly on my years of growing up in the church, life just isn’t as simple as I grew up thinking it was. The world is much more complex now and the answers are no longer so simple. Unlike Sunday school, where the answer was always “Jesus,” some questions have answers that run a lot deeper.
“When Christianity becomes just another religion, it focuses on requirements. Just to keep people in line, we build our own Christian civilization and then demand that everyone who believes in Jesus become a good citizen. It’s hard to imagine that Jesus would endure the agony of the Cross just to keep us in line. Jesus began a revolution to secure our freedom. The new covenant that He established puts its trust not in the law, but in the transforming power of God’s Spirit within us.” — Erwin Raphael McManus
As a result of all this thinking, I’ve decided to shed the answer of “I’m a Christian” when people ask about my religion. I’ve found that it’s simply a dividing and polarizing answer for a lot of people who are interested in religion. While they might be interested in what I believe, as soon as I throw out the word “Christian,” I’m usually given a look of disgust (or surprise — because I apparently don’t fit the “Christian” mold they have in their head?). While I understand and accept that Christianity is a religion, yes, I believe it’s so much more than that. It’s a relationship… it’s faith… it’s a way of life. When people ask now about what I believe, I simply tell them that I am a follower of Jesus. I follow His teachings. I seek to model my life after Him. I believe who He said He was and is. All it’s about is Jesus… nothing more, nothing less.
“To claim we believe is simply not enough. The call of Jesus is one that demands action.” — Erwin Raphael McManus
I fully confess I am not the perfect Christian: I curse, I don’t go to church every Sunday, I don’t read my Bible as often as I should, I don’t pray enough, I occasionally laugh at inappropriate jokes. According to some in the church (and yes, I’ve been told all of these things), I shouldn’t like beer as much as I do, I shouldn’t hang out with the people I do, and my very centrist views in politics should be abandoned. However, I am REDEEMED. By grace, I was saved. I am not perfect and I’ll never claim to be perfect, but I am simply seeking to make my life a reflection of Jesus. He was called a drunkard and a glutton by those in religious circles in His day. He was radical (check out The Beautiful Outlaw by John Eldredge for a fresh look at who Jesus is). The religious leaders of His day called him crazy. He hung out with people who most of those in the religious community would turn their backs on. Like Jesus, I’m called to love and to make the world around me a better place — I long to reach out to those in poverty, those who are broken, and those who simply don’t have as much as I do. If those who call themselves Christians really lived like followers of Jesus, I think the world would look a lot different. By no means am I pointing any fingers at anyone… I’m preaching to the choir on this one.
I’ll leave you with a video from Jefferson Bethke. It’s a video I’ve watched repeatedly over the last few weeks and I’ve spent time chewing on its contents. No matter what you believe or where you’re at, I pray that you’re challenged or inspired by what I’ve reflected on. Leave a comment. Drop me a line. I’d love to talk some more about what I’ve been chewing on lately.
“If Jesus came to your church, would they let Him in?” — Jefferson Bethke
