Christian or Christ-Follower

"You are not of this world."

I don’t know about you. I am so tired of the media and social media painting this false narrative when it comes to the faith tradition of the Jesus Movement of Judaism (now referred to as Christianity). Thanks to a few bad apples, and those that teach and preach prosperity gospel, the entire faith tradition has been painted as a judgmental organization that aims to keep people out, not let people in. What happens when the message of Jesus Christ gets beyond twisted to fit a manmade narrative? We get the broken world around us that continues to divide and cause chaos.

As a Pastor and a Spiritual Caregiver, I get tired of being called a Christian. I am a follower of Jesus Christ, I am not a Christian. There is a reason I have an issue with the term Christian. Christian has been a term that has been warped into something that is easy to hide behind and to justify harmful behavior in the name of Jesus. When I think about Christians vs Christ-followers the image of sports comes to mind. I think about Christ-followers as the players and coaches. These folks are dedicating all of their time and energy into doing and performing their tasks to the very best of their ability. They are constantly training, learning and doing. Christians are the folks that want to be part of the group without the effort. They are the fans in the stadium, wearing the team jersey while only putting in enough effort to eat a hot dog. The fans are the ones that will cheer when things are going well in a game. The minute someone does something wrong, makes a mistake, they are willing to shout and scream and degrade because a decision was made, an action took place, that they don’t agree with.

What is amusing to me (not in a funny ha-ha way but an eyeroll kind of way) is that these same folks will then talk down about their team, and perhaps switch teams to cheer for if it means they can be satisfied. This is what has happened with the amount of denomination splits in the church that is still going on around the world. There are believed to be 45,000 denominations around the world. How do you think we go this way? It is because someone somewhere decided they wanted to do something different. Instead of finding a way to work together and find a way to compromise, a split happened. The splits keep happening, even today. I have watched and read about different mainline denominational splits over a variety of issues. Our own denomination is seeing splits.

The LGTBQ+ issue has been a long battle in the church. I am not going to dive deep into the issue in this blog, I just want to use it as a talking point. It is a dividing issue within the universal church. When this issue causes splits, whether it be over “should or should they not be leaders'' or “should they be allowed to be married in a church or not,” etc., we as the universal church need to be aware of how and why we take the stance that we do. I am not going to be the person to say I know the exact right answer to this topic. What I am going to say is how we decide the stance we will take, deliver the stance we are taking in a way that is used to show compassion, love, and humility. Too often, stances on tough items such as the LGBTQ+, women in ministry, worship styles, baptism, communion, etc., have caused not only a split, they have also been damaging to the individuals who are on the “losing end” of the stance. Jesus came to dine with the sinners. Jesus came to welcome those that the “religious police'' deemed unclean and unworthy. Here we are today making stances and doing it in a way that makes us just as bad as the “religious police.”

I have made the following observations within my spiritual journey based on the idea of Christian vs Christ-follower:

• People of different races, cultures, genders, sexual orientations, past choices etc., have been made to feel unwelcome and banned from the churches by those who claim to be Christian.

• There are subgroups within the universal church that will picket funerals of people who are thought to be LGBTQ+ or even military members. They will picket school shooting sites with signs saying “Thank God for Dead Soldiers.” “Sin and Shame NOT PRIDE.” “God Sent the Killer.” These people claim to be Christian…

• There are subgroups within the church that claim to be Christian that have made it known and practice the teachings that women are only good for bearing children. The Father is the head of the house and is THE authority over his family. The mother is supposed to have as many babies as possible as a way to contribute to the “building of an army for God” no matter what it means for the mother’s health. These folks claim to be Christian…

• Although trying to overwhelm the media with positive content is good in theory, there are many people who do “good deeds'' while filming themselves for the glory and the credit. Their actions are for show. This was something the religious police were known to do. These folks call themselves Christians today.

• There are Ministers/Spiritual Caregivers that reach out to those that are seen as “not healthy for the church” by entering their “normal environments.” When someone sees it, they report it to the church and that Pastor/Caregiver is reprimanded for “being in such an environment.” The people of the church call themselves Christians. These same people will judge a stranger based on an outward appearance.

• There are people that are manipulating the Word of God to fit the paradigm of the world we live in. In doing so the true meaning of scripture has been lost causing a change in how the image of Jesus is viewed. Religion becomes the focus, not how we are to live according to Christ.

• There are people that make it a priority to spend time in prayer, not in requesting things, Christians tend to stop here. Christ-followers will dedicate their life to following Christ, spending time to learn from him. Just as two of the disciples left their father’s boat to be a disciple, we are to do this also.

• A Christ-follower means more than just saying “I believe in Jesus.” Satan believes in Jesus. There is more than just a belief. A Christ-follower is willing to be a warrior in the battle of good versus evil.

• Christ-followers are wanting to remove the baggage of Politics that have plagued the belief system. A man by the name of Cal Thomas adds that "followers of Jesus" has the virtue of reflecting biblical truth.`` The earliest people of the Jesus movement in Judaism called themselves "followers of the Way."

There are many out there, some that I know and love, think that the term Christian and Christ-follower are the same thing: Poh-tay-toe Pah-Tah-toe. It really truly isn’t. There is a need for those of us that are in this belief system to look in the mirror and really ask ourselves how we present our beliefs to the world through our actions. It is easy to talk. It is harder to walk, especially with the added amount of technology there is in the world. Scrutiny corrupts many aspects of religions around the world. I don’t worry about what my friends think of me. Yes, I have changed who or what I do because I got myself into situations where I made bad choices. I am not perfect, nor will I ever be. There isn’t such a thing as perfect while on this earth. I have done everything possible to make amends, to be accountable, to work hard to change behaviors, choices, actions, etc.

When I think back to my college years and my twenties, there are many aspects that make me cringe because of things I allowed myself to be part of that I would have normally said no to. This was because I had such a need to be accepted and to have a group of friends that didn’t look at me like a freak. Even by participating in a couple college parties with drinking, or going out late and staying out till bar close with friends having drinks and smoking and singing, putting certain friends ahead of my family and relationship, etc., I was never happy. I may have smiled for pictures, inside I was miserable and depressed. I wasn’t being me, I was being of the world. I wasn’t being the follower of Christ I was brought up to be, I was being someone who claimed to be a Christian without actually acting Christ-like to the best of my ability.

I am not here to say you can’t go out and have a good time. The issue is focusing on how to make sure our hearts are in line that we know how to be a good example, not acting a fool and not damaging the name of our Lord as we are in the world. “You are not of this world, “ Jesus said in a prayer for his disciples. We are in this world, not of it. I do not call myself a Christian, I am a Follower of Jesus Christ. Are you?