I am not a “Christ-Follower”
In yet another “get on the band wagon” move, many of us in the evangelical church have become uncomfortable with the use of the term “Christian” as our self-description. As the above series of videos point out, “Christian” has become synonymous with false piety, judgmentalism, and a general attitude of isolationism from the “real” world. As a result, the “cutting edge” among us have decided to minimize the term “Christian” as a way we describe ourselves, and instead adopt the term “Christ follower” as our epithet of choice. Evangelicals are hoping that the new terminology will help the world see us in a new, different, and positive way.
Let’s think carefully about the shift in terminology, though. The term Chrsitian is derived from Acts chapter 11. Many have translated it “little Christ.” In other words, the early members of the Church strove to imitate Christ to such an extreme that they were considered by those around them to be little impersonators of Jesus. Let’s not forget that the term Christian is not necessarliy a positive one. Instead, it was the religiously pious way of calling these people a bunch of “posers” (if I may borrow the late eighties, Nash skateboarding term). From its inception, the term “Christian” was not a term of positive connotation to those outside the faith. Why do we as neo-evangelicals assume that the world is going to have anything other than a negative view of us? After all, as far as most of them are concerned, we believe in a fairy tale about a magic man who was born to a virgin. It seems to me absurd to assume that, as long as we hold to the core doctrines of the faith, any quick sidelining of our name isn’t going to change the silliness of our belief system to non-believers.
Now, let’s consider the term “Christ follower.” As I read the Gospels, I notice that Christ had a lot of followers. He fed five thousand of them at once, he met with 500 of them after his Resurrection. Just a week before the Passion, hundreds lay palm branches before Jesus as he entered Jerusalem. People came and followed Christ around to see the signs and wonders that he performed, but at the end of Jesus’ life, where were the “Christ followers?” Even the most ardent followers, Christ’s disciples, were scarce at the Crucifixion; one of them even cursed God’s name when asked if he knew Jesus. Which type of person should I try to be, then-a follower, or an imitator? It seems to me, that as long as I strive to be like Christ with every ounce of my being, I’d rather be called a “Christian” than just a “Christ Follower.”
It is sad that most “Christians” do not live up to their name. However, I just don’t see the point in abandonng this Biblical description of ourselves. Instead of changing ourselves so that the name of Christ might be better glorified, we’ve decided to change our name so that we won’t be connected to “those” people. I just don’t see the goodness in it.
What do you think? Are you content to be a “Christ follower,” or would you rather be a “Christian?”
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June 16th, 2009 at 11:10 am
I think that some people simply want to distance themselves from Christianity, and be followers of the Way of Jesus. Much of Christianity has little to nothing to do with Jesus…but is just a religious practice that has sprouted around his teaching. I do all I can to distance myself from that, and to make it clear what I believe and follow. It is not a reputation, band-wagon or hype thing for me to use other terms to describe my relationship with God to others…it is simply that the word Christian doesn’t really do it anymore.
June 16th, 2009 at 11:13 am
If I were going to use another term, it probably would be “Disciple of Christ,” but I realize that largely, if I want Christian to be a positive term, then I should be a real Chrisitan.
June 16th, 2009 at 11:19 am
Agreed.
June 16th, 2009 at 2:30 pm
Jeremy, I appreciated your well thought out answer to this matter of a Christian or a Christ Follower. I am not sure that I would have thought through it as well as you did. When I first watched the video’s I became a bit concerned, and then a bit angry when I read the first paragraph, thinking that this was your view. Glad that you came down on this on the right side. Made an old man proud. “The called them Christians first at Antioch.” God help up be Christ Like so that someone would accuse us of being a Christian.
June 17th, 2009 at 3:47 pm
Jeremy - Great post on a timely topic. I agree with your viewpoint.
June 18th, 2009 at 3:52 pm
or, you can just ignore the entire thing & not think of it as worth serious discussion, since this revolutionary idea is presented in the form of a mac-vs-pc parody.
not that the medium validates/invalidates the idea in every case, but come on.
June 19th, 2009 at 8:37 am
Andy,
You’re certainly right about the triviality of the mac-pc parody–I simply can’t ignore the number of young Christians that I hear using this term to the exclusion of “Christian.”
June 19th, 2009 at 9:50 am
word.
June 30th, 2009 at 1:59 pm
Good discussion. I think if I had my preference I would like to be described as a follower of “The Way” as the first century Christians. It is interesting that the term “Christian” was first used by non-Christians in order to describe the movement known as the way. The terminology was soon adopted by the church to describe themselves. I don’t have a problem with either term. I do believe that the term “Christ follower” can be an appropriate description especially to those who don’t relate or negatively relate to terminology we have used since the second and third century. If we can be descriptive and remove unncecessary barriers surrounding the message of the Gospel then we should do that.
July 6th, 2009 at 5:19 pm
Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. Mark 8:34
I’m a Christ follower!
July 9th, 2009 at 11:29 pm
Guess I have too much growth to do to really care if I’m called a follower of Christ, Christian, Jesus Freak, etc… The lost world may look at me differently for a short time if I change my “label” but when they find out that I really believe the Bible and what it says, it’s right back to being an outcast.
As in most things, the truth is probably somewhere in the middle of the “Christian” and “Christ Follower.” Can’t we respect the tradition of the past without the total casting off our history? As someone formerly of the “PC” clone camp, I no longer sport bumper stickers because frankly I drive like an idiot sometimes… I don’t wear the suit and tie anymore because I can’t find in the scriptures that I have to… but I can certainly respect people that feel they do need to do that. I do choose to listen almost exclusively to Christian music because I find my personal walk with Christ suffers when I listen to other things… so does that make me a backwards dork in the eyes of the “Mac” look alike?
Anyhow, the message of the cross is foolishness to the lost world, so I don’t think a new label is going to do a whole lot… but the Holy Spirit working in someones heart…that’ll get something done!