Christ was not even a Christian
how does that title catch you? does it bother you? is it hard to say? what feelings does it bring up in you?
if you are like me when I first heard it, you don’t like it. Of course you don’t have the benefit of “context” that I did. I read that statement in a book our staff just finished reading by Dave Gibbons, “The Monkey and the Fish” 
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The book is a great read! I really recommend it. Just click on the book image and you can order your own copy. It really talks a lot about what the church is going to need to be in order to be effective in the future. It resonates with me and helps me deal with a lot of what has been churning within me for some time now.
so, back to the title…Christ was not even a Christian…to that I say, thank God! I like the word Christian because it’s biblical. the followers of Jesus were first called Christian at Antioch because they resembled Christ and those who knew of Jesus, followed Him and remembered how He lived saw these people and said they look like….Christ-ian!
Our culture has skewed what it means to be a Christian so much that someone who goes to church can say they are a Christian. to that I say, ….well, I can’t say that, many wouldn’t like it.
To many, being Christian is cultural. People will take on a certain church’s philosophy, dress standards, separation issues, entertainment standards and then call themselves a good Christian. Basically, I call these things religio-sity, church-ianity, and far from the Revolution Jesus came to start.
Jesus was about love and grace. He was about those 2 things so much that He transformed those around Him and they were about love and grace so much that others looked at their actions and attitudes and said, that looks like…Christian!
I want this so bad for the church today, especially the church I lead, Crossroads. I saw it happen yesterday in our whole worship team just before we went out to lead our church in worship. I was privileged to experience “christianity” in a powerful way with them and then what God did was amazing in our worship service, God’s spirit descended and He was moving in people’s lives.
It was Kingdom of God. I don’t ever want to be “Christian” if it is not about love and grace, not about Christ. He wasn’t, why would I or anyone ever waste time, just coming to church?
MK
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