Ok, I was perusing the good ole interweb the other day and came across this article. Apparently the ‘Christian vs Christ follower’ debate has reached the main stream media now.  Some of you may have watched a clip like this, or a similar one:

Christian Vs. Christ Follower

My wife and I attended  a church where they started each service with one of these for a series of sermons. The basic premise is a knock off of Mac Vs. Pc commercials, and paints the ‘Christian’ in a negative light, and the ‘Christ follower’ attempting to differentiate himself from the stereotypes typically associated with Christianity.

Here is a decent response I saw on youtube, and then after you watch it, (yes, you must) {note to self, embed jedi mind trick to force readers to watch the video} I will give my thoughts on the issue.

Christian Vs. Christ Follower 2.0

From my experience, the ones referred to as Christians in the first video and the other videos like it, are legalist, or better yet, modern day Pharisees.  What these videos seem to advocate is giving up the name Christian to the legalists, and starting over with a non-stigmatized name, Christ Follower.

On paper, it makes some sense.  If the world already has a negative connotation when it thinks the word Christian, why not just remove that hurdle.  I get that, it make sense.

On the other hand, I do believe that the only thing needed for evil to triumph is for good/righteous men to do nothing.  Legalism is evil.  There is no other way to look at it.  It squashes grace, and makes Christianity all about external rather than internal.  Exactly like the Pharisees.  So why should we step aside and give them that freedom over the name Christian?  Let’s take it back.  Let’s show the world what true Christianity is all about.  Let’s take back the name of Christian and stop playing silly name games.

Technorati Tags: christ follower, christian, interweb, legalism, name

To follow through with my desire to post more often, I am planning on the following format:

Early Week- News related/ reaction.  Not reacting like, “Oh no, look at what the government is doing now!”  No, this will be reacting to Christians making the news.  Christians who are muddying the name of Christ’s Bride.  Like Paul advocates in I Corinthians 5, we are to judge those who name the name of Christ, so here I am to call them out.  Not out of arrogance, but out of love for God.  We are not to judge the world, but our brothers and sisters in Christ, so that will be the early week writings.

Later Week- General Teachings and updates on what God is teaching me.  Same as before.

How many of you saw this article? Man Stabs Son For Wearing Hat in Church.  Can you believe this?  I agree with the father that men should not wear a hat in church, but that is were it stops.  As much as I search the scriptures, I fail to find the stabbing clause.  I fail to find the verse that says, “However Brothers, if a man doth don a hat upon his head while in the confines of the church/ worship center/ tabernacle/ multipurpose room, then thou shalt fetcheth the holy knife of hat stabbing and stab yon offender in the right buttock.”  If it exists, please tell me where.  Otherwise, let us stand up for righteousness in the church.  Let’s stop stabbing each other, both literally and figuratively.

The truth of the matter is, for too long the church has majored on the minors, and this story is a perfect example of this.  We are to be known as Christ’s followers by our love.  Where is the love in stabbing?  Where is the love in majoring on the minor?  Let’s start loving.

Technorati Tags: buttock, church, love, stab