Duncan firsts overgeneralized that only emergents label themselves with this term. I am a Christ-Follower, but much more. Yes, I agree that it is the “trendy” thing to say now and a good majority of Christians have abandoned the term because they have a warped view that it will change how people perceive them. Well, I’ve got some bad news, until we live as Christ, the Christian or Christ-Follower image will not change. If we are going to go biblical, then we should go by what the early apostles addressed the first people of the faith as, “believers” or “those who believed.”(Acts 1: 15, 2:44, 4:32 15:23, 2 Corinth. 6:15, John 4:41, 1 Peter 2:17 James 2:1 *note references were taken from ESV and NIV translations). Upon believing in His name, the believer would become a follower of Christ (Mat 16:24, 8:22).
Point number 3: “It rejects God’s family”
God does use family terminology to describe the Church. God is our Father, we are Christ’s bride and all believers are brothers and sisters. So lets call each other as God views us as–a family, full of brothers and sisters.
Point number 4: “It rejects grace”
Yes, the term does when it stands alone. When the term is precedes belief it absolutely creates a work-based salvation. When “Christ-Follower” proceeds the statement of faith, it is living out that faith–not attributing your salvation to yourself.
So what am I?
All equivocation aside, I am a believer and follower in my Lord Jesus Christ who is changing me in mind and actions.
I think we appoint ourselves The Judge,when we see only two options: judging or condoning. In good faith, if find we cannot condone a sexual behavior, or a couple engaged in a non-condonable (from our viewpoint,) behavior — then we feel integrity-bound to judge. Which is ironic. Because we have only one judge. And he didn’t come to judge. Go figure that.
Posted by Matt Brammer on March 29th, 2009 — Posted in The Church
I did chuckle though.
There is a difference to being all things to all people and being wierd…
Seriously though, we are Christ’s messengers and need to stop trying to draw people into our gatherings by signs; rather, the Church should go into the community and bring them back with them.
I’ll go into more detail in a post coming up soon.
Posted by Matt Brammer on March 27th, 2009 — Posted in The Church
So, I love Disney movies but, there is a reoccuring heretical theme throughout most of them. In one of my favorite sing alongs, “True to you heart” with the great Stevie Wonder and kind of great Nick Lachey, a line is uttered, “Your heart can tell you no lies.” True, if God is at the center of your “heart” but more often than not, our hearts are not fixed on Christ. By the logic of follwing you heart you can justify any actions and sins that occur in your life. I’m not dissing the song, it has an awesome bass line but, “when things are getting crazy, and you don’t know where to start keep on believing”…in Christ.
Posted by Matt Brammer on March 25th, 2009 — Posted in My Walk, The Church
Sorry it has been a while since my last post, last week I was gone on Spring Break and I took a break from everything, which ironically, I’m going to speak on.
I’m a pretty regular reader of RagamuffinSoul (and I recommend it) recently Carlos had a video on stillness. For me the end of the semester is approaching and life is busy. When I look how Jesus reacted to busyness and commotion and compare it to my life, and other Americans’, I see a drastic difference–solitary and solace. Often Jesus would withdraw from situations to pray.
When your life gets busy, step back, remember the Kingdom and the Grace you have received and talk to God.
In the post, he reports of a minister failing at these “morals” when he committed a crime. However, as a believer I look to God for my standard of truth–not men.
