Christian?

I have been reading a book recently titled The Big Idea by Dave Ferguson. The first chapter of his book is titled "No More Christians." He believes that true Jesus followers should no longer call themselves "Christian" and should stop encouraging others to become a Christian. Don't misunderstand--he is all for evangelism. He states that some 85% of Americans (or 247 million people) call themselves Christian. Dave then points to research that shows there is no differnece in the attitudes or actions of Christians and non-Christians. He asks, "If the contemporary concept of a Christian is of someone who is no differnt than the rest of the world, is Christian really the word you want to use to describe your willingness to sacrifice everything you have to see God's dream fulfilled?" He answers, "No way." He concludes the chapter by saying that Christianity "has been reduced to the expectation of niceness." He no longer calls himself a Christian, but a Christ follower--a disciple. One last quote, "I am a Christ follower. I follow Jesus step by step as his Spirit moves me in his community called the church."

I did a little research. The term "Christian" only appears in the NT three times. Compare that to "disciple" that appears close to three hundred times. I grew up in a Christian hertitage that prided itself on "calling Bible things by Bible names." Although I don't get into that, I do want people to understand that I am serious in my faith walk. In our society where it is acceptable to call oneself a Christian and not go to church but a couple times of year or even every Sunday but not be involved with the life of the church or growing more into the image of Christ--do I want to call myself by the term that is synomous with that lifestyle? So I have been going back and forth in my mind about no longer calling myself a Christian. I thought about adopting the either the term "Christ follower" (as Dave Ferguson uses) or "Disciple" to describe my relationship to Jesus. To be honest, I haven't made up my mind yet.

These are the questions I have been pondering--Should Christians who are serious about their faith walk with Jesus adopt another label such as "Disciple" or "Christ follower?" Should we continue to use the label of "Christian" but work to redefine what it means it our society? Is that even possible? Has the term "Christian" been so hi-jacked that the church is past the point of being able to redefine it back to what it originally meant in the NT? Are there/What are the advantages and disadvantages to using a new term or continuing to use the term Christian?

Ten

Ten years today! Today my wife and I are celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary. As I have looked back over the past ten years today we have been through a lot--some stressful and tough but most of it good. We have lived five different places in our marriage. However, for the past seven plus years we have been in the Memphis metro area. Life right now is good. We both have good jobs. We love being in our house. We love our dog. We love our friends.

Although we could not afford to go somewhere special this weekend later this fall we will return to the site of our honeymoon for a marriage retreat. So, we both took the day off from work and have enjoyed the day together.

This morning we went to the Memphis Zoo. Amy loves the zoo. The Memphis Zoo is working on improving the quality of the living spaces for the animals. Over the past several years the zoo has added a China exhibit including pandas and the Northwest Passage for bears, bald eagles, seals, etc. Over the next two years two more new major exhibit areas will be opened. We enjoyed looking at the animals, but the temperature quickly rose to almost 100 degrees. So we stayed for a few hours and left around 1:30. We have been lazy around the house this afternoon recouping the energy the sun took from us at the zoo. We are now getting ready to go to dinner at Texas de Brazil.

All in all I am very thankful for my life and my wife. I don't know that there is another woman out there who would love me like she does. Ten years ago at our wedding I played Billy Dean's "If There Hadn't Been You" to her. Those words are even more true now. There is so much that I have done and I am where I am today because of her. I pray that God will give us many more years together.