I'm guilty.
The language shift toward "Christ-follower" doesn't sit well with me.
Judas Iscariot was a Christ-follower.
I pray that I can be LIKE CHRIST.
I waffle on this. For years I used Christian and then it seemed to be that anyone who wasn’t Muslim or atheist was claiming they were Christian. “I grew up in America” or “I am Republican” so that makes me a Christian. So I started using Christ-follower because it distinguishes one who follows Jesus. Then I read that it is unScriptural at pajamapages.com. You will find quite an article on it in the archives (the blog is now ended). So I straddle the fence.
Yep. Read that Nothing wrong with being a Christ-follower. It does, though, sound a bit “Twitterish” in that it’s so easy to “follow” someone without ever knowing them, or emulating them, or imitating them, or glorifying them.
I admit this is a straddle for me, too, but I’m falling off more on the side of being satisfied with the term Christian. I don’t want the “shame” of it to cause me to avoid the word. I want to be “proud” of my Savior, even at cost to my personal image, which I strive all too desperately to protect.
I too am falling off to the side of Christian. It has been good enough for over 2000 years I reckon it should still be good enough today. had you been aware of pajamapages before or after I suggested the link? Quite a lot of good articles there. Interesting conversations to say the least.
I had actually read pajamapages.com before, and some of the things he said was what prompted my thinking. I’ve never really abandoned “Christian”, but in a subconscious way I was using it less and less. Partly, I suppose, because it is fashionable and I’m a sucker for fashionable. I honestly believe, though, that instead of abandoning the term, we should bust our tails to try to live up to it.
I met with a “church health” consultant over a year ago at Panacea in Frog Level and he shared with me how when he became a “Christ-follower” as opposed to a Christian it radically changed his life.
There isn’t anything wrong with the term, I don’t think, but what about Acts 11:26? “And the disciples were first called Christians at Antioch.”
I waffled on this term a bit myself but have resolved that I won’t use it. I try to avoid the fads of Christianity and it seems all too faddish to me to say “I’m a Christ follower” instead of what God’s Word calls us, which is simply “Christian,” which in all my excellent knowledge of Greek, means simply “one who is like Christ.” The other uses of the term in the NT are also particularly instructive, Acts 26:28 and 1 Peter 4:16.
If simply changing what you call yourself changes your life, isn’t there something bizarrely wrong with that? Now, when a “Christian” really starts “following Christ”, that can very well be a difference. But if someone follows Christ but doesn’t want to be called a “Christian”, I’ve got serious questions.
Will we next abandon “church” because so many are “turned off” by the term?
If I’m driving down a road behind a dump truck, that means I’m a dump truck follower.
So, semantically speaking, if I am a Christ-follower, I can follow Him without having any of His traits, whatsoever just like I can follow that dump truck and not be the least bit like a dump truck.
“Christ-follower” removes much of the accountability for carrying the name. Sure, I’m not very “Christ-like” most of the time, but the “follower” term makes me feel better about it instead of striving for the higher goal.
Like
I waffle on this. For years I used Christian and then it seemed to be that anyone who wasn’t Muslim or atheist was claiming they were Christian. “I grew up in America” or “I am Republican” so that makes me a Christian. So I started using Christ-follower because it distinguishes one who follows Jesus. Then I read that it is unScriptural at pajamapages.com. You will find quite an article on it in the archives (the blog is now ended). So I straddle the fence.
Yep. Read that
Nothing wrong with being a Christ-follower. It does, though, sound a bit “Twitterish” in that it’s so easy to “follow” someone without ever knowing them, or emulating them, or imitating them, or glorifying them.
I admit this is a straddle for me, too, but I’m falling off more on the side of being satisfied with the term Christian. I don’t want the “shame” of it to cause me to avoid the word. I want to be “proud” of my Savior, even at cost to my personal image, which I strive all too desperately to protect.
I too am falling off to the side of Christian. It has been good enough for over 2000 years I reckon it should still be good enough today.
had you been aware of pajamapages before or after I suggested the link? Quite a lot of good articles there. Interesting conversations to say the least.
I had actually read pajamapages.com before, and some of the things he said was what prompted my thinking. I’ve never really abandoned “Christian”, but in a subconscious way I was using it less and less. Partly, I suppose, because it is fashionable and I’m a sucker for fashionable. I honestly believe, though, that instead of abandoning the term, we should bust our tails to try to live up to it.
I met with a “church health” consultant over a year ago at Panacea in Frog Level and he shared with me how when he became a “Christ-follower” as opposed to a Christian it radically changed his life.
There isn’t anything wrong with the term, I don’t think, but what about Acts 11:26? “And the disciples were first called Christians at Antioch.”
I waffled on this term a bit myself but have resolved that I won’t use it. I try to avoid the fads of Christianity and it seems all too faddish to me to say “I’m a Christ follower” instead of what God’s Word calls us, which is simply “Christian,” which in all my excellent knowledge of Greek, means simply “one who is like Christ.” The other uses of the term in the NT are also particularly instructive, Acts 26:28 and 1 Peter 4:16.
If simply changing what you call yourself changes your life, isn’t there something bizarrely wrong with that? Now, when a “Christian” really starts “following Christ”, that can very well be a difference. But if someone follows Christ but doesn’t want to be called a “Christian”, I’ve got serious questions.
Will we next abandon “church” because so many are “turned off” by the term?
God forbid.
If I’m driving down a road behind a dump truck, that means I’m a dump truck follower.
So, semantically speaking, if I am a Christ-follower, I can follow Him without having any of His traits, whatsoever just like I can follow that dump truck and not be the least bit like a dump truck.
“Christ-follower” removes much of the accountability for carrying the name. Sure, I’m not very “Christ-like” most of the time, but the “follower” term makes me feel better about it instead of striving for the higher goal.