We need a new name. Say “Christian” and you’re a political activist bent on taking everyone’s freedoms away. Say “born again” and you’re a religious fanatic. Say “evangelical” and you’re an enlisted officer in a culture war. Say “Jesus freak” and you are… well, just that.
Point is: we’ve been labeled, but what the labels engender in people’s minds has little to do with what we are called to be as followers of Christ. How did this come to pass?
Looking back, historically, it seems to have all started with the high idealism and the crushing disillusionment of the ’60s, the birth of a new breed of Christian through the Jesus Movement, and then how what started as Jesus music focused on the world turned into Christian music focused on Christians, and finally into a Christian subculture with a Christian version of everything. The point here being SAFETY became the key element and FEAR became the driving motivation and a big selling point for a safer alternative to the scary world out there. It has not always been this way. The Christian subculture is a product of my lifetime.
“The Christian subculture is more culture than it is Christian. It began as our attempt to affect the world, and has become evidence of the world’s effect on us. The Christian subculture is not the church. It is not the kingdom of God. Both can do fine without it – both are doing just fine without it.”
Our challenge? To be a Christian in culture, not a cultural Christian. The word Christian makes a really bad adjective. There is no such thing as a Christian anything; there is only YOU! Who you are is God’s answer to the world.
The world doesn’t need Christian music; it needs YOU making music. The world doesn’t need Christian TV; it needs YOU in television. The world doesn’t need Christian movies; it needs YOU in Hollywood. The world doesn’t need a Christian coffeehouse; it needs YOU in Starbucks.
Heck with labels; the world needs YOU. You are the last Christian.
by John Fischer
used by permission
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