Christian or Christlike

A month or two ago, I dropped a hint that I was dreaming again.

Lots of what I’m dreaming about is still churning in the ol’ soul-incubator, so I’m not ready to spill it just yet. Vision is forming, but I don’t know what it’s all going to look like yet. What I do feel is that this whatever-it-is that I’m dreaming up needs to have a fresh approach to faith expressed in our culture.

I know that I want to eschew all the trappings that make our various “ministries” look like churchy carbon-copies of one another. You know what I mean: So-and-so Ministries, such-and-such nonprofit organization, things we structure as para-church ministries but are really more of the same institutionality–and mainly attract more Christians to it. I want it to share Jesus with people without having the religious or institutional overtones to it. I’d like to call it “missional”, but I think even that term is being overused these days.

It’s hard to explain–but this morning I had a brain wave that best fits what I’m feeling:

I don’t want this new thing to be “Christian” as much as I want it to be Christlike.

Yes, that’s it. That’s what I want.

The problem is, the term Christian (which began in Acts as an accurate description of how we lived and acted) has become more of a label–and one that carries a lot of emotional baggage for a lot of people. Some believers don’t even like to use that word to describe themselves anymore. (I don’t take it that far, but I understand why others do.) At any rate, so many of us have become comfortable labeling ourselves and our stuff “Christian” without any sense of what that should look like to the world. I think this plays out in two detrimental ways: first–when we label something “Christian”, the whole churchy subculture comes along with it; and second–we let the label speak for us rather than letting our behavior speak for us.

Not to go all legalistic here…but what used to define a Christian was Christlike behavior, not a statement of belief. I think we’ve lost that element with our Christian labels, and I think we need to get it back–not just for the world’s sake, but for our own sake. Inherent to following Jesus is an active desire to let His nature and character be formed in our lives. Instead, so many of us are content to just come under our churchy Christian banners and turn Jesus into a sales pitch, without giving any thought to how our lives reflect Him. And because of this–and here’s the moment of truth–the world is no longer buying what we’re selling. For too long we’ve cut corners on this, preaching cookie-cutter messages with all flash and no substance to back it up. And we’re paying the price for it now.

I don’t want to start something that ends up being more of the same. I’m tired of labels without substance. I think it’s more important to have the substance than the label. So to me, it’s not as important that what we embark upon be “Christian” as much as it be Christlike. I’d like for people who come in contact with us to find the nature of Christ present in who we are and what we do, rather than just hear the Christian-ese in what we say to them. And in this day, I think that will go a lot farther toward making new disciples than all the preachy jargon we give them.

And for that matter…it would be good for all of us to look at our existing ministries the same way. We should stop asking if they are “Christian” and start asking if they are Christlike. Is the nature of Christ reflected in how that ministry functions?