Last year at the Zoe worship conference Lauren Winner asked the question “Why are you a Christian today?”
Some come to faith out of fear or guilt, but I don’t think those things motivated me to be a Christian. And I am for sure they haven’t kept me a Christian. I think the benefit of the Christian community draws people to faith, but it’s not keeping me here today even though the Christian community, for the most part, has deeply blessed my life. The reason I am a Christian today is that I know Jesus does life right. Jesus embodied what people are intended to be and when I follow him I am being what I am called to be as a person. So today I remind myself that I am still following Christ because Jesus is the way.
Why are you a Christian today?
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4 comments:
Hi, I was searching blogs on Google and stumbled across this question online and wanted to answer it for you.
I have been hotly pursuing a relationship with God for the past four years. I have to say that I am a follower of Christ today because, like you said, He is the way. He provides a peace, joy, and love in my heart that no one else could ever fill. He points me to the right direction. He gives the best advice. So, when it comes down to it, I am a Christian today because I love God. Not only that, but He has called me to take a step forward and make a stand in this generation.
Thanks Shana for your comments and for stopping by.
I think you are taking a little too much credit for why you are a Christian. Don't you think its significant that you were born into a Christian family, raised in a Christian environment, and attended a Christian university? I'm sure a Jew and a Muslim would both say God has blessed their life and they "know" that YHWH and Muhammad teach "The Way" to do life. Furthermore, being a pastor, your life would fall apart if you were no longer a Christian. You would no longer have a job. Your education would be useless. I imagine you and Lindsay's relationship would become quite stressed. Do you think its possible that on an unconscious level you know there is no other choice and then interpret things in a way to support the Christian lifestyle?
Why am I a Christian? In all honesty...because my parents were Christian, because I was taken to church as a child, because all my friends were Christian, because I am incapable of evaluating religious ideas unbiassedly, and because my life was/is/and always will be easiest lived as a Christian.
Anonymous-
Thanks for raising an interesting discussion.
-I don’t think your determinist attitude is completely erroneous, though it does have some holes in it. I do believe that our surroundings affect and determine many choices we make- that’s less a theological opinion more a psychological opinion. I do believe that if I were from a Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim family I would have had a different story.
-But my point was not about "Why did I become a Christian?" and more "Why I am (still) a Christian?" While you do have a point about my current lifestyle's dependency on Xianity, that's not the whole story. I do think I have other options, and to be real honest with you, before I took this job I did entertain the thought of trying a non-church job even though I would have wasted 8yrs of undergrad/grad schooling. I choose to remain a pastor because I believe that people are broken, including me, and I believe there is something about Jesus that makes a difference. It might sound trite, but I believe that Jesus changes lives, including mine.
Here is my question for you
-Who is able to evaluate religious ideas with an unbiased mind? Is there someone who actually is unbiased?
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