Leading People To Be Real Christ Followers In Life….Together (3)

Part 1

Part 2

This is the post where I would like to focus on "Real Christ Followers". I have to be honest with you , I do not feel like I am the person to comment on being a "real" Christ follower. There are millions of people in the world that are infinitely more qualified than me to comment on such a weighty phrase.

But in LifePoint's context, I think what they are trying to get at is for folks to be passionate about Jesus and The Bible, not religion and "going to church". In Southwest Missouri, there is a definite tendency to believe "I was born here, I go to church, so yea I'm a Christian". I've been in other parts of the country where that is the case as well. Darrin Patrick, pastor of The Journey in St. Louis, would call that "Churchville". But here in the Ozarks, it's definitely a bad tendency.

So you have to preach against the church and teach people what a real relationship and what real following of Jesus is. It's easy to fall into the "Churchville" mode and forget that being a disciple of Jesus is a radical calling. And to be honest, I see that as the struggle of any church. Tim Keller would argue that it's easy for folks to get sidetracked on "self-salvation" projects and begin looking to something other than Jesus as their salvation (ie their works, traditions, self-righteousness, etc).

But LifePoint at least understands that "Churchville" does not equal "Real Christ Followers". It doesn't always mean that they're perfect in following that, but the recognition and pushing against it is something that is definitely part of the LifePoint DNA.

So I ask this question of the loyal "Syndrome" readers: "What would your definition be of a "Real Christ Follower"?