a christian

i have been thinking about the definition of a christian the last few days. i had a conversation with andrew who i met when i was his youth pastor in new york. he is now studying youth ministry and business at iwu. he mentioned how a girl spoke at chapel the other day and seemed pretty mad about the direction of the church. she claimed no one took the name of christian anymore, how we are all ashamed to be associated with the church. sure i was not there and did not hear her speak on this topic, but here are some of my thoughts.

is there anything wrong with with using the term "follower of Christ," what could be so wrong about this? personally i do not think it matters what you call yourself but how you represent what you believe.

christian is defined as a "little Christ." in essence this is a great word. everybody should aim to be a little Christ. Christ is so much bigger then we are. he is the Son of God. he has no beginning and end. he is human and God. perfection at its peak. so we really do not have a shot at being "all Christ." so we settle for being a little like Him.

follower of Christ can be defined as a sheep to a shepherd. we follow him because he is our protector. but i also think it could be imitator of Christ. similar to the game follow the leader. we do things because we have seen him do it. like being a child, we see how our parents act and we learn from their example.

but in reality there is no difference. on facebook under religion i am listed as a follower of Christ but i did not do it to say i am not a christian. i never considered the possibility it might upset somebody. i gues i have more things to be worried about in my life then the semantics of who i am. i have a hard enough time living it out.