I was reading an article in Bible Study Magazine about Ara Badalian, a pastor currently serving in Baghdad. He grew up in a Christian home. His grandfather was an ethnic Armenian who had found safety in Baghdad from Turkish persecution after World War I. The following description of his growing up years caught my attention: “Christianity functioned more as a family identifier than a life-changing faith.”
That statement resonates with me because it pretty much describes my own experience as a young, church-going boy. And perhaps that’s the experience of many other kids growing up in a Christian home. I did all the church stuff—Sunday school, worship services, prayer meetings, Bible studies—you name it, I did it. And I enjoyed all that, for the most part. But that’s about all what my Christianity was.
Things changed for Badalian when he made that personal decision to surrender his life to the lordship of Jesus. Then he responded to God’s call to serve as a minister of the gospel. Now he serves in an area where violence against followers of Christ is a real possibility. And he chooses to stay on. Christianity has indeed become a life-changing faith for him.
In his book The Great Evangelical Recession, John S. Dickerson identifies factors that threaten to cause the decline of the church in America. One such factor is what he calls “sputtering.” Like an automobile running out of gas, there are symptoms of churches losing the true character of their existence: reaching the lost and making disciples.
The church is not about religious activity. It is not enough for a group of religious people to have “Christian” attached to its name or written in its documents. It is about people embracing the lordship of Christ in their lives, and letting that reality affect every aspect of life. When Christians take seriously their identity as followers of Christ and faithfully live out the gospel, Christianity functions in the way it is supposed to. Making disciples is the church’s top priority (Matthew 28.19-20). The Lord expects nothing less.
“I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws” (Ezekiel 36:26–27 NIV). That’s a disciple, a Christian.
Do you call yourself Christian? What function does Christianity have in your life? Is it just an “identifier,” like a nametag attached to the front of your shirt or a tattoo on your arm or a bumper sticker on your car? Or is Christianity a reality that has transformed the very character of your being, like a new heart pumping life into every part of your body?
—Keith Y. Jainga