This one's just for you, Dan.
I was called out (indirectly - okay, he actually didn't know I use the term and was talking about someone else, but this makes for better reading!) Anyway, I was called out the other day for using the term "Christ-follower". I don't use it exclusively, but I do use it on purpose...It seems to me (and many others) that the term "Christian" is fast approaching the status of the term "fundamentalist" - something you most definitely do not want to be [this is the top Google entry]. So rather than fight for the name (since there's nothing terribly important about the word itself), I sometimes choose to use something other.
Moreover, I sometimes think that we (as Christians - there's that term again!) use the term too easily. It just rolls off the tongue without pause. So by using a construction a bit more awkward, I'm forcing myself (and my readers) to stop and consider - if only for a heartbeat - the significance of the term.
"Christ-follower" does this nicely. After all, if being a Christian means anything at all, surely it means "one who follows Christ". Some folk use "follower of Jesus" with (perhaps) the same effect (though I think with other connotations).
Anyway, in deference to my buddy Dan, could you all be sure to NEVER use the term "Christ-follower" in your comments?
Thanks.
Hatushili the Christ-follower
Monday, January 29, 2007
What's in a name?
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2 comments:
I was just thinking about that the other day. A lot of people on my space are calling themselves Christians, but their sites most certainly do not promote Christianity.
That's yet another reason I like Christ-follower. It sounds just different enough to make people think. It's just too easy to say "Christian". It's almost like "Jewish" - so many people mean "culturally Jewish" when they say that, not "Jewish by religion".
So whether Dan likes it or not - I'm a Christ-follower!
Hatushili
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