I have often thought about trying to call myself something other than "Christian." Something that would convey how I'm trying to believe in Jesus, but without all the baggage that the term "Christian" comes with. I used to attend a church that used "Christ-follower" quite a bit. Of course, that was a very cutting-edge church, even getting written up by Bob Webber quite a bit.

Oh, you don't know Bob Webber? People who didn't know him as well as our pastor and church usually call him Robert Webber. That's how cool we were.

Anyway, I don't want to find a new name any more.

'Cause the videos at that link are not funny and they're too clever by half. The cool Christ-follower comes off as being more smug than the uptight Christian - just like in the original Mac ads! So instead of getting across the idea that at Community Christian Church in Naperville, IL, people can just relax and be themselves, they appear to be snotty and conceited about how much better they are at the whole Christ-following bit than all those old fogey Christians. I've seen church plants use this type of thing in direct-mail and newspaper advertisements, where they intentionally paint the other churches in town as either boring, lacking in authenticity or both.

That's wrong. I mentioned growth by cannibalism before. The Church cannot eat its own and claim to be following the Great Commission. There's enough problems in this world that we don't have to mock each other.

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