Jeremy L. Berg

“There is a beautiful and powerful grassroots Kingdom movement arising all over the globe …. Millions of people are abandoning the Christendom paradigm of the traditional Christian faith in order to become more authentic followers of Jesus. From the Emergent Church movement to the Urban Monastic Movement to a thousand other independent groups and movements, people are waking up to the truth that the Kingdom of God looks like Jesus and that the heart of Christianity is simply imitating him.  

-Greg Boyd

Prior to my current leadership role in a church setting, I was on the front lines of organizing a grassroots Jesus movement among the teenagers in my hometown where I was teaching, coaching, driving instructing and ministering.  You can read about the Revolution in Mound HERE.  One of the main challenges of this movement was finding new and appropriate language to describe the type of Christianity we were inviting teens to explore AND the Christianity we were running from.  I can’t tell you how much time, effort and care was put into choosing the appropriate labels and avoiding the others as this movement drew attention from curious onlookers.  We ended up specifically inviting others to become “followers of Jesus” and we described the Revolution as “a movement centered around the revolutionary message and mission of Jesus.”

Every word was carefully chosen and intentionally used.  We were inviting teens:

…to become real, intentional FOLLOWERS; not merely believers or Sunday pew-sitters.

…into a real, personal, growing relationship with the real JESUS of the gospels; not a mythical religious figure or icon. 

…to join an exciting, purpose-filled MOVEMENT that would have real, visible, measurable impact in the community. 

…to understand the truly counter-cultural, untamed, REVOLUTIONARY nature of Jesus’ message and mission; Jesus wasn’t executed because he was a Mr. Rogers-like storyteller in a sweater..     

… to grasp the central “Kingdom-of-God core” of Jesus’ MESSAGE buried beneath all the layers of additional Christian tradition and teaching.

…to become active agents, or “disciples”, of Jesus in carrying forward his MISSION of advancing the Kingdom of God on earth “as it is in heaven.”  

Greg Boyd’s quote above captures so beautifully the spirit of our own “grassroots Kingdom movement” in Mound.  

I was shocked then as I listened to a sermon last night during my Snap Fitness workout that basically claimed that the new, popular trend among Christians is to avoid the label “Christian” and to instead call themselves “followers of Jesus.”  She even mentioned the thousands of people who put “Follower of Jesus” as their religious affiliation on their Facebook profile.  Yikes! That’s what mine says!  I thought I was being careful to distance myself from the more mainstream Christian crowd.  Turns out my “new language” is already old jargon.  My careful distinction has become a mainstream phenomenon.  

Which raises again the big question: Now “whatchamacallme?!”  What new label do I use to capture and describe my Christian faith?   Why do I feel the need to be so carefully labeled in the first place?  What do you call yourself?  What label do you choose to use?  Should we keep relabeling ourselves or just reclaim and reform the public image of “Christians”?  

I’m tempted to give up this seemingly futile religious name-game.  Yet, Jesus himself may have started this name-game in the first place when, amidst numerous rumors surrounding his true religious identity, he asked his disciples quite pointedly: “Who do you say that I am?”  Since Jesus has now commissioned us to go out on his behalf, as his Body, should we not be prepared to offer a careful, well thought out answer when others corner us and ask, “Who do you say that you are?”  

So, again I ask: Whatchamacallit?