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Being Religious and Being Christian
I have never considered being religious and being a Christian as one and the same. I remember one time being asked, "Did you watch the Billy Graham crusade on television last night?" I responded, "No." Surprised, the person asked, "You didn't? Why?" "Well", I said, "there was a good football game I wanted to see." The person walked away in disbelief.
To me religion is about being religious, and I've come to associate it with "God talk"- that ability that some people have to seemingly mention God in every conversation. I'm not knocking it as much as I am saying, "that's not who I am." To be Christian, as I understand it, is to believe deeply that you are a child of God, loved and esteemed, who has been given the gift of life and invited to respond by "loving God and loving others." Being a Christian is a response and is integrated so deeply in a person's personality that it is like being married, you don't have to mention to people all the time that you are married. Being married is who you are. So, being on "the way" as a disciple is similar. It is you. It defines, describes, and disciplines you.
The problem with people like me, I suppose, is that often we consider that we do not need the church.
We think that we don't need a community or need to worship. If I am grateful for anything in my life, I am grateful to being part of a "faith community." If there is anything I would want to say to that growing number who consider themselves "spiritual, not religious," it is that you don't need to be religious to find the church to be one of God's very best gifts to you!
In faith,
Pastor Tim
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