What unites us as Christians if it isn’t Christ?
Over the past ten years I’ve been asking what I naïvely thought was a simple and Biblical question: Is the thing or person you claim is discipling you rooted in Christ? It was my previously held belief that this – being rooted in Christ – was something people across denominations could agree on. I was wrong.
What I’ve been told instead by pastors, worship leaders, Sunday school teachers, church elders and staff members, youth pastors, and small group members, is that this question is too divisive. It’s unhelpful. It doesn’t matter. As long as worship songs are sung, or Bible verses are quoted, or the name “Jesus” is said, the organization or person can and should claim to be a disciple maker of Jesus. Character doesn’t matter. Words don’t matter. Attitudes don’t matter. Fruit doesn’t matter. I’ve been told each of these specifically isn’t important.
Character doesn’t matter, I’m told, because people make mistakes. If someone one time in their life acts in a manner consistent with the way of Jesus, they can be a Christian leader, even if every other day of their life they walk in a manner inconsistent with the way of Jesus.
Words don’t matter, I’m told, because slurs are just a part of our culture. It’s okay to call people names, to belittle people, and to dehumanize as many groups of people as you can, so long as you’re photographed with a Bible.
Attitudes don’t matter, I’m told, because the name of Jesus is being spoken. It doesn’t matter when a Church service is replaced by a political rally because the organization holding the political rally is affiliated with Christianity. Politics and the Gospel are interchangeable.
Fruit doesn’t matter, I’m told, because as long as Jesus is mentioned, whether the hearing of the name of Jesus is good news to the poor or to the widow or to the orphan is unimportant. So long as worship is sung, or a Bible verse is in your Instagram bio, or you’ve mentioned God in a policy briefing, the practicality of your effects are unimportant. How it’s interpreted or made tangible in someone’s life is too controversial to ask. It’s enough for us as the Body of Christ that it was said. Harm or help isn’t a valuable discussion.
In the thick of Advent, I’ve got to wonder what it is we’re waiting for? If all Baby Jesus is is a name, able to be reduced to a Bible verse or a hymn, is he worth the waiting? If following Jesus shouldn’t change us, if it’s too divisive or controversial to interrogate that change or lack thereof in myself and others, what am I waiting on? And why do I have to wait so long?
The Biblical wisdom in 1 John 4 to test to see whether prophets are genuinely from God or not is a question I’ve been explicitly told to stop asking by prominent religious leaders in my community because the answer doesn’t matter and all asking does is sow division.
If I can’t ask this question, I’ll ask instead: what unites us as Christians if it isn’t Christ? What is the dividing line on what is Kingdom and what is Empire? How do I tell the wheat from the chaff? How do I tell the good soil from the bad? I guess for many in the Church, the answer doesn’t matter. Plant anywhere, as long as you plant something. Listen to any voice, as long as it’s speaking.
Don’t ask questions. Don’t test voices. Don’t look to fruit to validate the working of the Gospel. Just sit down at a Sunday Service once a week, shut up, and listen to whatever voice has a microphone.
Haven’t you heard? Revival is here because churches are growing and movements are expanding and the Bible app is increasing in downloads. The gospel, at its core, is just a numbers game – quantity over quality, breadth over depth. Christ is come and Christ will come again, but not as an embodiment of anything, not as a King, not as a root, not as fruit. Just as a title. Empty. Meaningless. Barren. Ingested and never wrestled with or discussed.
Or so I, and others, are told. All morning has felt like a release, hearing from other Christians of the key pushback they’ve been hearing in their congregations this year and in recent years. These are, across geographies and denominations, the question we shouldn’t ask. I think, for all the pushback and persecution I’ve gotten for asking it, we should keep asking.
Is the thing or person you claim is discipling you rooted in Christ? And if we really can’t ask that, then what unites us as Christians if it isn’t Christ?
Bryce Van Vleet is the #1 selling author of Tired Pages and Before We All Die Let’s Have One Last Chat by the Fireside. He also hosts the podcast Death in Dakota, sells poetry art here, and masquerades as the spoken word artist Liihey. You can support him by clicking through blog posts or donating (scroll to the bottom of the page).
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