“There have been some who were so preoccupied with spreading Christianity that they never gave a thought to Christ.”
~ C.S. Lewis
I wish I knew about this quote when I wrote Jesus Manifesto with Len Sweet. It sums up our entire argument.
Alas, better late than never.
Warning: Christian Community Doesn’t Work Without This
Christianism is everywhere.
Being able to discern Law from Gospel is a huge problem. As is “free-will”…which keeps people on the ‘religious rat-wheel’ of self-focused ascendancy.
Christ is Christianity. Christ in us through unity as a whole With out him what do we have. He is who we are and outside of him everything is futile even if efforts are noble and of good intent. I long for the day to be part of a church who’s primary reason for meeting is to be with Him and through the spirit share him by loving and encouraging one another keeping each other strong in the faith standing firm .we need each other.Christians are dying inside due to the lack of.May the Lord bless you and keep you.
Well spoken. Growing up in a denomination obsessed with “evangelizing” I used to wonder what they planned to DO with all those “souls” should they ever “win” them, seeings how not much was being done with the ones they already had. Seemed a lot like parents insisting that God had called them to have lots of babies and then storing them in a closet.
Frank,
Your point that there is a huge difference between speaking of Christ and speaking of Christianity is well taken. But I personally hesitate to apply Christ’s words directly to me without some filtering because Jesus spoke to those still under the law who had not yet received a new circumcised heart. The heart Jesus gives us.
How do we speak/think of the risen Christ without sounding like we are only concerned about the “-ianity” part of Christianity?
Max from Melbourne
Max. The idea that Jesus words don’t apply to to the church is just plain wrong and constitutes a false teaching. Read “Jesus: A Theography” to get the full picture here as well as N.T. Wright’s work on Jesus. Also listen to my recent podcast episode on hyper-grace. Links are at the top of this post.
A strong point! The living, resurrected Jesus Christ is frequently ignored by too many of us who profess to be believers.