Discovering What it Means to be a Christian

What does it mean to be a Christian?  This is the question that presented itself two Sundays ago as I was sitting in a church service.  The question arose in my mind as I pondered the myriad different churches that can be found in any community, which differ not only on various theological points but on the sort of people they seek to produce.  It occurred to me that this is the first question any church needs to ask itself--what does it mean to be a Christian.  Once this question is answered, then the Church can determine how to direct its ministries so as to enable its members to live as Christians.

The word "Christian" means "follower of Christ." Most any person with even moderate experience with attending church is aware of this fact and has heard that God's purpose for his or her life is to follow Jesus Christ. This is true, but does not actually answer the question of "what does it mean to be a Christian?"  It only changes it to "what does it mean to follow Christ?"

As I sat in church two weeks ago and pondered what it means to follow Christ, it occurred to me that the best way to find an answer to this question is to review the accounts of Jesus' life found in the gospels. If the purpose of each life is to be a follower of Christ, it intuitively makes sense that the Gospel accounts exist for the purposes of conveying who Jesus is and what it means to follow Him.  After all, if God is calling us to follow Jesus of Nazareth, we need to know who He is, why we should follow Him, and how one follows Him.

Over the next few months I am going to review the gospel accounts in an attempt to piece together a full answer to the question of "what does it mean to be a Christian."  I am doing this not because I think I have the answers to this question.  Truth be told, I am going on an intellectual and emotional expedition through the scriptures to find the answers and make a great number of changes in my life.  The ultimate goal is to live a life that results in hearing from God "well done, good and faithful servant."  Right now, I don't think that statement would be deserved.  My journey will start with the Gospel of Matthew, and you are invited to join me.