Not long ago, I exchanged a few messages with someone who used to be a coworker and, for a time, a participant in our Sunday house gathering and she mentioned someone she knows whom she considers to be, using her word, a "true" Christian. And, based on things she's said to me in the past, implied in that comment she was implying "like Evie and you."
And, it occurred to me that, these days, I hear talk about who really is a "true " Christian, from nonchurch, God-seeking people, fairly frequently since I stopped trying to fit in the traditional, institutionalized church.
And, I've been trying to unpack the meaning of the term to those unchurched, God-seeking people.
Here's what I'm concluding:
True Christians are transparently Jesus-driven, not church-consumed, and they live that out uncompromisingly in the world, though they don't necessarily live it out vocally.
Rumor has it that I have been defrocked by my Conference of churches and people hint to me that a reason people oppose me, in that setting, is that I am too uncompromising. Ironically, it seems to me, that, in the nonchurch universe, I stand out, in a way that is attractive and compelling, for that very reason. And, the same seems to be true of Evie.
We are intentionally determined to live as what is sometime called "red letter" people and, in a world filled with church people, it strikes me that that is extremely unusual.
I will say about myself that I don't achieve red letter very well. It also seems to me that it is the sincere attempt, not the success that touches people who are seeking spiritual truth.
In our world the church is declining. And, it seems really to be true that people love Jesus but, more and more all the time, hate the church.
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