Serving the High Plains
Serving the High Plains
The truth is that within Christian churches we have a history of allowing people to “identify” as something they merely feel or wish they were, but for which there is no objective evidence.
Not only have we done this consistently, but we have a little sub-culture in which this is enthusiastically encouraged. We make quasi-celebrities out of the preachers who can convince the most people to make this (false) identification. We call this evangelism.
Sometimes we hold special services called revivals, in which the goal is to get as many people as possible to identify as believers in Jesus.
Just raise your hand during the final prayer or walk the aisle to the front. Say this repeat-after-me incantation, even with half a heart and zero understanding. From that point forward, we’ll urge you to identify as a Christian or be “saved” or “born again.”
When you say you are those things, we’ll all get happy, and no one will dare question you about it.
We won’t require any objective evidence. Your identification doesn’t have to conform to even the smallest spec of what anyone can see.
You never show up at church again? That’s OK. We already counted you on our books as someone we saved.
You lead a life that looks the same as all your friends, who never claimed to believe? Fine. If you’ll continue to say yes when someone asks if you’re a Christian, that’s all that matters — you identify that way.
As one preacher has said, “If you were on trial for your faith in Jesus, would there be enough evidence to convict you?”
Jesus instructed us to tell what kind of tree we’re looking at by inspecting its fruit. It wouldn’t be enough to see a sign on its branches that says, “I’m an apple tree,” if the fruit it’s dropping is pecans.
John the Baptist warned the crowds who were identifying as repentant people that they needed to bear those fruits — their lives had to show that they had changed.
When people criticize the church for being “full of hypocrites” this is what they are complaining about. The identification points in one direction, but all the fruit lines up the other way.
No, I’m not saying you must walk in sinless perfection before you call yourself a believer. But I am saying that the more people are around you, they will inevitably see the reality.
You’re either aiming for righteousness and accidentally missing here and there, or you’re disguising a faithless lifestyle under the label, the identification, of Christian.
Someone will almost certainly read these words, become nervous or annoyed, and comfort himself with the fact that he raised his hand at Vacation Bible School 60 years ago, so he must be saved. They asked the kids if any of them wanted to go to heaven and he, with all the rest, raised his hand. So, boom, there’s your evidence, preacher.
The evangelism of Jesus was about counting the cost, renouncing worldly goods, and not loving your own life, even unto death. But we think the Jesus-fish on our car proves we’re in the in-crowd.
The good news is there is still time to repent … and to do it in a manner that everyone can identify.
Gordan Runyan is pastor of Tucumcari’s Immanuel Baptist Church and author of “Radical Moses: The Amazing Civil Freedom Built into Ancient Israel.” Contact him at:
