Now that I’m in the “secular” world full time, I am struggling on what to call myself as it relates to my faith. I’ve always grown up calling myself a “Christian” but I am noticing the overwhelming negative connotations that term has with non-Christians. So, I have called myself a “follower of Christ” a few times and people don’t seem to recoil when I say this but they do tend to give me that “hmmm, interesting” look. I even called myself a “believer” a few times but I stopped that because I felt cheesy myself saying that.
So, here’s the question: when you’re out and about and have the opportunity to share your faith, what do you call yourself and why?
4 Comments
May 10, 2009 at 8:21 pm
I think about this one a lot myself. I guess I have come to realize that I hate labels. The way I see it I have three choices.
1) I can use a label that people are familiar with, but that immediately frames their opinion of me based on their preconceptions about what that label means.
2) I can make up my own label for myself, but that doesn’t mean anything to anyone else because they have no clue what makes my ‘special’ label different from any other.
3) I can explain to people that I am fervently trying to follow God and I don’t want to label that journey. Labeling paints me into a box that doesn’t do justice to this wonderful journey. It changes and grows.
I always seem to choose #3 just because I can’t seem to find a label that doesn’t fall into one of the first two categories.
May 11, 2009 at 4:51 pm
I think Mark perfectly summarized where we’ve come to as well, avoiding labels in order to try and capture what is really intended to be behind them as best we can…
May 13, 2009 at 2:49 am
I have recently taken up to calling myself a radical christian, which as you can imagine, gives quite a bit of a shock to people who I tell that to. I say this because I believe radical describes my faith at this time. A return to the natural state or root of something. Following Gods path the way it is supposed to be done, the way done by Jesus himself. Not following Jesus by how he fits best into my little pocket. I don’t say this to stand out or to make a name for my faith but in the end I strive to have truth and love in my relationship with God and in turn pour this faith out to people who will listen and I believe calling myself a radical best describes all of that. (plus it starts great conversations!)
Ps. alot of inspiration comes from Irresistible Rev.
May 21, 2009 at 12:59 am
When asked, I have use the term…”I am a representative of Jesus”. This usually gets an inquisitive look and allows me the opportunity to explain that I have a relationship with Him and part of that is that I live our representing Him through the things I do. He is my motivation.