Lately, I’ve really been pondering: what does a real Christan look like? Sure, we have our cultural Christians (ones that buy their clothes from the Family Christian Bookstore or watch Facing the Giants), but what does a it really look like to put faith into action. Nothing fake or plastic, or acted. No pretense. Just raw and real. What does an authentic Christian look like?

Here are some word that came to mind: 

Honest /Authentic

Transparent / Vulnerable

Just / Passionate

Compassionate / Loving

Ordinary / Simple

Ultimately the answer is, an authentic Christian looks like Jesus.

Any other words you care to add to the list? 

“This is not a religion, this is a way of acting out your love for the creator” - Matthew Sleeth (speaking at Mars Hill Bible Church 7/7/07)

This quote has quickly become one of my favorites. It articulates what Christianity is simply about. If we lived like this, what would the world see? Boy, how far have we gone from this…

A man pretending to be a priest was arrested by police as he prepared to baptize a baby in a small town in the north of Portugal.

“When the man said ‘in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit’ police came in and grabbed him,” a member of the church was quoted by local daily Jornal de Noticias as saying.

A spokeswoman for the Portuguese police said the 34-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of impersonating a priest and had several similar arrest warrants to his name.The baby was later baptized by a real priest, the local daily said. [YAHOO News]

I was amused at this story. It makes it sound as if the baby would have been baptized by a ‘fake’ priest it would have caught or fire or something. But this story got me thinking. How many of us act like this fake priest? Are you a phony when you’re at church? I mean, are you the same person during the week as you are on Sundays at church?

I watch this every week. There’s this idealized way we’re supposed to act and talk like when we’re in church, but it’s not who we are. It’s a whitewashed version of ourselves. We become these mannequins of Christianity.

So my question for you is this… are you the same person you are at church as you are at home? And if not, then why?

I’ll admit I’ve really had to train myself. Some of it was self consciousness  because I’m a missionary so I must act more holy. Some of it was my desire to not rock the boat. But I’ll tell you, it’s so much more fun being yourself and letting the chips fall. I know some people don’t agree with my version of ministry. Life is messy. We’re a messy people. So why fake it? Now I’m not saying that we’re supposed to be okay with sin (because I know there’s detractors out there - the holy police- that will say I’m condoning sin). I’m not talking about sin at all. It’s about being real. It’s about being authentic.

It’s this plastic versions of ourselves that keep the churches from really moving towards God and towards each other in fellowship.

I watched the Christian Movie “Facing the Giants” last night and this question came to mind:

If our lives as Christians are rated R,

then why do Christian movies depict them as rated G?

I’m absolutely serious on this. It was a good wholesome movie (decently well made), but it just didn’t seem realistic. The message: if you trust in God everything will work out in you favor. I think that this is the exact message that we try to portray to the onlooking world. If you have Jesus then life is easy. From my experience, that couldn’t be more UNTRUE.

As Christians we whitewash the reality of our lives into some sort of fake sappy happiness. The non-believers see this and say that Jesus [and believing in Him] isn’t real either. That’s why Christianity seem pointless to the world. We come off looking brainwashed to be happy. Am I saying that there isn’t a joy in living for Christ? No. I’m just saying that life is hard and Jesus makes it bearable. Without Him there is no hope. But Jesus isn’t some magic pill. He’s not the new anti-depressant that we take to make our problems go away. He’s the Savior to an hurt and broken world.   

I know I live in an R rated world. I work with R rated kids. I would actually like to see a movie that shows a real Christian walking out his faith in the real world in a real way.

[Note:I'm not advocating sex, violence and profanity, but look at the Bible - it's completely R rated! The first Christian  movie that actually seemed real to me was The Passion. It depicted Jesus's last hours in a realistic manner that years of Sunday school had tried to whitewash out.  Look at 300. Hordes of people went to go see it. It was real and raw. People connect with that because in some way their lives feel that way. Read the story of Gideon and his 300 warriors (Judges 7). It's equally violent and God was involved in it!

All I'm trying to say is that Christian movies don't need simply inject sex or violence (like Hollywood does), they just need to tell real stories in real ways - and often times that won't get you a G rating.]

Authenticity. It’s a word that’s been hitting me for the past few months. So what does it mean to be authentic (or mainly an authentic Christian)?

 Hebrews 4:13 says that “nothing in all creation can hide from Him. Everything is naked and exposed before His eyes.”

So why are we incapable of being authentic? Fear of shame, embarrassment? Maybe.

I think it goes beyond that. Granted, Adam and Eve eating from the apple shattered true authenticity and lead to us all covering up. There’s a deeper message here. 1) Satan tempted Eve to eat the apple. Shame and distance (from God and man) resulted from it. So then I could say that 2) Satan uses our fear of intimacy to keep us from truly having fellowship with others. Isn’t that his paramount goal? Separate us from God and other believers? There’s safety in numbers and when we stray too far from the herd, we’re toast.  

So then, is true authenticity acutally true oneness (with God or others)?

Agree? Disagree?

What is your definition of authentic?