The Label Christian
Recently I lost my baggage but in many ways I’m still struggling with labels.
Growing up I began with the label Baptist. I remember the little church we used to go to as a six year old kid with the big sign that said, “Foothill Baptist Church. I didn’t really get what Baptist meant until I saw my first baptism and then I think I got it. I was part of a group that dunked people under water. And then my parents got divorced so we changed churches and went to a non-denominational church. My first thought was kind of wonder if these people were suffering from an identity crisis. By this time I was ten and I was beginning to understand labels, stuff like black and white, stupid and smart, athlete and nerd.
Non-denominational was a cute way of getting around labels by labeling yourself as a non-labeler. Something didn’t sit right with this though. It kind of felt like playing a trick on myself labeling myself as a non-labeler. Something deep within me wanted to know who I was. But the labels that were available just didn’t seem to fit. Even then I knew I wanted something more wholistic. But in the meantime, I was okay with the label Christian.
When I got into college I found out there was a new designer label for those who wore the label Christian. It was called Evangelical. Wow! Everybody wanted it, had to have it, and wore it proudly like a Sunday suit. At this point in my journey, I just put it on. It was as Jeff Spicoli said, “The name they gave me.” Everybody was doing it.
And then as all good people do, I started reading books outside my label. Oh man. There were other labels that actually had something to them. I liked Jesus though so I started asking what label Jesus wore. At first I asked what denomination Jesus was because if He wasn’t an evangelical then I didn’t want to be either. But then I realized that evangelical didn’t exist past 1907 so I was kind of stuck. Did that mean Jesus wasn’t a Protestant either because that didn’t exist past the Middle Ages. Was Jesus a Catholic? But that label likely didn’t really exist before the third century and possibly later. And if I took anyone of these labels on it automatically set me up as opposed to some other label. The Protestants didn’t like the Catholics and vice versa.
What if our labels are deeply flawed attempts to understand ourselves, kind of like little idols we throw out there to get a sense of equilibrium with life? But the problem with labels is that once you put them on, it’s hard to take them off. People define you by them. And not by your understanding of the label, but by their understanding of the label, which looks nothing like yours.
And then Emergent hit. Oh man this was good. Finally a label that described me. I was emerging right? But to what? I got the cocoon and I knew I didn’t want to be a caterpillar. I wanted to be the butterfly, the person God created me to be, which had a strange way of bring me back to Jesus. Jesus never even called himself a Christian. The label was invented to describe those who attempted to follow the Way of Jesus.
What if Jesus understood there was only one label we really needed, the most important label we could every have? Child of the living God. I like that. I didn’t have to invent it. I just had to embrace it. I think this is one label I will keep.
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