Culture's Christianity

I was addicted to church. When I got away from organized religion, Bible studies, mid-week meetings, worship teams, I experienced withdrawal like any common addict. I discovered I was addicted to a culture of “churchism”.

Disconnecting from cultural Christianity, including years in professional Christian ministry, brought me to discover my own faith and role in Christ’s universal body. I stopped playing church to become Christ's church.

True Christianity is a community of believers following Christ into a lifestyle that imitates his own. It is a slow transformation into what Christ is by nature (Philippians 2:5-16; Colossians 1:19; Romans 8:19-21).

American Christianity is mostly a pre-packaged consumerist counterfeit. Being churched in the United States is mostly being a consumer of religious goods and services. You are expected to participate in church programs chiefly to receive and consume. The church takes responsibility for programming, coordinating, and providing what you need for spiritual growth. This is a shameful departure from what Christ intended!

Being Christ’s church requires me to take personal responsibility for learning directly from Christ and his Holy Spirit. Jesus did not promote (nor create) some human organization. His church is more organism than organization. He opened “The Way” for all to enjoy a personal relationship with him and God. He provides his Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts to each believer. He instructs all while we enjoy mutual intimacy with each other and God, Matthew 11:27-30. The true community of Christian faith spurs one another to love and good works.

I still worship with other believers, but I worship as an individual and daily follower of Christ. I worship with others who are themselves priests. I worship out of the overflow of a daily walk with God. I worship more like "living room" than liturgy.

Christ is the only source for living the divine life. True Christians follow Christ alone. They learn personally from him. They shoulder responsibility for working out their own salvation. They never permit community or personal conscience to dictate how they should worship or follow Christ.

In Christ, he alone is our head. In Christ, we follow him into his life. In Christ, we abandon all modern versions of culture’s Christianity.