Are You Circling Around Jesus?
If you’re a follower of Christ, then you know my Jesus. He’s amazing, loving, generous, kind, truthful, merciful, and just. He’s the best–worthy of being followed and worshiped.
It’s quite possible, though, that you’ve grown up around church and yet have never met him. How can this be? Let’s explore a few of the possibilities.
The Emotional Experience
Some churches are focused on an experience instead of on Jesus. The worship band might be amazing, the light show spectacular, and maybe you’ll see wonderful dancing with tambourines and ribbons. Nothing is wrong with any of these things, but if the focus is on an emotional experience instead of a real and authentic encounter with Jesus, the focus is off.
When my husband and I were dating and in the early years of our marriage, we were trying to find a church where we could both draw closer to Jesus. James grew up in a conservative church context, and I grew up Pentecostal. We were arguably on opposite ends of the Christian church perspective, but we both genuinely wanted to follow Christ and know him better.
One time I visited a church my own when James was out of town. While I would never presume to judge the hearts of those leading there, I can say it felt like such a spectacle to me that I couldn’t find Jesus. As a church planter now, nothing would grieve me more than someone feeling this way about our church, Fringe.
While I do believe God, through his Spirit, can absolutely bring us into an emotional experience with him, this should be an output of our pursuing Jesus. It should never be the goal.
The Moral Compass
The Bible is rich with instruction for our lives. We could easily pick and choose parts that instruct us on right living but miss the reason to strive for it. Living a moral life without dependence on Jesus is like trying to steer a sailboat without a sail.
Some churches, unfortunately, fall into this trap. It’s possible for a church to draw a crowd that keeps coming because it focuses on kindness and treating others with love and grace yet avoids talking about Jesus and our brokenness. I could be completely drawn in by a dynamic speaker explaining why I should live with integrity, using Bible verses to support his message, yet making no mention of Jesus. The problem is I’m incapable of living a life of integrity on my own, without Jesus.
Many people in our communities seek to be kind, serve in homeless shelters, and are passionate about loving others well. We need these individuals, as we have plenty of hate in our world. However, being a good person, while admirable, doesn’t acknowledge our brokenness and need for a Savior. Jesus clearly tells us in John 14:6, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (NIV).
While moral and right living should absolutely be a result of our following Christ, if Jesus isn’t the hero of what we’re learning in church, we’re missing the point.
The Approval of Others
A third way to live a life that might look Christlike from the outside but misses the point completely is focusing on the approval of others. This one is tricky because it’s the most difficult to discern.
This is the father who insists his children attend church, serves as a deacon, and maybe even reads devotionals with his children over dinner, but he has never encountered the gospel or a knowledge of his brokenness and the fact that Jesus can save him from brokenness. His innermost thoughts and his actions in his home are filled with sin and void of repentance.
This is also the single woman who was raised with a knowledge of Christ but has never allowed him to capture her heart. She, too, attends church, helps out in the children’s department, and occasionally sings on the worship team. But on the weekends, she’s out with her friends, drinking excessively and putting herself in dangerous situations with men. She has completely missed the loving grace available to her in the gift of Jesus.
I could give you many more examples, and you might be wondering if one of these examples is you or if you’re acquainted with people who are living this way. How can we discern this? The answer is prayer and community. You can’t know the lives of others without living in community with them to see their output. The Bible calls it fruit. Are we and those around us producing love, joy, and peace? Do we talk about Jesus in regular conversation because our lives are centered around him? When we fail and make mistakes, do we look to Jesus in repentance to receive grace?
Jesus Is the Bullseye
It’s sadly easy to circle around Jesus and not really know him or depend on him. Many avenues for doing this exist besides the ones we’ve explored, and tragically, some churches even lead us in this direction.
Jesus is our bullseye. He’s our true north. He’s our anchor. He’s our sail. May our hearts be captured by the miracle of his love and grace for us, and may we keep our focus solely on him as we seek to follow him more closely.
is a Jesus follower, wife, mom of three, church planter, finance director, and lover of sarcasm and deep conversation with friends. She also loves camping, rafting, skiing, sewing, and having people over. Amy blogs with her husband at fringechurch.com.
Photograph © Heidi Sandstrom, used with permission
