Following Jesus is Not Like Twitter

There is a difference between Twitter-like following and following Jesus. What follows is an edited version of Brad Powell's comments in Outreach, January/February 2014, p. 114.

FOLLOWING LIKE TWITTER

Churches can be full of people who claim to be following Christ but refuse to get involved in the mission he gave us. They love attending church and listening to sermons, the "deeper" the better, but they do nothing with them.

The problem stems from a basic misunderstanding of what it means to follow Jesus. Twitter provides a great picture of the problem.

Twitter is built on the concept of "following" people. But to follow someone doesn't involve changing your life. All you have to do is click "follow," and it's, done. Then, you wait. You wait for them to deliver some inspired or helpful golden nugget for you to ponder—or not to ponder.

Interestingly, even if you never read any of their tweets, you are still considered to be "following" them. It's a very passive relationship. There are no responsibilities. There's no accountability. There's just a one-time click on a "follow" button. It's easy.

Sadly, this has become the perfect picture of what following Jesus means to many professing believers and churches. It's a passive follow rather than an active follow. All a per son has to do is say a prayer, get baptized or join a church, and the "follow" button has been clicked. After that, they just wait for inspiring messages to be delivered. Whether they listen or not, respond or not, change or not, they are still Christ followers. It's easy.

That's not the way it's supposed to be. At least not according to what Jesus taught and the early disciples demonstrated.  Matthew 4:19-20: "Come, follow me,' Jesus said, 'and I will make you fishers of men.' At once they left their nets and followed him." Luke 14:27, 33: "And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple ... In the same way, any of you who, does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple."

If we're going to 'get our churches back on mission, we have to get them actively following Jesus. They can't just sit around and wait for the next great teaching about Jesus. They need to be actively applying Jesus' teachings. As James wrote, "Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins."

To be honest, I think we've unwittingly created this dependency. Our services are inspiring and energizing. All person has to do is be there. But this isn't what makes a true or fully devoted Christ, follower. That requires activity—receiving something, leaving something, giving up something, doing something. It demands 'responsibility and 'accountability.

We want people to know there's nothing they can do to earn a relationship with God. That requires passively receiving grace by faith. But we don't want to leave it there. God doesn't. We also want people to know that, when grace is genuinely received, it leads. to good works. This is the clear, two-sided message of Ephesians 2:8-10.