Christianity 101: PRIMER

This marks the first in a series of blogs aimed to discuss the things we do as followers of Christ.  My goal is to take things down to brass tacks and succinctly describe different aspects of our faith and perhaps how then do we live those out in our lives.

Our problem as Christians is that I think we make things too complicated and then lose sight of their purpose.  For instance, why do we sing songs in church and call that part "worship"?  Why do we meet on Sunday mornings?  What is a tithe?  What is communion?  Baptism?  What are spiritual disciplines (sounds like going to the principal's office) and why should we "fear the Lord" (I thought God wanted us to love him...)?

What I am not saying is that a complex and well nuanced faith is not to be desired.  On the contrary, our faith should be very nuanced, complex, and integrated into our lives.  Our lives are complex and messy and we need a faith able to handle that.  I also am not suggesting a one-size fits all understanding of the parts of our faith.  If I give an explanation of something that doesn't exactly include something that you have experienced and feel is appropriate, then it may well be.

Someone once told me that all we need to know to share our faith is, "Jesus loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so."  I love that, for the reason that we tend to think that we need years of study before we can tell someone about our faith.  The truth is that all we need to know is that (and how) Jesus loves us, and we have an authority (the Bible) to go to in order to help prove that.  Now, would a class in the topic help? Yes!  Would role playing help? Yes!  Would developing a complex and nuanced understanding of how to talk to people about Jesus help? Probably.  But the fundamental part of this is that all I need to know is that Jesus loves me--all the rest is beneficial.

Bottom line: this series of posts will hopefully help me to be able to describe the purpose of the things we do and believe as Christians simply and concretely.  Hopefully it will help you to, if you are a newbie that needs to understand what's been going on or as reminder to you seasoned veterans.

One more thing, if you have questions or ideas for something you'd like explained please feel free to email me or post comments.  Also, if you want to push back and start a discussion please feel free to do so as well!