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"What Constitutes a Christian?"
“You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet"
Matthew 5:13
Nick, Viany, and me at CSUF on a rainy day praying with two current students - *Dumas and *Camery. *Dumas has recently left one of the most abusive cults on campus and was encouraged to meet us, and *Camery is a wonderful student evangelist with a powerful testimony of converting to Christianity from Hinduism!
Justin, Nick, and me at CSUF engaging with students in the question, "Is there a dark force at work in our world?" Pictured is a conversation I had with a professing Christian about soteriology as we discussed whether or not water baptism is necessary for salvation according to the Bible.
Scott Sward, Nick, and me at CSUF as we met and learned about *Dumas's past experience with the Fellowship Church cult and how he recognized the inconsistencies in how they lived and interacted with others.
Nick and me at a coffee shop doing preparations for the Friends Church Fullerton evangelism trainings we will lead throughout the next months as well as catching conversations that present themself.
-Interesting Observations-
This week, I've had many conversations prompting me to press the question "What is a Christian?" and I've received responses ranging from blank stares of confusion, to uneasy answers, to merely moral standards. It seems that our culture is terribly confused about what it means to be a Christian, and I'm afraid it's heavily due to a diluted understanding of the Gospel and an absence of true disciples of Christ. It's not necessarily that people intend to be insincere but rather are committed to the wrong things. If we disassociate the intended meaning of the term "Christian" and redefine it to mean merely someone who professes to be a Christian or attends church, then we are just as absurd as those redefining womanhood to those who define themselves as a woman or sit down to go to the bathroom. It's generally easy to acknowledge the incoherence of this logic, but what does it mean to be a Christian?
I think that part of this confusion can be attributed to the scarcity of this verbiage being used in scripture. Jesus didn't commission us to make Christians, but rather to make disciples. Please don't get caught up on my rhetoric as I'm not rejecting the use of the term Christian, but I'm rather emphasizing the different connotations for each word. It's easy for our culture to wear the title of Christian because of the low value we have associated with it as a culture. Anyone and their dog can claim to be a Christian and most people are hesitant to interject or challenge, either because of America's hypersensitivity to identity freedom or because of ignorance to the attributes of Christ. However, Jesus tells us the nature of a disciple in Luke's account of the gospel when He says, "A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone when he is fully trained will be like his teacher" Luke 6:40.
If being like Jesus is the measure used in examining His disciples, how do you feel the American church is doing? Even harder, how do you think you are doing?
I just started going through the book The School of Christ, by T. Austin-Sparks, with Nick, and it addresses this topic in a way that was new to me. In the first chapter, Austin-Sparks compares the incarnate life of Jesus to the temple described in Ezekiel which provides the image of the perfect objective. As disciples of Jesus, we ought to seek conformity to the image and likeness of the Son as He is the perfect example provided by the Father. However, Austin-Sparks continues on to describe the proper despair we should experience at realizing the "other-ness" of Christ that we are hopelessly distant from in our own efforts. It is only through death and rebirth that we can become conformed to Christ's image. I've only just begun, but so far this is a wonderful book that's easy to read and is very thought provoking.
All of that to say, Christianity becomes very messy when we lose sight of the intended goal of becoming conformed to the image of Christ through death of ourselves and life in Christ. Another great point that Austin-Sparks emphasized in chapter one is that to learn Christ we must first see Christ. If we haven't seen the objective/standard, we will never understand the extreme "other-ness" of Christ and will hold the misconception that we can obtain it on our own accord. If we don't see the image of Jesus, both revealed in scripture and by the Spirit, how can we ever expect to be His disciple? We inevitably will be shaped and formed by something, but true life comes from being a disciple of Jesus; and that means conforming your actions, thoughts, and desires to that of Christ.
-Various Updates-
This past week, Nick and I had the pleasure of being joined multiple times at CSUF by Scott Sward who is a missionary in Cambodia and Alan Amavisca's son-in-law. It has been wonderful to have Scott's unique perspective and insight as we engage with students of varying beliefs and seek to unveil the realities and conflicts that arise from holding to different ideologies and religions.
While on campus with Nick and Scott, we met a young man who just left the most aggressive and abusive cult on campus. We were shocked to learn about *Dumas's personal recognition of "bad fruit" within the Fellowship Church (offshoot of the ICC and ICOC) community after four months of engagement with them. A friend of his encouraged him to find us and get involved in a healthy Christian community. We let him know that we aren't affiliated with any campus club, but he has been repeatedly returning to our whiteboard to talk and will be joining a new DMC with us this coming Monday!
Nick and I have met again with *Jacob, who was getting involved with a YouTube false prophet, and we have begun moving him away from the weird and unbiblical teachings he was listening to (after clearly conveying the dangers of this teaching) towards the life and teachings of Jesus provided in the gospel accounts. It's terribly unfortunate the number of weird people and groups that distract and confuse genuine people seeking to follow God and feed them obscure doctrines that really don't help them become disciples of Christ in the slightest. *Jacob seems to have the desire to discover more about what it means to be a Christian and is joining the DMC that we will begin this coming Monday. Please pray that the DMC with *Dumas and *Jacob would further provide each of them support and tools as they wish to follow Christ into a life of conforming to His likeness!
Nick and I have had the pleasure of joining East Whittier Friends Church for part of their teaching series entitled "Beyond Our Walls". Last week we briefly joined to share a small description of how we engage with people in evangelism, and next week we will return to share a slightly more comprehensive presentation of evangelism tools we have found to be helpful. Please pray for this lovely church community as they continue forward in the pursuit of discipling under Christ in their evangelism!
Nick and I have met a couple more times with *Titus and have continued working through Mark chapter one to explore what the earliest manuscripts claim about who Jesus was and what He taught. *Titus seems to be increasingly open to believing and following Jesus, but he is wrestling with the reality that Jesus is the only way to the Father. We continue to meet with *Titus weekly to learn more about the gospel presented in the Bible and discuss the issues and hesitations that arise. Please pray for *Titus as he continues learn about and discern whether or not he truly wants to live as Jesus' disciple.
Nick and I have continued to meet with *Anthony to Bible dialogue through Mark's account of the gospel and further discover what Jesus' main message was. Along with the Bible dialogue, Nick and I have also been cultivating the practice of prayer with *Anthony in our meetings as well as addressing more topical issues that he has come across throughout the week. I anticipate that we will soon transition to the Sermon on the Mount to discover how Jesus describes the lives of those who follow Him in the lifestyle of God's kingdom, but it is most dependent on what best suits the needs of *Anthony. Please pray for *Anthony as he continues to meet with us and that our time with him would be helpful in his spiritual growth!
This month has had a large emphasis on teaching and equipping as Nick and I have shared with many different churches and groups the tools that we have found helpful in evangelism. I am about to move into the second phase of my apprenticeship at the end of the month where I will receive new responsibilities and freedoms in ministry engagements. As Nick and I are provided various new ministry opportunities, please be praying that we have wisdom and discernment in when to say "no" and when to say "yes" to ministry commitments and engagements.
Thank you for your prayers and support of this ministry! We are blessed to have you as partners!
With love and peace,
Ivan Penrose
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