Kerry, I don’t think that anyone said that CCC thinks it’s “better than everyone else”. But part of what gets portrayed in these videos is that they’re part of a group that’s better than some. Hardly a Christian or Christ-follower sentiment.

I will agree to the silliness of the idea of desertion of the word “Christian” given the fact that the middle C in the church’s name stands for that very thing. But given the fact that the tag at the end of the videos (”Christian No More”) shows that they seemingly are trying to desert the term, the silliness is found not in the criticism, but in the videos themselves.

Side note: How do you go “out-of-stock” on a download?

Secondly, the whole target for these videos was specifically non-Christians who might be attending a service at CCC and was hoping to say to them that becoming a “Christian” is not about accepting what they perceive to be the Christian culture of divisive bumper stickers and cheesy T-shirts and TestaMints and bad music and all the other things that we have attached to the Gospel, to our detriment and the detriment of the world. The message of Christ was “come as you are and I will change you,” not “be Christian-ified first, and then I’ll give you a shot.”

Thirdly, the idea that the church is espousing some kind of desertion of the term “Christian” in favor of “Christ-follower” so as to be intentionally different and hip is a little silly in light of the fact that the church’s name is “Community Christian Church”…

Lastly, I do appreciate the spirit of this discussion, which has been real and straighforward without getting nasty or personal. If we can’t love each other on a simple blog with words, what hope do we have of loving the unlovable as we are called to do?

I love all of you with Christ’s love,
kerry cox

OK, so it was nine days. Where do I send my money?

The older forms sometimes have dropped the ball about the Gospel. The newer form comes and rebels against the older one yet instead of preaching the Gospel they too end up focused on outward appearances. That is what concerns me about the “Emerging Church” (e.g. little Gospel but lots of actions that “look like what Christ would really do).

Am I being too simplistic here?

I like books.

How Christian is that?

Fast forward 20 years, or, at the rate things change, these days, maybe even 10 or just 5. I can just see it:
“Christ Follower”! Oh, that is sooo ‘yesterday’. We’re not using that anymore—too boring and way too many bad connotations. No, we’re going to call ourselves ‘Jesus People’ (or maybe we’re back to the ‘ancient’ or ‘retro’ term, ‘Christian’). And can you believe the way ‘Christ Followers’ still dress? Jeans, tee-shirts,etc…everyone knows if you don’t want to be a freak (geek, culturally irrelevant, uncool, out-of-style, fill-in-the-blank, whatever…) you have to dress in the current cultural style: ties, jackets and white shirts is the way we are expressing ourselves and our dedication to being missional, today.

Same song, second verse: conformity to the cultural norm. Whether it’s men in suits, women in hats and gloves or funky, hip, casual, retro, whatever…everybody seems to have the ‘right’ idea of how church and God’s work ought to be done. And it’s been that way since the beginning. Jesus’ disciples were upset about people casting out demons in Jesus’ name who weren’t with ‘their’ group. (Mark 9:38-40) As an earlier post mentioned, the application of the law of Love and tolerance spoken of in Romans 14 is what is called for here. The only thing wrong with Believers wearing coats & ties or t-shirts & jeans is when they start criticizing those who dress differently than themselves.

BTW, talk about out-of-date, culturally irrelevant and conformist (at least within their own subculture)–how about those Amish Christ Followers? I guess it proves that if you are really out-of-date, eventually, you can become accepted as either retro, unique, or classic.
;- )