The more I think of that pairing of words the more I become convinced that it has become an oxymoron. I strongly believe, however that this was not always the case. The term "Christian" has taken on collateral meaning over time. This is normal. What is abnormal about the term "Christian" is the amount of deviation that has occurred with this particular noun-turned-adjective. Something that began as a movement and stood for a new and better life with a focus around eternal salvation through Christ's sacrifice and the displaying of God's Kingdom and values in followers lives, has now come to mean an establishment of like-minded people bound together in a stationary posture by a set of positive moral ideals. Why did the movement stop moving? When did this change occur? Why has it persisted? More importantly, how can we move again? Forgetting the preliminary questions and moving to the latter, in order to create an identity based on action a movement must first have a unified and understood purpose, because action without purpose is chaos. The activity that forms the group’s identity must be based in something untainted, relevant, and sustainable. In the Christian Movement, this basis is the Gospel of Christ. Now if this is not interpreted and applied it will maintain its identity as a source of movement but will not be, on its own, a movement. Complicated? If you are still tracking with me at this point then carry on, if not... go back and read again.
So, how can we move again? The answer to this question cannot be stated simply. When are complicated predicaments ever solved that way? This is something that will take individual initiative throughout a corporate body. We (Followers of The Way) are all responsible for the perpetuation of the Gospel in practical terms. In order to understand our salvation we must understand more deeply our sin and our Saviour. Derek Webb says "If your sin is small your Saviour is small". What this implies, is that without a legitimate and deep conviction and acknowledgment of actual and specific sin in our lives we are unable to truly appreciate and therefore react to our deliverance from that sin. Our "salvation". The expression of faith is based on our acceptance of and need for our Saviour. This is a summary, of the deeper understanding of our sin. How can we have a life of freedom if we cannot name what we have been freed from?
Christianity is a reaction. I react to what my Saviour has done for me. I react to my freedom and the new life that has been given to me. I react to being reunited to my Heavenly Father and desire to show others a different way of life. The movement is a reaction. This implies that its roots are found apart from the action itself. It is a response. In order to move we must respond. In order to respond we must know what we are responding to. How we respond is very personal and specific and at the same time it is corporate. The response consists of many small seprate parts of a larger corporate body moving toward the same goal and reacting from the same source. That is a movement.
