relax, I'm a Christian

All people who identify themselves as Christian are not the same. Unlike some other worldviews, you are not “born” a Christian. You are not culturally a Christian. Christians can only really be considered Christians if they follow the authority of the scripture and the model of Jesus. Yes, there are some variations to how these are interpreted, but not much, really. When bad stuff is done in the name of Jesus, one needs only look at scripture and the model of Jesus to sort it out.

That Christians can call themselves Christian but not be Christian is not widely understood by non-Christians. There are so many generalizations about Christians that would take a slight amount of time and effort to understand. This isn’t even deep work. Take evangelism for example.

Some non-Christians are afraid that Christians are going to try to “convert” them. This is a rather narcissistic focus on the part of the unbeliever. We care, but we have other things on our mind, as well.

We Christians are first and foremost concerned about own relationship with Jesus, let alone try to worry about yours. Your relationship with Jesus begins with you and him.

Second, Christians may try to be helpful to guide you to Jesus, but that is simply his command and our pleasure. The same Jesus who tells us to make disciples (Matthew 28:19) tells us to back off if you aren’t interested (Luke 10:10-11). A healthy Christian is a Christian who focuses on receptive people.

If you aren’t interested, I am not going to get any Holy Spirit “brownie” points by bugging you. At the same time don’t get too put out that I actually expressed some interest in you. You might have some explaining to do when you stand before Jesus and tell him you were offended I talked to you about him- He probably sent me.