Real Christianity

Years ago, historian A. Toynbee said, “Most people don’t reject Christianity, but a false caricature of it.” As a full-time missionary having worked with college students for quite some time now, I’d agree with that statement.

In the company I work for (Cru), we sometimes use an interview tool that does a fantastic job of getting to the heart of what people believe concerning God, Christ, and Christians. One of my favorite questions of the interview asks, “Suppose your best friend comes to you and says that they want to become a Christian but they don’t know how…what would you tell them?”

The reason I love this question is because it makes someone communicate what they think the gospel actually is, and how a person can respond to it. I’m not going to lie, though—about 95% of the time, people get it wrong. The default answer that’s usually given often has a lot to do with religious activity and very little to do with the grace of God through Jesus.

Sure, a lot of people can spout off the textbook answer of “accepting Christ,” but most of the people I’ve interviewed have no clue what it actually means to become a Christian. To most, it means adopting a set of rules to live by, then trying your best to keep at it until something else comes along that’s more congruent with the lifestyle they want to live.

Doesn’t that make you want to change the culture’s perspective on what it means to be a follower of Jesus? For some reason, something stirs within me when I know people think Christianity is just another rulebook governed by tradition, churches, guilt, Fox News, and the Republican Party.

Not long ago, I met a guy named Ali who started coming to the church I attend because his girlfriend was attending and wanted him to join her. I befriended Ali over time and asked if he wanted to get together sometime to talk more intentionally about life, love, video games, or whatever. He agreed, so we met at a little table in a bookstore one afternoon over a blueberry muffin and a couple of chai tea lattes. How’s that for manly?

Ali is nominally Muslim and his family is the same. He was raised here in the States, but still has some relatives in the Middle East. Over the past few years, Ali has made some connections to the Christian church via friends but would still not call himself a Christian.

When we got together, I decided to tread lightly at first, not knowing how he would respond to a full frontal blast of a gospel presentation, so about 40 minutes went by before we even talked about anything serious. Eventually, I felt that the communication climate was warm enough for me to jump in and ask him if he had any questions about what he’d been hearing at church, spirituality, or Christianity in general.

As it turns out, he really didn’t have all that many questions, but he surely did have some preconceived notions on what the teachings of Christianity communicated through the Bible. Like many people, Ali believed that the Christian faith wasn’t really faith at all—it was religion. He believed that a person had to follow a certain set of rules and behave according to what the Bible said to do in order to gain acceptance by God. This gave me a great opportunity to share with Ali what the Bible truly teaches about the nature of God and what it really means to have a personal relationship with Him.

I told him that every other religion says, “Do these things, then you’re a (fill in the religious blank).” But Christianity says, “Accept the gift of salvation for free, and you’re in. Then you will want to respond in action through gratitude for what God has done for you…it’s completely the opposite of what you just described.”

I literally saw his face change as he began to understand it.

I’m so thankful I was able to meet with him and accurately explain what it means to be a true follower of Christ. I believe Ali no longer has a false caricature of what a Christian is or what we believe, and I’m hopeful that one day he will place his full trust in Jesus to pay for his sins.