In recent decades, the word “Christian” has taken quite a beating in our culture. Though I have some older relatives who do not follow Jesus, I am certain they’d be offended if I said they weren’t Christians. This is because “Christian” has become synonymous with “nice, decent, respectable American.” Were I to suggest that these nice, decent, respectable Americans—who were raised attending Sunday school, no less—weren’t “Christians,” I have no doubt I’d be labeled as “judgmental.”

You see the pickle.

When I was in college, our campus chaplain used language that I found more helpful. He spoke about those who were “followers” of Jesus. He didn’t do it in an “us vs. them” way, but more as a way of filling out the picture of who those first Christians really were. They were those who, literally, followed Jesus.

Assuming this is the case—that Christians are those who follow Jesus—I think it’s pretty reasonable to assume that those of us who claim to be Christians today will find ourselves in some of the same places he ended up. Specifically, we’d find ourselves shoulder-to-shoulder, and eye-to-eye, with the same type of folks with whom Jesus spent time.

Have you taken a peek at the gospels lately?

Jesus spent his days, with his friends, moving among the poor, and those living with disabilities, and those with mental illness. He moved toward—not away from—people who were the wrong gender, wrong race, wrong religion. He broke bread with proper religious leaders, but he partied with sinners.

A few months ago, a guy in my Sunday school class honestly admitted, “No one scorns me because I spend too much time with sinners. No, the people I usually hang out with look a lot like me: they go to church, they’re financially stable, they’re well-educated.”

And there’s the rub.

Hardwired for preservation and pleasure, we naturally preserve our own lives & pursue our own pleasure. We do. That whole can of worms is a whole other blog post, but our credit card bills, vehicle registrations, calendars, vacation photos, & street address do not lie.

Most American Christians would say that we “follow” the Jesus who’s featured in the New Testament, but most days I wonder if we’re even talking about the same guy.

~ Margot Starbuck

Margot Starbuck is a freelance writer and speaker. She is the author of a spiritual memoir, The Girl In The Orange Dress: Searching for a Father Who Does Not Fail. (InterVarsity Press, 2009) and Unsqueezed: Springing Free From Skinny Jeans, Nose Jobs, Highlights and Stilettos.(InterVarsity Press, 2010). Margot received her degree in art, at Westmont College, in 1991. She worked with Urban Promise ministry, in Camden New Jersey, before pursuing a Master’s of Divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary which she earned in 1995.