“A religious person whose faith revolves around adhering to rules and traditions of organized religions -- namely, institutional versions of Christianity -- rather than around the concepts...that the religion actually teaches.”
For too many years, that's been me. In my mind, “the church” was synonymous with “Christianity”. I was a super good Churchian, and therefore thought that I was a pretty good Christian1. I was really good at things like going to church and following the rules. I followed all of the rules—the ones God made, and the ones people made. I even read the Bible sometimes. I internalized parts of it, like
“Pure and undefiled religion in the sight of God our Father is this: that you go to church twice a week, do not drink, do not smoke, and do not listen to secular music.”
and
“By this all men will know you are My disciples, if you use clean language.”
Just kidding. Those aren't in the Bible2. Churchians, though, have made a lot of rules that Jesus never made (remember, I know so much about Churchians because I AM ONE). And not only have we made up rules, but we've attributed them to Jesus. And not only have we made up rules and attributed them to Jesus, but we've often elevated our made-up rules above the things Jesus actually did ask us to do. Whoa. I, personally, have internalized so many Churchian rules and concepts that I feel like I need a 12-Step Program to recover from Churchianity and become the Christian that Jesus wants me to be.
Here's something I've been pondering: if it was possible to read the New Testament3 with absolutely no preconceptions (imagine that you know nothing at all about God, Jesus, the Bible, or church—maybe you're an alien), and you could read it with no one telling you which parts to read or interpreting it for you, what conclusions would you draw about the #1 things Jesus wants from you? Would you conclude, as in my fake Bible verse above, that the most important thing is to go to church and avoid alcohol and tobacco? Probably not.
Would you, maybe, conclude that he wants you to know that He loves you, even if you're not a good Churchian? Or that He wants you to love the people around you—including those who don't follow the Churchian rules? Maybe even that he wants you to love those who don't follow the rules that He actually did make?
Maybe you'd conclude that people are more important than rules.
1It's trendy right now to use the term “Christ-follower”, but since that's what the word Christian means, I'm going to stick with that.
3The part of the Bible that records what Jesus did and taught, for any non-Churchians who may be reading.
