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I just flipped through a flyer for an upcoming national christian convention. We are not going… but boy did the flyer make me feel like I should. Glossy, attractive photos of all the best and brightest the christian industry has to offer. All in one place!

And for a moment, I thought, “We should go!” But the next moment, I almost threw up. 🙁

Really. I understand that certain people are great at what they do, but do we believers really want to market and profit from our walk with Jesus? Fellow Christians being paraded around in big show after big show, complete with the consumer-oriented marketing and packaging?

Jesus was so not consumer-oriented. He was not flashy. He was impressive, but not flashy. When people tried to put him in the spotlight, he said, not yet. He is the one before whom every knee will bow and every tongue confess his supremacy…. but not yet.

But a bunch of what I see today in Christendom is about the spotlight. (See, we even have a name for the whole big show – Christendom… etc… it’s an organization, a business, a sub-culture… not just life lived in Jesus’ steps…)

That convention brochure was. The spotlight on the talented pastor or worship leader is. The emphasis on whose teaching your like, or whose writing is better, or whom you most enjoy in worship…

It’s not about us folks. It’s just about a bunch of ratty misfits (though they may even appear different on the outside…) pickin up and following the God-man who offered his life in their place. It’s not about how pretty we smile, or how well we say stuff, or how well we sing — it’s about how well we live. Not on the stage. In our kitchen. In our backyard.

I never want to be a professional christian. I only want to know and follow Jesus… and talk to people along the way… but I am thankful that God has allowed me to help people and know the greatness of seeing Him work through me — without the glamour of the Professional Christians.

I walk a funny line here, since in a way, I am a professional Christian. Just not quite so glitzy. I do have a website, though. 🙂 And you know what, we often are torn with whether we are doing the right thing or not. We don’t like “the system” at all – Christendom and such – but we do love telling people about the freedom of life with Jesus… and that is one avenue to do that.

So for now, with mixed emotions, we continue. IF anyone out there has any ideas … we are definitely open to them… I just want to be like Jesus, in every way.

And, I’m pretty sure Jesus was not a Professional Christian.