The Conversation

One of my many daughters in the Lord recently gained admission into graduate school in the USA. A recent conversation with her to discuss how she was settling down revealed that one of her roommates was a lesbian. That certainly aroused my interest, so my wife Valeria and I started to teach her skills on how she can be an example of Jesus to her in love and respect. So my daughter started growing the relationship through frank conversation and learned from this beautiful girl that she used to be a Christian but no longer is. She explained that it is all due to the fact that, since she opened up about her sexual orientation, she has suffered a lot of stigmatisation. Though she wanted to stay in her church as a lesbian, she was told she could not be both at the same time unless she chose either one of them. So, in her own words she decided that since she was a lesbian and couldn’t change that condition, then she had no other option than to leave the church.

Well as a person who has been working with young people since 1999 to help them get closer in their relationship with God, I was not a happy man. This is because I have such a high regard for the local church as an agent of transformation for every young person, so each time I hear someone break fellowship, I see it as an opportunity missed to touch someone’s heart for Jesus. I know there are many nuts to untie in an issue such as this one not to mention the many doctrinal hula-hoops to jump through. I however want to keep it as simple as Jesus’ stories He told that even children can understand. Why don’t we start with the big question, “Who is a Christian?”

Who Is A Christian?

This looks like a simple question, but it is not especially because several people are running away from referring to themselves as Christians these days. This is simply because they believe the title seems to have lost its true value as they see more and more people who say they are with their lips but do not look that way by their conduct. More so because the term “Christian” according to Acts 11:26 in the Bible was a term given to disciples of Christ in a place called Antioch practically because they were doing everything and attracting attention just as Christ did. So, it was really term of description earned after keen observation and not one to be used loosely to refer to a group of people. The big question that has contributed to the term losing its value over the years has been the issue of who does the observation to confer the title on anyone. Since there is no established board given the powers to declare one as a Christian or not, many people self-declare and so now everyone seems to be one. In Ghana for example where Christians are in the majority, a Christian seems to largely refer to anyone who is not a Muslim or traditional religion subscriber.

I choose to forget about those who have diluted the word over the years and stick with the original meaning as described in the book of Acts. However going by that strict term means that we will have to find another name for everyone who comes into Christ afresh and has not achieved discipleship status yet. In my little reading into Scripture, I have found out that no one including the very disciples of Jesus Christ came in afresh as disciples. It took Jesus’ three and a half years or so of grooming not to mention the Holy Spirit’s empowerment to bring them to Antioch standard.

Before Antioch What’s Your Name?

My good friend Dr. Yaw Perbi of International Student Ministries made a good observation about how it looks like we now have to change our tactics these days instead of what we used to do in the past. He said that in the past we had it that people had to accept Christ before discipleship starts. He asks us to think about a new formula of discipling people until they came to the saving knowledge of Christ.  I think I agree with him perfectly for many reasons. Chief amongst the reasons is what I have said earlier about the fact that it was the formula Jesus Himself used because at the time He called His disciples, none of them were Antioch material. No wonder He banked a lot of hope not in who they were but, in their ability, to follow. When He said, “Follow me and I will make you fishers of men”, He was really saying, “it doesn’t matter how dark your past is because if you follow me (the light), then your darkness cannot stand anymore.”

I love this so much because that is what I think the church should be. It should be a place where we so trust in the power of our light. We should have a system so powerful like a raging fire that can burn everything even a soaking wet firewood. In my few short years of discipleship I have seen how that works more than anything else. The local church that told this girl that she cannot be a Christian and a lesbian at the same time may have been right in sticking to terminology but may likely have missed an opportunity to win a disciple for Christ. I would say that if the church still has its light power intact, then you could a lesbian, adulterer, thief, liar, a bigot, atheist, whatever but if only you want to keep coming then our doors should be so wide open because we so trust in the power to MAKE YOU into a fisher of men no matter how long that process takes. I myself was not Antioch material, and even as at now I feel I am not at Antioch level yet, except holding on to Jesus who is my righteousness. So why should I prevent anyone who is like me from coming? I end therefore with the words of hymn writer Philip Bliss to say “whosoever will may come” as an invitation to eternal bliss with our Father who loved us while we were still sinners.