What Do Christians Believe?

This week I’m leading an adult Sunday school class called “What Do Christians Believe?”

Except it’s not really a class. There’s no formal curriculum, no goals and objectives, and (gasp!) no exams. It’s really more of a multi-week forum, a chance to ask questions that don’t get asked a lot in church.

My sense is there’s a lot of folks hanging around the edges of church, especially a big church, who aren’t quite sure what it’s really about. Nobody ever told them there’s a difference between revelation and religion, so they think somebody’s brand of organized religion is the same as following Jesus.

I also notice that churches do a lot of teaching, preaching, and telling. I don’t see a lot of invitations to raise a hand and say, “Could you run by that one again?” So they end up “church shopping” which often means choosing the least objectionable religiosity. But in reality, what they might really need to be taught is something like an orange curriculum that tends to combine the influence of the church with that of the family to reveal God in a way neither can do alone.

So this “class” is an opportunity to ask questions and explore the core of what it means to follow Jesus.

A friend told me recently that Christians believe in being good people, treating others with kindness, and showing compassion to those in need. When I asked where he learned this he replied, “In church.”

His explanation seemed like it was missing something-namely Jesus. I’d speculate that my friend isn’t alone in omitting Jesus from Christianity.