Jesus Without the Baggage
By Pastor Keith Long author of Doubting Faithfully
Who is Jesus? Like, really?
Is Jesus a Christian? A Jewish carpenter turned rabbi turned risen savior? When you hear that name, what comes to mind? Do you think of your beliefs about him or what you’ve been told to believe as a kid or as an adult? For instance, when you see the JesusFit logo, what does that image do in you?
Are you inspired or are you irritated?
The painful truth is that, like “Christian” and “Church,” the name “Jesus” has accumulated lots of negative baggage and associations, too. We’re not here to add more baggage. When we gather in community, here’s what we mean when we claim the name of Jesus.
Jesus may be the face of our ministry, but He is not a brand.
Jesus is not a dogmatic statement. Jesus is not an altar call. Jesus is not an accusation about your soul’s eternal status. When we say his name and use his face, it’s not because we want to convert you, or get you to join a church or make you feel shame. The Jesus we’re seeking is not a guilt strategy.
So who is Jesus?
What a great question! Does anyone truly know? The Jesus of the Gospels loved to ask questions more than give answers and risked his comfort by being honest. Could it be that what we want most for that name and the person behind it is as simple as: Jesus is love. Jesus is joy. Jesus is a truth-telling, forgiving, fearless, table-flipping misfit.
And as for this collection of non-conformists, Jesus is loving and affirming of people no matter the labeling assigned by others or even what you’ve told yourself. We’ve quit trying to make Jesus ours, as if Jesus could possibly belong to any single person, company, or denomination.
We just want to let Jesus simply be Jesus without the baggage.
We hope Beer Church (and all our churches) is a refreshing pit stop on our quest for spiritual fitness, intellectual freedom and personal growth. In our experience, we sense this is just the sort of thing Jesus would dig and we keep at it because there are few things in life as enjoyable as community, conversation, and cold brew in a judgement-free space.
Cheers!
