Johnny Became a Christian. Great. What Kind?

Welcome to another Thursday UNFILTERED blog post, the only blog that believes the snooze button is proof that humans can lose an argument with themselves.

For most of my life, when someone told me “Johnny is a Christian,” my brain did a happy dance. Wonderful. Johnny loves Jesus. Johnny loves God’s people. All of them.

Johnny is safe. I could trust Johnny with my car keys and Netflix password.

I’m rejoicing with the angels in heaven.

By the way, “Johnny” represents celebrities, movie stars, athletes, musicians, famous podcasters, and people I’ve known on some level.

Then I spent several decades around “Christians.”

Today, when someone says “Johnny [insert name of a famous person] just became a Christian,” I don’t immediately celebrate.

I scratch my head and ask the question almost nobody asks: What does that actually mean?

Here’s the uncomfortable truth. “Christian” has become one of those words so big it’s almost empty.

It covers everyone from the woman who quietly feeds the homeless every Tuesday to the guy who hasn’t opened a Bible in twenty years but is certain he knows that Jesus would vote Republican, Democrat, or Libertarian.

Baseball comes to mind. I think this illustration will help make my point.

If I tell you Johnny is a baseball fan, you’ve learned roughly nothing.

You’d ask: “What kind of fan? Yankees? Red Sox?”

That’s not a minor detail. That’s the whole story.

Put a Yankees fan and a Red Sox fan in the same bar in October, and you’ll discover fast that “we both love baseball” isn’t the unifying force you assumed.

Same sport. Same rules. Same nine innings. And they can barely stand each other.

And then, of course, some fans would say, “Only my team is legit. All other teams are frauds.”

Sound familiar?

The label tells you which game someone is watching. It doesn’t tell you how they treat the other teams or how much they really know about baseball.

So I’ve stopped being impressed by reports like, “Did you hear? Johnny [insert celebrity, athlete, actor/actress, newscaster, etc.] just became a Christian.”

Labels are cheap. And anyone can buy a jersey.

What I want to know is what kind of “Christian” Johnny is. Does he resemble Jesus at all? Does he love people who aren’t on his team?

Is he interested in reading and understanding Scripture? Is he interested in knowing the Lord in a deeper way?

Does his faith make him kinder, humbler, and more honest, or just louder?

And just as important, does he regard all Jesus followers who aren’t part of his team (denomination or movement) with love and respect?

Because in the end, that’s the only kind of “fan” that matters to God and the angels.