ARE YOU A CHRISTIAN (ADJ.)
OR A CHRISTIAN (NOUN)?

Written by Jon Weece on November 19, 2014

I nearly flunked English grammar. Ask Mrs. Harding, my seventh-grade grammar teacher, and she’ll validate that. But this much I know: The word Christian is a noun. A Christian is a person who follows Jesus. Follow is a verb. And I’ve learned over the years that nouns need verbs.

Jesus loved verbs. Verbs like love, come, rest, learn, hear, die, give, and go. So wouldn’t it make sense that the people who claim to follow Jesus would love the same verbs Jesus loved?

Somewhere along the way someone tried to make the word Christian an adjective. So now people speak of Christian (adj.) books and Christian (adj.) music and Christian (adj.) T-shirts and Christian (adj.) schools. When people use the word Christian as an adjective, instead of a noun that loves verbs, it loses its meaning. Maybe this explains why so many churches have lost their meaning too.

If a Christian is a person (singular) who follows Jesus, then the church is made of people (plural) who follow Jesus. And like a Christian, the church is a noun too—a noun designed to love verbs. Specifically, it is a noun that should love the same verbs Jesus loved because the church is a picture of Jesus.

I don’t mean this as an indictment, but it seems as though some of us have lost our verbs.

When we lose our verbs, we become what the world claims we are: hypocrites. A hypocrite is nothing more than a noun without a verb. Lovers who don’t love . . . Givers who don’t give . . . Followers who don’t follow . . .

We need fewer adjectives and more verbs. Have you noticed the adjectives we put in front of the noun Christian?

“She’s such a loving Christian.”

“He’s such a giving Christian.”

Loving. Giving.

Is there any other kind of Christian? Can a Christian be a Christian without loving and giving? If a Christian doesn’t love or give, is that person really a Christian? Maybe a better way to ask the question is: Can a Christian be unloving or not a giving person?

Or have you noticed the adjectives we put in front of the noun church?

Baptist church
Lutheran church
Traditional church
Contemporary church
Black church
White church

The word appearing before the word church in the New Testament more than any other word is the word the.

The church.

The church at Philippi . . . The church at Thessalonica . . .The church at Ephesus . . .

I like the word Jesus put in front of the word church.

Jesus told Peter, ‘The gates of hell will not prevail against My church.’ (Matthew 16:18, author’s paraphrase, emphasis added.)

I really like that.

His church.

In the same way that the church belongs to Jesus, I belong to Jesus. And you belong to Jesus.

We belong to Jesus.

He is the leader.

We follow (v.) Him.

When we follow Jesus, we don’t need adjectives to  describe us.

I am a Christian. We are the church. Period.

When we follow Jesus, we will love the way Jesus loves. When we follow Jesus, we will give the way Jesus gives. It’s not the adjective before the noun that matters. It’s the verb after the noun we need to pay attention to.

If we love the verbs Jesus loved, I’m convinced we will love the people He loves. That’s when life gets fun! And a fun verb to start with is the verb jump.

When I was in the fourth grade, I was invited to a birthday party at Chris’s house. I was excited because it was the first birthday party I had been to where girls had also been invited. Specifically, Sarah Grossnickle had been invited.

Her last name is a bit unfortunate. But she was stunning, and she had braces. I don’t know why I was so enamoured with braces as a kid, but I was. Maybe the thought of having rubber bands in my mouth seemed so handy to me. Or maybe it was the thought of having a girl in my class with straight teeth someday.

I just know I was head over heels in love with Sarah Grossnickle. I sent her several notes in class with a box to check. Yes. No. Maybe. On two separate occasions she checked the box that said Maybe, but I was about to give her a reason to check the box that said Yes.

Everyone in my class was standing on the deck in Chris’s backyard. His parents were putting in a pool and had dug a huge hole, and there was a large pile of dirt about ten feet from the deck. So as ten-year-old boys do, a dare was thrown out.

“Who wants to play Follow the Leader?”

I was eating a box of Junior Mints when I accepted the dare. (It was easily my third or fourth box.) I wanted to set the bar high—so high no one would be able to follow me. So I marked off my steps. The drumroll began. And Sarah smiled at me, which was all the motivation I needed.

I could actually hear the song “You’re the Inspiration” by Chicago playing in my mind as I took off running. With speed and momentum I planted my right foot on the railing of the deck to jump. However, the railing gave way. Instead of going up, I went straight down.

Fortunately for me, a nail caught the edge of my pants and slowed me down. Unfortunately for me, that nail ripped my pants completely off and I went sailing headfirst into a pile of bricks stacked neatly below the deck.

When I came to, I was headed for the emergency room. I was sitting in my Fruit of the Looms in the back of a Cadillac with leather interior. And let’s just say the ol’ Junior Mints were not agreeing with me. The only tactful way for me to put this is to say I “relinquished ownership” of the Junior Mints, and no product on the market could have cleaned up the mess I created in the backseat of that luxury automobile.

No one followed me over the railing that day. I was the only one who jumped.

Somewhere between that deck and the desk where I’m sitting right now, I lost the courage to take risks. Some might blame it on maturity. Others might point the finger at intelligence. But I think the more birthdays we have, the fewer verbs we have. Our verb vocabulary shrinks with time.

Somewhere along the way, I went to college, got married, had two kids, got a grown-up job, bought a house, started a 401(k), and somehow ended up driving a minivan. (I’m still not sure how that one happened.)

In the midst of the have to, it’s easy to lose sight of the get to.

I get to follow Jesus.

He is the leader. He is my leader. He is your leader. He is our leader.

He is the leader. He is my leader. He is your leader. He is our leader.

We get to follow Jesus. What a privilege! And when we follow Jesus, He doesn’t lead us to places as often as He leads us to people. That’s why there is nothing safe about following Jesus. Following Jesus is simple, but it’s not safe.

My prayer for you is simple but not safe. So simple it’s a single word. It’s a verb.

Jump.

It’s a verb that is looking for a noun.

I think you are the missing noun. Insert your name here: ___________ jumped today.

It may seem safe to stand on the deck with everyone else. But standing on the deck is not safe. It’s boring. So go for it.

Jump.

Set down whatever you are holding, or whatever has hold of you.

And jump.

Helen Keller said, “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing.”

Decide today that you are going to follow the leader.
Decide today that you are going to be on a first-name basis with the emergency room staff in a hospital near you.
Decide today that you are going to trade what is for what could be.

I dare you to jump.

Adapted excerpt used by permission. Jesus Prom, Jon Weece (Foreword by Bob Goff), 2014, Thomas Nelson. Nashville, Tennessee. All rights reserved.