Having conversations about faith and commitment can be extremely challenging. Especially in a culture that is obsessed with tolerance, political correctness and pointing out the “critical” and “judgmental” nature of Christians and Christianity.

In a post last week I asked the questions: Is Discipline a Prerequisite for Discipleship? In that post I began to explore a couple of ideas:

1. Discipline in one area of life can often lead to discipline in a number of areas of life (so how do we use this truth as a catalyst to a life of discipleship in the lives of students?), and
2. The lack of peace and righteousness we see in the lives of our students is likely tied to a lack of discipleship (Heb. 12:11).

And I think conversations exploring these ideas are likely a lot easier to have with NON-Christians than they are with Christians. Why? Because Non-Christians don’t claim to be tapped into the Giver of gifts like grace and peace — namely Jesus.

Christians, however, will all claim this… but should they?

I’m currently reading  through Scot McKnight‘s, The King Jesus Gospel with a friend.

In it I found one of the clearest ways for having conversations with students (and anyone really) regarding what kind of “Christian” they really are.

Don’t get me wrong here… I’m not sharing this so that we might have “a tool” to use for “judging” the spiritual lives of students and trying to convince or coerce them into thinking or doing one thing or another. No!

I am, however, interested in us trying to explore with students — who claim to be followers of Jesus — some of the feelings of “stuck-ness,” inner-turmoil and a general lack of evidence of the Fruit of the Spirit in their lives.

McKnight talks about “believers” in three different categories:

• The Members
• The Decided
• The Discipled

Pulling from chapter 2, I believe McKnight is suggesting that:

The Members are individuals who have been “brought into the Church.” The “end goal” was membership into the Church through sacramental rites of passage — like infant baptism and catechism or confirmation classes. There is no emphasis put on individuals making a “personal decision” to follow Jesus or accepting His gift of salvation. Often, but not always, these students will be coming from more liturgical traditions.

The Decided are individuals who have made a “personal decision” to follow Jesus. However, as the name implies, the “decision” is really more of a decision to accept Jesus as Savior — a once and done kind of decision. Here there is no emphasis put on ongoing discipleship. The Decided aren’t choosing to “follow” Jesus now, but fully expect to follow Him someday to heaven. A lot of Evangelical traditions preach what McKnight would classify as simply “salvation” and not “the gospel.” They preach towards a confession of faith — salvation — and not a life of discipleship. I explored this idea a little in a post I wrote back in September entitled: Are College Students Walking Away From Their Faith Because of the Gospel They’ve Been Preached?

The Discipled are those individuals who have made the radical decision to follow Jesus with their lives. These individuals are more likely to wrestle with what they see in American Culture — politics, materialism, capitalism, injustice, etc. — and asking lots of good questions. They are attempting to live life based on what they read in the Bible and not what they see in mainstream media. They likely stand out amidst their peers because of the levels of responsibility and maturity they exhibit. They tend to, often but not always, also exhibit growing levels of the Fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Gal. 5:22-23).

I’ve taken these descriptions slightly out of context in terms of how and why McKnight introduced them within his book, but I feel like these three descriptors can provide us with some good handles for having conversations with students about their faith and faith commitments, and I don’t believe I’ve compromised the integrity of the definitions McKnight put forth in doing so.  But he may suggest otherwise.

Some may see this post as “spiritual hair-splitting”… but I think it might be one of the most important questions we could have our students consider: What kind of Christian are you???

What do you think?

Are there any questions or potential issues you see with using this framework for having conversations about faith with students?

What do you find helpful with McKnight’s classifications of “commitment” (my words, not his) list above?

What is your biggest reservation in having clarifying conversations with “Christians” about the faith they possess?

I’d love to hear your thoughts on this! Please take a moment to share in the comment section below.