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Five Kinds of Christians

In David Young's book, Resilient: Standing Firm in a Hostile World, Young quotes the book, The Insanity of Obedience by Nik Ripkin, who identifies five kind of Christians.

  1. There are census Christians: those who mark Christian on the census.
  2. There are member Christians: those who identify with the particular congregation.
  3. There are practicing Christians: those who participate in Christian ministries programs events in the like, and
  4. There are committed Christians: those who are shaped by Jesus and whose faith in Christ is central to their life.
  5. He also spends a large amount of time with persecuted Christians around the globe, but identifies another kind of Christian. He calls them hidden Christians: radical believers who have made a commitment to Christ into the people of God. They can stand any opposition the hostile culture levels against them.
Ideally in church life there is a centripetal  force that keeps moving people toward deeper and deeper level of commitment to the church, church family, and the mission of Christ. But it is not only the church who has the responsibility of helping people deepen these commitments--there is a huge part of the responsibility that lands on the individual Christian. It's good for us in the new year to take stock of where we are on the journey.

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