Do you have a church?

Just finished reading the book Mere Discipleship: Radical Christianity in a Rebellious World by Lee C. Camp. Good book. Here is one story that grabbed my attention (from pages 110-111).


Clarence Jones established a community that was based on the Sermon on the Mount. He believed that this community would be open to all regardless of skin color. In the latter half of the 1950s segregationists attacked the community. They threatened, bombed, vandalized, burnt crosses, beat people. Clarence sought legal representation from his brother Robert Jordan. Robert responded:

“Clarence, I can’t do that. You know my political aspirations. Why, if I represented you, I might lose my job, my house, everything I’ve got.”

“We might lose everything too, Bob.”

“It’s different for you.”

“Why is it different? I remember, it seems to me, that you and I joined the church on the same Sunday, as boys. I expect when we came forward the preacher asked me about the same question he did you. He asked me, ‘Do you accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior?’ And I said, ‘Yes.” What did you say?”

“I follow Jesus, Clarence, up to a point.”

“Could that point by any chance be – the cross?”

“That’s right. I follow him to the cross, but not on the cross. I’m not getting myself crucified.”

“Then I don’t believe you’re a disciple. You’re an admirer of Jesus, but not a disciple of his. I think you ought to go back to the church you belong to, and tell them you’re an admirer, not a disciple.”

“Well now, if everyone who felt like I do did that, we wouldn’t have a church, would we?”

“The question,” Clarence said, “is, ‘Do you have a church?’”

So I wonder "Do we have a church?" Are we disciples or admirers?