Every 500 years, the church has undergone a seismic shift—a paradigm shift that redefined its identity and witness. I believe we’re at such a moment again. In the spirit of Luther, I’m proposing a new set of 95 theses to confront today’s syncretized faith with a renewed call to follow Jesus wholeheartedly and embody His likeness in a divided world.
- When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, “Follow Me,” he willed the entire life of believers to be an imitator of his life and teachings.
- Imitators of Christ become “Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.”
- Imitators of Christ become those whose attitudes and actions “proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God.”
- Imitators of Christ become “His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.”
- Imitators of Christ become those who let their lives “so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”
- When the church chooses power over the ways of Christ, it becomes a compromised church, undermining its moral integrity, distorting its mission, and forfeiting its gospel witness.
- They’ve exchanged Christ-like virtue for political expediency by the use of un-Christlike rhetoric and tactics.
- They’ve exchanged Kingdom values for political goals by aligning with those whose actions betray Christ’s ways.
- They’ve elevated the priority of political victories over their core mission to make disciples.
- Their fixation on winning has bound them to political ideologies, corrupting their heart, values, and desires.
- They have exchanged the way of the cross for the crown, seeking authority over faithful obedience.
- When the church integrates political values with Christ’s Kingdom goals, it becomes a corrupted church, mirroring the very systems it was sent to redeem.
- It shifts its focus from relying on spiritual transformation to relying on political solutions.
- It adopts unrighteous tactics in the pursuit of success, forsaking trust in God’s provision and sovereignty.
- It abandons the way of Christ’s humility and love, embracing strategies of dominance and control.
- It compromises truth, prioritizing the advancement of cultural narratives over gospel integrity.
- When the church trades Christ’s kingdom character for worldly strategies, it becomes a carnal church that reflects the works of the flesh rather than the way of Christ.
- It sacrifices the 9th commandment on the altar of a win-at-all-costs mindset.
- It excuses unrighteous allies and co-laborers, betraying its call to holiness and integrity.
- Its morality becomes conditional, justifying expediency instead of a consistent gospel witness.
- It loses its prophetic voice when it replaces kingdom ethics with utilitarian reasoning, valuing influence over faithfulness and outcomes over obedience.
- It loses its righteous moorings through its worldly tactics and unholy alliances—echoing the days when “everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”
- When the church allows a factional perspective, it becomes a divisive church, trading its ministry of Christlike reconciliation for tribal loyalties that foster enmity.
- It has adopted an “us versus them” posture, contrary to Christ’s call to love our enemies.
- It has become an emissary of partisan allegiance rather than an ambassador of reconciliation.
- It has hidden behind a ‘what about’ posture, deflecting accountability for its actions—and those of its allies—by pointing fingers and fueling division.
- It has echoed populist rhetoric that fuels fear and resentment, contrary to Christ’s call to hospitality.
- It has spiritualized grievance and cultural anxiety, framing political enemies as moral threats rather than people made in the image of God.
- When the church prioritizes the culture war, it becomes a callous church, forsaking the compassion of Christ for the unbiblical fruits of ideological combat.
- It leads to selective morality—minimizing its own sins while targeting the sins of others.
- It leads to selective gospel priorities, elevating partisan and secondary concerns over the core of the gospel.
- It leads to selected empathy, rather than being a welcoming refuge of healing for all.
- It leads to selective hospitality towards those who differ in race, background, or orientation.
- It yields a distorted gospel marked by a deviation from the example of Christ, the whole counsel of scripture, and the practices of the early church.
- When a church forgets where its true citizenship lies, it becomes a lost church, forsaking its calling to be salt and light.
- They have forgotten that our citizenship is in heaven, not earthly nations or power.
- They have forgotten the sufficiency of Christ, that “we have all things that pertain to life and Godliness through the knowledge of Him.”
- They have forsaken trust in God’s power and provision, leaning instead on political leverage and human strength.
- They have traded the transforming power of the Spirit for the illusion of coercive control.
- Christians must return to the foundational principles of the Christian faith through an unwavering commitment to follow the life and teachings of Jesus Christ.
- The church must prioritize being His Ambassador, through re-presenting his life and teachings.
- The church must prioritize its salt and light mission of influencing the world through a Christ-like witness.
- The church must prioritize Christlikeness in all of its actions, even if it means not “winning” the battle.
- The church must prioritize Jesus’ call to love our neighbors and care for the least among us.
- The church must bear witness to the inaugurated Kingdom of God by cultivating justice, mercy, and human flourishing—signposts of the world to come—even as we await its full consummation.
- The church must prioritize its ultimate allegiance to Christ, not to any political entity or leader.
- The church must remember that its ultimate goal is to glorify God and reflect His love to the world.
- Christians are to be taught that “Follow Me” cannot be understood as a one-time verbal confession.
- Christ’s “Follow Me” means that we continually heed the teachings of the apostle James, who said, “Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror.”
- Christ’s “Follow Me” means that we continually “Renounce ungodliness and worldly passions” as we “Train ourselves for godliness,” living “self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age.”
- Christians are to be taught that “Follow Me” starts with “let him deny himself and take up his cross.”
- Denying ourselves means to “throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.”
- It means “being crucified with Christ. [so that] It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”
- It means to “offer yourself as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God” as our “true and proper worship.”
- It means to “not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind.”
- It means to set our “mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.”
- Christians are to be taught that “Follow Me” requires that we abide in Him, “our hope of glory, “For in him we live, and move, and have our being.”
- “Remain in me, as I also remain in you… apart from me you can do nothing.”
- “Just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him.”
- “God, who began the good work within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when Christ Jesus returns.”
- Christians are to be taught that “Follow Me” means relying upon the power of the Spirit.
- “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”
- “His divine power has given us everything we need for a godly life through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.”
- Christians are to be taught that “Follow Me” yields a life wholly given to worship and devotion to God.
- It means we wear the marks of love and unity, as instructed by the apostle John.
- It means we “do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God.”
- It means we do “nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves [looking out] to the interests of others.
- It means we “live by the Spirit” as proven by the fruit of the Spirit, which is “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”
- It means we live “as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothed with compassion, kindness, humility.”
- It means loving our enemies, helping the poor, clothing the naked, binding up the wounded, and blessing those who curse us.
- Christians are to be taught that “Follow Me” means staying alert to the culture’s subversive pull on our beliefs, values, priorities, and practices.
- It means refusing to fuse faith with national identity, partisan ideologies, or the values of the culture.
- It means rejecting the commercialization of faith and the lure of worldly passions, power, and privilege.
- It means refusing to excuse corruption, moral failure, abuse of power, or lack of accountability.
- It means resisting people, media, and systems that feed fear, division, and the works of the flesh.
- It means rejecting dehumanizing ideologies—like populism’s us-versus-them mindset or cultural attitudes that marginalize people of different races, cultures, or beliefs.
- It means resisting the culture’s pull toward self-indulgence, where lust, greed, and pride are normalized and even celebrated.
- It means guarding against political entanglements that change our identity and seduce us with seemingly noble aims.
- Christians are to be taught that “Follow Me” means that “whenever you see a brother or sister hungry or cold, whatever you do to the least of these, so you do to Me.”
- The church must recover its prophetic voice, challenging injustices while advocating for the vulnerable.
- The church must be willing to love mercy, do justly, and walk humbly without borders or conditions.
- The church must remember that in Christ, there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female.
- The church must remember that love for others is authenticated when it defies boundaries of tribe, nation, class, citizenship status, or race and reflects the mercy of the Samaritan.
- Christians are to be taught that “Follow Me” requires us to have a discerning spirit.
- A discerning spirit shuns overconfidence, heeding the admonition to be “alert and of sober mind. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.”
- A discerning spirit exercises discernment, knowing “I am allowed to do anything”— but not everything is beneficial.”
- A discerning spirit is grounded in humility: “For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.”
- A discerning spirit is shaped by wisdom rooted in evidence, so that we “will no longer be immature like children, tossed and blown about by every wind of new teaching and no longer influenced when people try to trick us with lies so clever they sound like the truth.”
- A discerning spirit understands innate human fallibility, mindful that “people will no longer listen to sound and wholesome teaching. They will follow their desires and will look for teachers who will tell them whatever their itching ears want to hear.”
- A discerning spirit follows “whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.”
- A discerning spirit knows that “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.”
- Christians are to be taught that “Follow Me” has, as its goal, to make us progressively Christ-like in attitudes and actions.
- Christlikeness imitates the servant heart of Christ, who “did not come to be served, but to serve.”
- Christlikeness is merciful, poor in spirit, meek, able to mourn, a peacemaker, pure in heart, hungers and thirsts after justice, and willing to suffer persecution for justice’s sake.
- Christlikeness stems from those who, with “unveiled faces [as they] contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”