PopPop, are all those people up there Christians?” Eli asked me, tugging on my shirt sleeve, pointing to the performers on stage.
Lori, our grandson, Eli, and I were at a concert featuring the popular Christian musical artists, We the Kingdom and Casting Crowns, watching them with thousands of others at a packed Yum Center in Louisville. Lori and I had intentionally kept the concert a surprise to Eli until we were standing in line outside the venue. “Casting Crowns and We the Kingdom?” he asked, wide-eyed. “Wow.”
Although he’s only nine years old, Eli knows popular Christian songs by heart. “Can you turn up the sound?” he will ask in the car when we’re playing Christian pop songs. He has a list of his favorites that he knows I have on my phone. “Can you play Crowder, PopPop?” Or, “Can you turn the radio to K-Love?” referring to the Christian radio station.
The drummer for We the Kingdom’s had long hair that he shook all about himself as he got into his performance. “He scares me,” Eli whispered to Lori, his Gigi. His follow-up question was for me, “Are all those people up there Christians?”
I didn’t tell him, but I liked the drummer better than some of the people in the audience, who were swaying and singing to the music. The ladies sitting next to my wife were unashamedly singing, loud and proud and way off-key. And the man a few rows in front of me towered over everyone else, blocking my view of the stage. I felt like telling the ladies I didn’t pay good money to hear them ruin the songs, and I wanted to tell the big guy to sit down for little guys like me.
I did neither, partly for fear that the ladies would burst into tears and the big guy would kill me. The truth is, the audience and the performers made me realize we had accomplished one of our goals in taking Eli to the event. We wanted him to get a picture of Christians outside of our small faith community, which he mainly sees on Sunday mornings. Even the contemporary Christian music he hears is primarily in the car or on Lori’s phone. So, when he hears the music we play, the only image of the people singing are of Christians in our church.
When he saw members of We the Kingdom be-bopping all around the stage and the drummer getting into it, it didn’t fit his limited image of a Christian.
The thought took me back to my early teenage years. The Jesus Movement was gaining momentum and was not totally accepted. “Why can’t we wear sandals and grow long hair? That’s how Jesus looked,” some of the young people were saying. And the standard response was, “If you want wear long hair like Jesus, okay, but remember he walked everywhere he went, too.”
What does a Christian look like, anyway?
Whatever clothes he wore, however long or short his hair was, Jesus did give us a strong hint about how to find real Christians: “By their fruits you will know them” (Matthew 7:20). He even told us what they would look like. “By this all people will know that you are my disciples,” he said, “if you have love for one another” (John 13:35.)
No, I didn’t say something snide to the ladies whose singing was flatter than a flitter or the bulky man casting his shadow over me. They were praising God and having the time of their life, so who was I to interfere with that?
And so, turning to Eli, I answered his question, “Yes, Eli,” I assured him. “I believe they are Christians.”
That was enough for him. He grinned softly, then immediately started mouthing the song lyrics.
And I sang too, off-key with the ladies, what few words I knew or could read on the big screen, joining in, maybe even looking something like a Christian.