Designated Christian

Anybody familiar with baseball has heard the term "Designated Hitter." The Designated Hitter, or DH, is a player who bats in place of the pitcher. He doesn't have to play defense. His only responsibility is to try and get hits. Recently, my father was asked if he would say a few words at the wedding of a relative. He respectively declined. Curious as to why he declined the offer, I asked him, "Are you tired of being the Designated Christian?" "Yes," he replied. My reason for asking is that I notice how people, even those who say they are believers, will ask other Christians to do "spiritual" things for them so they don't have to. Now, I believe my father was asked to do this out of love and respect. But, it is not the first time I have seen this happen. Maybe I am bias, but I wonder if the motivation behind such a request is to relieve the person asking of having to reveal anything about their faith, or lack thereof. We ask others to speak for us, pray for us, "stand in the gap" and so on. As if without them doing this what we seek can't be accomplished.

"What I mean is this: One of you says, "I follow Paul"; another, "I follow Apollos"; another, "I follow Cephas; still another, "I follow Christ." 1 Corinthians 1:12

When the Apostle Paul was chastising the Corinthians for the divisions within the church there, he talked about how Christians were following after the teachings of men. When you are following after the teachings of an individual, even if they are correct, you don't have a faith of your own. I am afraid when we ask others to do things for us within the context of a Christian setting we may be guilty of unintentionally acknowledging we don't have a faith of our own. I only say this because if you know something and care for it you shouldn't have any difficulty expressing yourself. A husband would not ask another man to speak for him about his wife. A fan of a sports team would not ask another fan to speak for them about their loyalty to their team. And so on. Therefore, if we claim to know God, and know that He knows us and loves us, we should be able to find the words to express how we feel. And definitely not have to rely on someone else to express how we feel for us, if that be the case.

"I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Philippians 1:3-6

If we claim to be Christians, we have the same Holy Spirit in us as those whose teaching we sit under. I believe one of the marks of a good pastor is that those sitting under his teaching are growing to the point where they are becoming teachers themselves. In other words, the pastor is becoming, dare I say, obsolete. We all have the Holy Spirit indwelling us. Our faith is in Him to guide us and teach us. When we are in agreement with a fellow Christian, be it a teacher or otherwise, we know that we were both taught by the Holy Spirit. It is this way that we become confident to share that which we have been taught by the Holy Spirit with those we encounter throughout our lives. We are all partners in the gospel as brothers and sisters in Christ. All of us rely on the Lord, in the person of the Holy Spirit, to carry us to the completion we already have been given through faith in Christ. In this way we constantly focus on the Lord and trust in Him. Then we don't splinter the Body into segments following after the teachings of others. And, ultimately, we end up having our own faith in the Lord and our own relationship with Him. Then we are able to express our faith in, and love of, God and those in our lives in our own words based on what we have learned directly from God. We can end up batting for ourselves and don't need someone to hit for us.