If you are sending out a flier to attract people to your church make sure to put the word authentic on there. Authentic community. Authentic spirituality. Authentic preaching. Authentic worship. And on and on and on, all in the hopes of being authentically Christian. Being authentic, by the way, is not a bad thing. In fact Ephesians 4:25 urges us to “put away falsehood”; which is the same thing as saying “be authentic.” Authenticity is not bad–but it is not enough.
There are several examples in Scripture of authentic people. One such person was Peter. You do not get much more authentic than Peter. He never hid his thoughts or emotions. Sometimes this got him in trouble; like when he thought it wise to rebuke Jesus (Mt. 16:22). Other times he was rewarded; like a few verses earlier when he authentically confessed Jesus as the Christ.
