I wonder....

I wonder if we as the church haven't explained the gospel and what it means to be a christian the right way. I wonder because over the past few years when I hear the testimony of christians who have accepted Christ at a young age and grown up in a Christian home, the same things keep coming up.
"I accepted Christ because I didn't want to go to hell. I did it but I didn't understand what it means. I did it because I wanted to go to heaven. It sounded like a cool thing to do but I didn't know what it meant and I fell away."
You may have a testimony like that also. I didn't think much of that kind of statement until I started to notice the reoccuring theme.
I feel like if that's the case; If christians aren't understanding what it means to be a christian than maybe we haven't don't our job as the church so that people can understand it.
I notice that people put a big emphasis on the whole idea that to become a Christian you pray a prayer and then you get to go to heaven after you die. Honestly, if that's all that being a christian is all about than I suppose I wouldn't undestand it either, nor would I want to take part in something like that. It sounds kind of boring. There's no real accountability to that faith. There's no depth with that kind perception about what being a christian is about.
I personally don't think of christianity as some religion. In fact I tend to shun that kind of thinking because for me this a way of life. And while I'm at it, it's not all about what I can't do. It's about who I am. Jesus taught that the kingdom of heaven is not to come but it's already here! It's already begun! What I "do" or don't "do" is because I'm being a witness of that what that kingdom is.
I believe, and I've read from an author just recently, that God is transforming us into the people that we were made to be. To get a glimpse of that we could turn to the beginning of Genesis and see God's relationship with man in the garden. God walked with man in the cool of the day!!! There is fellowship there!!!! The implication is that we were meant to be in fellowship with God!!!! The Creator!! Sustainer!!! GOD!!! YAHWEH!!! The One who placed each star in the sky and knows them by name!!
Don't get me wrong, the whole pray the prayer so that you won't go to hell thing is all part of it. But there is some much more!!! Eternity doesn't start when we've breathed our last breath here on this earth. Eternity starts when you become alive, and that happens at conception. When we are birthed into eternity by praying the prayer. It's not just some prayer. It's life!!