Inagrace Dietterich reminds us that "The early followers of Jesus Christ were not called people of "the experience," or the people of the "right doctrine," or the people of "moral values," or even the people of "the church."  They were called the people of "the Way."  They were known for the way they lived, not only for what they believed or valued.  Christians were associated with a particular discernible way of living and relating that grew both out of their faith and gave testimony to that faith.  More than just individuals who had a changed religous position, they were now a new people, a new community embarking on a new way of life. Their proclamation that in Jesus Christ the reconciling and transforming riegn of God had become an historical reality was more than an intriguing idea, it had became visible in a people whose life together was the first fruit of the new social order intended by God for the whole of creation."  

To be people of the way means to live in the way of Jesus, to cultivate a people, in the words of Stanley Hauerwas, who "can risk being peaceful in a violent world, risk being kind in a competitive society, risk being faithful in an age of cynicism, risk being gentle among those who admire the tough, risk love when it may not be returned, because we have the confidence that in Christ we have been reborn into a new reality."  And when we live in the way of Christ be become a signpost of God's new creation.