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Category: Denominationalism

  • Why SOOOO Many Denominations?

    by  Chris Surber

    GomorrahWhy are there so many Christian denominations? It’s because people are really messed up. Divisions in the Body of Christ point us directly to our need for Christ.
    Divisions among the brethren are the very best evidence of this. Even after a person is born again and grafted into the Body of Christ, he or she may remain in desperate need of the grace of God. And you can’t get that through religious traditions, maintaining an impressive building, or belonging to the right church or family of churches.
    In my book Gomorrah Was Religious Too, I wrote, “The Church has become a stockroom for the crumbs which fall from the world’s table, rather than a storehouse for the bread of life. Division, greed, divorce, anger, violence, and brokenness are as rampant in most of the body of Christ as they are in the world.”
    Look at how divided the Body of Christ is today. We call it diversity and pretend that God is pleased with the weird variety of church options available to would be church goers on Sunday mornings. “Diversity in the Body of Christ” is a phrase that means, “We don’t want to admit that we can’t even get along with ourselves!” God surely isn’t pleased with the division in the Body.
    While it’s true that we can learn from every expression of the Church, those various “expressions” are all examples of people insisting on their way over unity among the brethren. I love to study Church History because we learn from wise sages and profound saints. But we also learn that our history is one of prideful assertion that we can figure this following Jesus thing out entirely on our own.
    In this series of three blog posts my heart has been to provoke thought in the direction of seeking unity in the Body of Christ. There is a lot more than can be said on the subject, but I want to leave you with this one thought. These aren’t merely thoughts. I’m living it. I’m seeing it played out in my life and ministry.
    A couple of years ago I founded a ministry for Haiti called “Supply and Multiply” (www.supplyandmultiply.com) that has allowed me to watch a network of churches, individuals, friends, and supporters from various denominations and church traditions come together to support our work bringing the love of Christ and the Gospel to Haiti. It’s been amazing to watch God at work. It is astonishing to see people from such varied traditions as Pentecostal to Southern Baptist partner in direct ways to see the unifying Gospel go forward in Haiti.
    The Gospel is unifying. The truth of Christ can bring His people together. It will always be hard work. It will always involve sacrifice. But it brings with it the beauty of seeing God at work on a level far deeper than brand loyalty. Why are there so many denominations? Because we are imperfect and sinful. What can bring unity? Only the love of Christ lived out in simplicity in honest fellowship with other broken sinners honestly responding the call of Jesus to follow Him together.

     

  • Is God Schizophrenic?

    by Chris Surber

    Journey coverIf it is true that the Church is the visible witness to the glory of God in this world then it must surely follow that God is schizophrenic; at least, if I were an unbeliever, that’s what I’d think. In John 17:11 Jesus prayed to the Father for His disciples saying, “And I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.” (ESV)
    If God is one and Jesus prayed that His disciples would be united as one, why is the Church so utterly replete with divisions of every kind? Some people say that God desires variety and that’s why we have so many different denominations. Others say that the division we see in the Body in the Christ is healthy as people live out different expressions of Christianity.
    We may attempt to redeem the division in the Church by resorting to labeling division diversity but that doesn’t really solve the basic reality that the Body of Christ is divided. We are not at all reflective of Jesus prayer in John 17:11.
    Commenting on broad divisions among the brethren, Puritan Pastor John Anderson wrote,
    “Immanent lights have arisen and shone forth among Independents and Episcopalians, but yet their defenses of Gospel truths, and their distinguished piety, do not make these different forms of religion any more agreeable to the word, but only show that we know in part, and prophesy in part; and that we ought to call no man master, nor follow any man, no matter how learned or pious, any farther than he follows Christ.” (Overcoming Division and Unifying the Visible Church: A Rebuke Against the Sin of Occasional Hearing 1794)
    God is one in Himself. He is unified in principle, personality and purpose. He is not at war with Himself, though His followers are often at war with one another. This should not be so, and we should fight against division by engaging in intentional acts of unification. The world is on the offensive against the Body of Christ.
    To varying extents, persecution is commonplace in most of the world. Meanwhile, we make of ourselves a soft target for the enemy because we are like a soldier with an auto-immune disease: We are busy attacking our self. There are practical ways to fight against division and that’s what it’s going to take to bring about unity.
    Here are three really practical ways you can seek unity in the Body of Christ:

    1. Start thinking more in terms of the Body of Christ in your community and less of the Body of Christ in terms of the denomination your individual church belongs to. I’ve seen God do miracles for unity by being a part of the local community of followers of Christ and letting go of denominational anxiety to protect the “brand.”
    1. Actively seek out fellowship with multi-denominational Bible Studies, benevolent societies, men’s and women’s groups, and Christian awareness projects. I’m not implying you abandon biblical truth to fellowship with folks who are Christian in name only, only that you start to see the Body of Christ a broader than your “clan.”
    1. Do your part to create a culture of reconciliation healing in your local fellowship. If a local church doesn’t seek unity within, members of that church are very unlikely to seek unity with other believers without.

    God isn’t divided. We shouldn’t be either. We won’t see pure unity among the faithful until Jesus returns for His bride. But in the meantime we can’t let religion of a denominational and divisive sort define the nature of our interaction with one another as followers of the master of mercy.

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