When Jesus was proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and focusing on people's needs...did he intend for Christians to be so divisive and split apart? I believe that one of the reasons that the church has had not more of an impact on the world is because of unhealthy views of Denominational allegiances. Now granted...I do believe that denominations have had their place in culture. But why are we so worried about whether we are Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, Lutheran, Pentecostal, blah, blah, and blah?????
It would seem to me that many are more worried about who they disagree with
than the suffering happening right under our noses. Is it more important to identify
myself as an (Indepenant, Southern, American, General, Foursquare, or whatever)
Baptist? Or should I be more concerned about showing people the Christ. I'm not
saying you shouldn't be a part of a denom but sometimes I feel that it has a chokehhold on the Great Commission. For the last 6 years I've been a part of the Southern Baptist Convention. I did not choose the SBC over their doctrinal fidelty or because of it's leaders. I was impressed by their shared passion to share Christ around the world together. The Cooperative Program giving from the churches is a phenomenal achievment and raises millions of dollars to spread the Gospel. However I was sickened the other day when I recieved a letter from one of the SBC leaders. The letter said that this leader would devote most of this time in 2009 and 2010 to show people who "Southern Baptists" are.
Let me be clear here....WHO CARES? Who cares who Southern Baptists are?
Why are we concerned with who Jesus is!?!? Why are we concerned about who
"Followers of Jesus" are? This mentatlity of caring about how successful or big
your organization gets....stinks! It puts a chokehold on the Kingdom. It's almost
as sickening to hear about another pastor comlaining that a church in their town
has more people than he does. It happens again, and again and again.
Jesus talked about the Kingdom! Jesus talked about the ekklesia changing the
world for Him. The term ekklesia is where we get our english word "church". It
simply means a called out "gathering".It was a Roman term that Ceasar used
to identify those who had credited deity to Ceasar. In Roman times...ekklesia's
were gatherings of people who identified that "Ceasar" is lord. The church is just
the opposite. The early Christians grabbed this term...and made it to be a
gathering of people who proclaimed that Jesus is Lord!
Stop the choke. Pledge your allegiance to the Kingdom of God...not your group
or denomination. I want to supportanybody who proclaims that Jesus is Lord.
That Jesus is the Way, the Truth and the Life!
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