World Denomination

“I’m happy I’m just a Christian.”

This was something I’d often tell myself early into my faith.

The church I was part of at the time wasn’t Lutheran or Catholic or Methodist or anything like that.

We were just Christian.

Simple, faithful, non-denominational Christians.

Deep down, I found denominations to be divisive, needlessly complex, and counterproductive to our faith.

Of course, time has a funny way of changing things.

It’s a Denominational World Out There…

College was the first time I was exposed to followers of Jesus from backgrounds different from my own.

The more time I spent with them (and especially the more time I spent studying Church history), the more flaws I saw in my previous thinking on denominationalism. 

All Christians worship Jesus, and that’s great, but that worship manifests itself in many different ways.

So, naturally, it makes sense that Christians who worship one way tend to congregate together while Christians who worship in another way do the same.

This promotes a shared sense not just of identity but of understanding the faith itself.

After all, no Christian exists in a vacuum. 

“Just” A Christian Just Doesn’t Exist

What I didn’t realize years ago was that the Methodists, Anglicans, Moravians, etc, who I subconsciously thought I was better than, were in the same boat as me.

That is, they were followers of Jesus making sense of their faith via the church they joined.

Denominations play an important role in that journey (and non-denominational churches, too, but more on that later).

At their best, denominations are expressions of the diversity, richness, and importance of Christian culture.

At their worst, they’re hindrances to the wider unity of the global Church or breeding grounds for nominalism.

I think those negatives come from a lack of understanding. So, my goal this week is to “demystify” denominations by exploring them and, hopefully, promoting inter-denominational unity along the way.

Whether you’re Calvinist, Baptist, Orthodox, or Brethren (shout out to Aaron’s church of origin), you’ll find we have much to learn from one another.

See you tomorrow, and be blessed.

Jon,

Theophilus Newsletter