DENOMINATIONALISM

The main cause of denominationalism is pride. The New Testament Church was united around the lordship of Jesus Christ. All acknowledged this fact and they lived in the experience of it. Over the years, the church moved away from its foundations and as a result, we see individuals or movements spring up and rediscover what is in the word of God.

Instead of taking the message to the church that is already there, they start a breakaway with its emphasis on the rediscovered truth. This creates division and eventually the separated groups stop talking to each other.

Now we have two churches, then four, then eight until we now have 35,000 different spiritual tribal groups who are proud of their emphasis and being different.

I realise that the protestant church did not have much choice but to separate from an apostate catholic church as it had ceased to be a biblical church. Having said that the protestant church seems to have made an art form out of splitting from each other which makes you wonder whether we have any idea at all about what the church is supposed to be.

Whilst we seem to specialise in division, most of the divided groups end up the same as everyone else. Yes I understand that some sing modern songs and some older hymns. I know that some use the latest in musical gimmickry and some don’t. Some have communion every week and some don’t. But overall, there is not much difference between any of them. They all meet Sunday morning. They all go through the same rituals every week. They all settle for the status quo and they all operate the same structurally and organisationally with few differences.

I went to an AOG church one Sunday on arrival in a new country and was told that you won’t get two churches or two meetings the same. Every AOG church I went to over the next 20 years was exactly the same as the first one I went to.

I asked a Pentecostal minister why the Pentecostal church is so devoid of the supernatural. His reply was he didn’t know. What hope do the congregation have if the leader doesn’t know why they have lost their way?

After the initial rush of starting a new denomination, they all seem to settle down into a routine that ensures they have no impact on society. Compare that with the New Testament Church which changed society wherever they went.

What was their secret? It was one that was no secret. They acknowledged and lived the fact that Jesus Christ was lord and to be obeyed and followed and that the Holy Spirit was in charge not the denomination or the minister.

Until we give legs to these sentiments, we will wallow in the sea of mediocrity and be totally ineffectual in what we are supposed to do simply because we are more interested in pushing the denominational barrow to which we owe allegiance, rather than the word of God, which should be central to all our talk and action.

The other day I sat down and noted all the things that the church does that are not in scripture. There were over 30 of them. I wonder why we have such difficulty in accepting that the word of God is not an optional extra.