soapbox time

Sorry for the lull in writing. It’s been busy around here, and there has been much on my mind to write, but not enough time to write it!

I guess it’s time to pull out the soapbox, so forgive me while I get up on it!

I remember when I was in my teens and we went to a local full-gospel church, it was one that considered itself better than all the other churches around. It was an atmosphere that didn’t breed unity or support for other ministries, unless they looked just like the church we attended. This attitude came from the “head down,” as it’s said, and it even affected those of us who were young in the Lord, impressionable. I even remember one time after a person had left our church, someone joking that they had “died and gone to” another church in the area considered less spiritual or less “anointed” than us.

As I got away from that church, moving to New England to attend Bible College, God used the experiences I had there to teach me about other expressions of Christianity, even in the “full-gospel” movement. There is much to learn from each other, and there is a need for us to respect and to honor those in other places in their journey with God, even if they may not agree with our expression of faith. Only God can judge where I am on my journey with him, and He doesn’t compare me to anyone else on any other journey…I am responsible for what I know and what I do and what another does, it does not change how I must live my faith.

After leaving Bible College and being in full-time ministry for the last 11 years, I have seen this type of pride again in churches and it concerns me. I believe it is one thing to be loyal to a group or a church, but it’s another to believe that you are the only and the best, comparing yourself to other churches or ministries and tearing down those in other places, simply because you don’t agree. Our journey of rediscovering where we are and who we are has seemed to bring this to the surface again lately. Maybe that is why it bothers me, and maybe I’ve not guarded myself against it like I should have before. But now I have to stand in what I know. I want so badly to promote unity and not division. I want to see the Body not be divided, but united in the purpose that God designed it for: to be the expression of Christ in the earth and to introduce Him to the world. But can we do that when we cut off those who don’t look like us theologically or who don’t practice the faith like we do?

And the prayer of Jesus, “let them be one as we are one,” goes on unanswered again…