Getting Stressed About the Details

[DiscipleOfIAm]

I haven't posted in a while, I've been away from the computer! Glad to be back on for today at least.

Anyway, the family and I have been attending a local church for a couple of months after searching for a church home. We were just about to inquire about membership when we remembered there was one other church we wanted to visit before we ever knew about the one we were going to. Well, long story short, we tried it, we loved it, and we wished we would have found it sooner.

It is a United Brethren in Christ church, founded by a Menonite and a Reformer back in the 1700's. This is the original UB, the other ones split from this one and ended up UMC in the 60's. But, this is beside the point. The purpose of the post is to get opinions from others about getting hung up on the details.

Here are some to ponder:

- Is it wrong to be a part of a "denomination"? Some view that the true NT church is independant of any higher form of leadership or denominational label. Is there biblical referrence to this that states the church is to not be a part of a larger church body?

- When the bible talks about not "mixing" with other religions, this does not mean not to cooperate or minister/mission with other "denominations" within the Christian religion does it? Example - UMC and SBC building a church in Honduras together.

- God basically wants people to find Him. Does it really matter if a church has a contemporary worship or traditional, baptises by immersion or sprinkles, takes communion every week or 6 or 8 times a year, cooperates with another denomination to support a local mission or goes it alone? There really isn't scripture telling us exactly word for word what worship style is correct or how to baptize or when to take communion, is there? Didn't God leave these things up to us to argue over. Shouldn't it please God to be worshiped and praised whether it is by singing a hymn or a chorus?

These are the details I'm talking about. I've found myself getting hung up on these lately. I always find something wrong with a church because of one thing or another. I tell myself, well that isn't right or biblical. God wants us to do this or that. I used to be anti-seeker sensitive type person and didn't care for people like Rick Warren and Bill Hybels, but isn't that what we're supposed to do? We are supposed to help the lost find God and if we only minister to the already saved, then we're losing the battle against Satan. Shouldn't we be training and equipping to help the lost and save souls to Christ?

The church we were previously attending had the non-seeker sensitive view. They were frimly not seeker-sensitive and stated that. They felt that it was someone else's job to help the lost and they would minister to their own. They even called themselves "Evangelical", but didn't act like it. It wasn't until recently that I realized that the seeker-sensitive church isn't a new concept. God wants us to all be seeker-sensitive and to "rescue" the lost.

That's about it for now. It seems like when I was thinking of writing this post I had more to throw out there, but I'm drawing a blank. Thanks to all who read and respond. And to any that I previously opposed or offended on these subjects, you were right. Anyone who brings a lost soul to Christ whether by singing them a hymn or a chorus or writing a book about it, can't be all bad.

Now I'm not saying I agree with all denominations and views, but on the biblical principles we can agree. There is a lot of gray area out there and one thing we can agree on is that we don't all have the answers!

God Bless!

 

[Iollain]

- God basically wants people to find Him. Does it really matter if a church has a contemporary worship or traditional, baptises by immersion or sprinkles, takes communion every week or 6 or 8 times a year, cooperates with another denomination to support a local mission or goes it alone? There really isn't scripture telling us exactly word for word what worship style is correct or how to baptize or when to take communion, is there? Didn't God leave these things up to us to argue over. Shouldn't it please God to be worshiped and praised whether it is by singing a hymn or a chorus?

Contemporary worship or traditional does not matter, parents are going to have their babies baptised if they feel it is important, and it does not matter if you take communion every day or once a year, imo I could easily go visit a church that baptises babies with no problem, however there are some churches i would not feel comfortable worshipping with at all.

 

[Gold Dragon]

- Is it wrong to be a part of a "denomination"? Some view that the true NT church is independant of any higher form of leadership or denominational label. Is there biblical referrence to this that states the church is to not be a part of a larger church body?

I don't believe it is wrong to be part of a denomination. And even though I'm a baptist, I'm not that big a supporter of the autonomy of the local church.

In the council of Jerusalem in Acts 15, the apostles and representatives from various churches got together to discuss an important doctrinal disagreement. The result was adopted as authoritative by all Christian churches. Yes, we don't have the apostles around anymore and I recognize the abuses that have come about because of hierarchal church structures, but sometimes I think local autonomy takes it too far.

- When the bible talks about not "mixing" with other religions, this does not mean not to cooperate or minister/mission with other "denominations" within the Christian religion does it? Example - UMC and SBC building a church in Honduras together.

There were no denominations in NT times. I'm not sure which verses you are talking about not "mixing" but if they were about other religions, the proper historical context wouldn't be about other Christian groups that disagree with each other. Paul addresses other ways of dealing with disagreements within the church.

- God basically wants people to find Him. Does it really matter if a church has a contemporary worship or traditional, baptises by immersion or sprinkles, takes communion every week or 6 or 8 times a year, cooperates with another denomination to support a local mission or goes it alone? There really isn't scripture telling us exactly word for word what worship style is correct or how to baptize or when to take communion, is there? Didn't God leave these things up to us to argue over. Shouldn't it please God to be worshiped and praised whether it is by singing a hymn or a chorus?

I believe the form of worship is a non-essential.

The church we were previously attending had the non-seeker sensitive view. They were frimly not seeker-sensitive and stated that. They felt that it was someone else's job to help the lost and they would minister to their own. They even called themselves "Evangelical", but didn't act like it. It wasn't until recently that I realized that the seeker-sensitive church isn't a new concept. God wants us to all be seeker-sensitive and to "rescue" the lost.

The common criticism of seeker-sensitive is that it sounds too much to some folks like compromise or political correctness. I agree that there are wrong ways to be seeker-sensitive but there are right ways that involve no doctrinal compromise. Sometimes our noble pursuit of holiness gets in the way of fulfilling our greater purpose which is to be Christ's witnesses to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth.

Now I'm not saying I agree with all denominations and views, but on the biblical principles we can agree. There is a lot of gray area out there and one thing we can agree on is that we don't all have the answers!

 

[DiscipleOfIAm]

The common criticism of seeker-sensitive is that it sounds too much to some folks like compromise or political correctness. I agree that there are wrong ways to be seeker-sensitive but there are right ways that involve no doctrinal compromise. Sometimes our noble pursuit of holiness gets in the way of fulfilling our greater purpose which is to be Christ's witnesses to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth.

This was my common issue before truly thinking and praying about the issue. Thanks for the good responses!