For example, during a 60-day period, in which today is about midpoint, I have already or will shortly minister the Word in churches that are Seventh-day Adventist, Baptist, Church of Christ, nondenominational and Methodist, with a 10-week series of teachings scheduled later this year in an Episcopal Church.
A gracEmail subscriber wrote: "I heard someone on the radio urged listeners to look for the church which follows the New Testament pattern and does everything exactly as in the Bible. Can you tell me which is the true church?"
the church for which Jesus died
A Texas subscriber writes that most of what he reads in gracEmail is "contrary" to what he believes "about the church the Lord died for. . . . I love my Lord Jesus," he affirms, "and his church, the church of Christ! There is only one church and those who have refused to be buried with the Lord in baptism to wash away their sins have not been added to it."
A gracEmail subscriber inquires, "Is it better to be in Church 'A,' which has zeal, involvement in each other's life and a focus on mission -- but which also has exclusivistic assumptions that they are the only 'true' Christians, or in Church 'B,' which is less exclusivistic but which is dead evangelistically and which accepts lukewarmness in general?"
One of Jesus' most poignant teachings . . . is his discourse . . . concerning himself as the Good Shepherd. Here the Savior opens his heart, expressing his devotion, . . . his tender love . . . and his passion for the spiritual oneness between the Father, himself and all his people that is at least one goal of all the above.
A gracEmail subscriber . . . says that he belongs to a church which many have "left their denominational roots" to join, "to be part of the Lord's church, to preach Jesus and the way of salvation stated in the New Testament." He wants to know where I stand "in terms of the Gospel plan of salvation . . . and denominational fellowshipping among the Lord's church."
"He who is not with me is against me," Jesus once warned some skeptics who accused him of expelling demons by the power of Satan. No one can encounter the Son of God and remain neutral about his identity. . . . To meet the Christ is to face a crisis. His very presence demands decision.
A minister in the Midwest says that his congregation is "emphasizing Jesus, not a church." Someone else responds," I hope you're not de-emphasizing the community of God and its responsibilities. The church of God is the natural outgrowth of preaching Jesus."
finding a congenial church home
A Southern gentleman who calls himself a "born-and-bred" member of the Churches of Christ . . . lives 100 miles from a congenial Church of Christ. . . . He loves the "good people and minister" of the Presbyterian church he presently attends and believes they are saved. However, he lacks "peace of heart" and cannot "be comfortable and happy with some of their doctrines and practices." He asks if I have any advice.
Churches in Hawaii and other exotic locations regularly see a considerable number of visitors, often outnumbering the local residents. One Sunday this month, our Maui assembly included vacationers from Churches of Christ in Oregon, Texas, Tennessee, and California, holding doctrinal opinions as diverse as the places they called home. It is a joyful thing to receive fellow-believers because they love and follow Christ, without having to apply some creedal litmus test to determine their worthiness. Unfortunately, not everyone yet experiences that particular joy, as a visitor at an evening meeting recently brought to mind.
Every Christian denomination, nondenomination or subgroup faces the constant tension between a desire to focus on Jesus Christ, the core gospel, and the truths which Christians share alike, and a desire to emphasize its own history and purpose and the issues which distinguish it from other Christians.
Someone asks how it is that I do not fit the mold of any particular denomination, and agree at times with various groups across Christendom. Is not that being unfaithful to the tradition in which I was reared and to which I belong?
A gracEmail subscriber is struggling with bitterness toward his church heritage. . . . If he leaves the church in which he was raised, his father would consider him lost to God. He is silently resentful when his children come home from Bible class and relate their lessons with which he totally disagrees. "I'm stuck," he says. "I'm frustrated, I'm bitter, and needing some advice.
A concerned writer warns, "If some among us don't believe that the church is essentially distinctive, but believe that we're just another denomination, then the call for change will be loud and clear. We should rather hear God say, 'Ask for the old paths, where is the good way; and walk therein, and ye shall find rest for your souls.'
A prominent Bible teacher and preacher in the Churches of Christ writes: "You said, 'It is time for change in doctrines created by our deductions and not by the Word of God; . . . for change in the passing over, ignoring, and sometimes explaining away of biblical teachings, doctrines and experiences which others found before we did . . .' Would you give some examples of each?"
A gracEmail subscriber asks, "What advice can you give someone in a small, one-church town, who wishes to reach out to unchurched friends, but who is embarrassed by his or her own congregation? It's difficult to invite another person to visit a church you don't enjoy attending yourself."
A gracEmaiI subscriber writes: "I am considering worshipping with a nearby Baptist congregation. However, I keep thinking about the Scriptures that refer to churches as Churches of Christ, Churches of God, Assemblies of God, etc. Where does that leave people who attend churches with other names such as Calvary Baptist Church?"
An Advent Christian pastor writes, "I keep hearing from fellow ministers that we need to become a first-century or New Testament church. Does not the New Testament show the first-century churches to be just as fraught with problems as churches today?"
one holy catholic and apostolic church
A few Sundays ago while my wife Sara Faye was on a women's retreat, I missed Bible class at our Church of Christ to attend a service at St. John the Divine Episcopal Church in Houston. I reflected afterward about what part of the service I found most to be a blessing, and concluded that it was the incarnational involvement of the whole person and all of one's senses
Someone recently wrote me an email arguing that only those who belong to his particular denomination are any part of the body of Christ and the universal church of God. How should we respond to such claims, which are made across the "Christian" spectrum?
One Sabbath morn I roamed astray, and asked a Pilgrim for the way: "O tell me, whither shall I search, That I may find the one true Church?" He answered, "Search the world around; The one true Church is never found. Yon ivy on the abbey wall, Makes fair the falsest Church of all."
A brother in the Churches of Christ (who does not see his own fellowship as a "denomination") comments, "I don't know of any major denomination that appeals for the restoration of New Testament Christianity and urges people to drop all human creeds."
As a child, I naively thought that the particular subgroup of the non-instrument Churches of Christ into which I was born had discovered "the truth" and that all other Christian groups were either ignorant or dishonest because they differed from us. By the grace of God, when I became a man, I put away those childish ideas.
Big old houses have always fascinated me. I am excited to explore rooms and to discover unique nooks and crannies. A few years ago, Sara Faye and I toured the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, North Carolina. We spent a full day exploring the Biltmore House
A Texas sister writes that her church fellowship claims to be the "New Testament church," founded on the Day of Pentecost about A.D. 33. That church went into "apostasy," she is told, but was "restored" in the early 19th century. "But what about the many centuries between?" she asks. "Can anyone show an unbroken line of people or churches linking Pentecost to the present?"
"What should we think of the different Christian denominations and movements or families? Is one of them 'right' and the others 'wrong?'"
It is easy to become nearsighted in our vision of the Church, focused only on our own congregation or denomination, or the Church in our own country or in the present year or decade or century. God has been at work in his worldwide Church throughout Christian history, I am persuaded, including parts from which we might imagine we have nothing good to learn. The Church in its fullness will incorporate contributions from believers in all times and places, and we can begin even now to appreciate and to share in the diversity of that rich heritage.
The Christian church in America is rapidly changing in form, style and culture. A gracEmail subscriber asks what the future might hold for the church during this 21st century.
church history jigsaw puzzle (two gracEmails)
If we review the history of the Christian church, we are reminded that God continually raises up movements for specific tasks, and that we all can learn from one another. . . . We must struggle . . . to balance "identity" (how the church is different from the world) alongside "universality" (how to make the church at home in every culture).converted to the church
A gracEmail subscriber heard someone say,"I don't think you can be converted to Jesus without being converted to his church," by which the speaker mean the particular religious movement of which he was a part. The subscriber wants to know if the statement is true.