Help - Which Denomination Was Jesus?
August 22, 2007 by jonathanbrink
Last year I picked up and read “A Generous Orthodoxy” by Brian McLaren. I really liked the book for the reason that it explored the beauty of our differences. I appreciated listening to different traditions than my own. It helped me process the beauty in other ways of thinking.
My formative years were spent in a very loving but small Baptist church. It had the small chapel with the hard pews and the stained glass windows. From junior high through high school I went to a non-denominational church (which is a code word for we don’t want you to realize we really are a denomination) that was located in a former computer technology complex. The church was deeply influence by the Baptists but never said so. In college, I floated attending several high profile mega-churches in Southern California. I couldn’t remember what they were? Nothing really stood out to me other than they were really, really big and had 67,000 different programs that were entertaining.
After marriage, my wife and I chose to specifically find a small church, settling on a church that was from the RCA (Reformed Church of America). It was here that I got my first introduction to a true, distinct denominational mindset. It forced us to wrestle with issues of child baptism and women in leadership, etc. Loved the process. We visited a Lutheran church once for a Christmas Eve service and had to stand for the entire 90 minutes. My wife attended a Greek orthodox church with a friend and also had to stand for 2 hours while she suffocated under the potent fumes of the incense. (No slam intended). I went with the youth group to a Catholic church and appreciated the beauty of the building but don’t remember anything else. When my family moved, we found ourselves attending a small CRC (Christian Reformed Church), which is split from the RCA over the question of the masons. Then we chose to leave and attend a covenant church. I really like the evangelical covenant church. They have found a way to agree to disagree.
Which brings me back to McLaren’s Generous Orthodoxy. In each of the churches I attended, I found people who strongly believed they were right. They believed that their way was the correct way to believe. In a lot of cases the differences were minor (RCA/CRC). And in reading the book I began to ask, “What denomination would Jesus attend?” Would Jesus choose the Catholic church, with it’s strong emphasis on liturgy and reverence? Would he choose a protestant church with its strong emphasis on grace? Would he choose a charismatic church, with its strong emphasis on words of knowledge and communicating with God? Would he choose the Methodist church, hoping to find Wesley’s strong emphasis on going to the people and building leaders? Would he choose the Baptist church for its strong emphasis on salvation and baptism? Would he choose the Lutheran church with its rich historical protestant background? Would he choose from one of the other 30,000 denomination for their unique distinctives?
Which begs a couple of questions. How would he have the time to visit all 30,000 different denominations? If he visited every one on every Sunday, that would take 82 years. And would visiting one more than once validate that denomination above the other ones that he either visited once or never visited? Would it invalidate a denomination if he chose to leave the service early because he had to catch an early flight to the next location? Or would he choose to skip the big churches all together and worship in a house church?
And then I began to realize that maybe form is a product of our own need for validation? Maybe we separate ourselves into smaller and smaller camps to validate what we believe? Maybe we find the smallest of differences to argue about so that we can be right and others can be wrong, which elevates the individual above the other, at least in one’s own mind.
I keep thinking of how God chooses to identify himself. “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD.” (Deut 6:4) (emphasis mine) How do we find our way back to a shared community that is one, living with a sense of wholeness and togetherness, celebrating our differences yet working together? How do we find a way past our differences to His church?
Your insights are appreciated?
Now that’s a question worth asking!
“Maybe we separate ourselves into smaller and smaller camps to validate what we believe? Maybe we find the smallest of differences to argue about so that we can be right and others can be wrong, which elevates the individual above the other, at least in one’s own mind.”
I think you are right on with that statement, I thought of Paul when You said that; I Cor. 8:1, “…knowledge inflates with pride, but love builds up.”
By the way, as a Catholic, I would say that Jesus would attend the Catholic Church, simply because that was the one He founded.
God bless you, Jonathan.
I believe (and of course this is based on my beliefs) that he would use the process of elimination and start with whichever organization was teaching the truth, or at least find the one that was teaching as close to the truth as possible. Then perhaps he would help to strengthen that church and use it to correct the rest who were in error and then continue to build and strengthen them all as one.
Tim,
Let’s hope we can find a way to love and build up. I like that part so much better.
Laymansjournal,
I like the idea of strengthened as one. So, why can’t we do that?
jonathan
i love your conclusion. i think that is really THE point. Sh’ma Yisrael YHWH Elohinu, YHWH echad (Hear Israel…). God is ONE, and He desires we be ONE. in fact, how can Christ Himself be one in the world today, if we, the Body of Christ, are not ONE.
let us remember the words of our Lord, “By this all people will know you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
peter
PB and J,
Can you imagine what the church would look like if we were truly one? Wow! That would be awesome.
Well, that does make one think and I like that.
Looks like an in valid question. It seems to me that the question should be “Which Denomination is Jesus” and the answer is all of them.
(Mat 18:20 NIV) For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.” (It is great to know that when we are thinking about Jesus (Communion) that He knows we are)
I am not one to agree to disagree. It is pride in what one thinks he knows that causes disagreements; not the differences themselves. Take Baptism as an example. It either is required, or not and the subject should be explored until the truth is known, but at some point men decide they are right and because they know so much they only defend their position. Then they split and take all of those that they can convince of their great understanding with them.
Unity can only become a reality when we can all admit that we do not know everything and we lay our pride aside to really search out truth.
Until then God knows our weaknesses and He is able to make every one of us stand (Rom 14:4).
[...] 22nd, 2007 Jonathan Brink over at his blog called Missio Dei asks, Help - Which denomination was Jesus?. I won’t try to give a direct answer to the question, but I do have a link to some resources [...]
That’s a good question… maybe he attends all of them every week. Maybe the evolution of the church reflects the best/worst of us but also is part of the ongoing creative dynamic work of Jesus building his church? Whilst recent history has been littered with suscipion, scorn and a desire to be ‘the right’ church I think we are moving to healthier times which are not just about appreciating each others difference but starting seeing and celebrating those differences - whether in our learning or working together. It also helps us realise that ‘orthodox’ christians have a lot more in common than seperates them and invites them on that basis to form an alliance for the sake of the gospel. After all it takes all sorts of different churches to reach all sorts of different people…
jonathanbrink,
“I like the idea of strengthened as one. So, why can’t we do that?”
I think we can sum that up in one word. Self-righteousness.
I’m not sure that organization is so important. I think the answer is love. We can all be one, in love, no matter how we are organized. I like it in Ephesians when Paul tells us that we can know the heigth, depth, width and length of CHRISTS LOVE together with all the saints. It will take all of us to hold the fullness of Christ.
[...] is a serious question and I wrestled with it before but it needs to be addressed. If His mission is about reconciliation, we don’t look very good [...]
[...] end choice was “other” for this reason. It was a good exercise [...]
I think most times we don’t set out to start a new denomination. I think a lot of the drive is to renew the church from within (ie, Wesley and the Anglican Church; Luther and the “catholic” church. As organizations churches evolve over time and often lose much of their spiritual edge (from why they were started in the first place). The emergent church is doing the same thing - it is asking questions and trying to renew the church, but it will ened up taking on its own form and either start a new “association of emergent churches” (ie, the AEC denomination) or remain a collection of independent AEC churches. They will end up doing what they started off saying we shouldn’t be doing.
I also recognize that everybody is different, and people often gravitate to churches that reflect their personality and approach to worship that is comfortable to them. Because the nature of the church is not based on a lifestyle (like Judaism or Islam), the application of doing “church” is open-ended. The habit of the early church was to get together on Sunday. The love feast was done behind closed doors. Acts gives us a picture of the Jerusalem church that was about great expansion, a transient and temporary membership, and an upcoming dispersion. How we apply “as you are going into all the world DISCIPLE…” and love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul and mind…” comes out of people a little bit differently. The gifting we have from the holy Spirit is different, and some gifts are definately for organization of the body. The diversity of denominations is about the grace of God working in different people, and in spite of different people! Wanting no denominations assumes there is a basic goodness in people, which sounds good but isn’t reality. We are all fallen, some sanctified, but all Christians are redeemed. Though the biblical norm expects unity of the Spirit, they had the same struggles in Corinth way back then as we are today.
So which denomination would Jesus go to today? It is a loaded question that gets people to think. If he acted the same as He did 2,000 years ago, He would probably start His own church!
nice answer.
do you have a blog as well? I saw you went to school/lived in Ontario - I live in Sarnia….
I have no blog as yet. I like the weather better in Alberta. The census is not in yet about Saskatchewan, though. It is not nearly as humid, but I think the weather has more extremes (+40 in the summer and - 40 in the winter). Viva la spring and fall!
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