The Body

Now my friends I have been to a number of churches of several denominations over the years. This has been mostly in an attempt to find a church that I could comfortably worship in. To be honest I have yet to find one that fits just right. Either I run into doctrinal disagreements, (Mostly over security of the believer. I do not wish to engage in a doctrinal discussion over that point right now.) I find a church that is too uptight to worship, or I run into a church that wishes to tear down another denomination down because they do not believe the same way for whatever reason. This last reason is the one I find to be most disturbing.

My first introduction to Jesus was through an Assembly of God church. It was because of them I was cool towards religion for a while, but the seeds were sown. If you have ever been to an AoG service you are in for a treat. I found Jesus while attending a Southern Baptist Church. While most of my beliefs line up with the SBC we differ when it comes to miracles. It was this that got me into some spats with the leadership of the church. After that I tried the Church of the Nazarene. I loved worship in that church, it was open, and full of the Spirit, but I could not join them as a member because I could not accept every portion of their doctrine. Sadly this is also where I met my worst taste of the disturbing practice of demonizing other denominations. They had an evangelist come for a revival and she could not say anything with out some comment about how horrible the Baptists were.

This is all to set up my belief on the body of the church. I have heard in a number of sermons on the body all in the context of the local church never on the church as a whole. Back when I traveled allot, driving was my time to reflect on life and focus on Jesus, basically my alone time. It was during one of these times that Jesus revealed a truth to me. All of the scriptures pertaining to the body of the church could be applied universally. Each denomination serves a unique function within the church as a whole. The Creator knowing that each individual person is different allowed the denominations to flourish so that a person who would turn away from one would be find Him in another. That is precisely what happened to me. I have a burden to share this with the church because we are losing our effectiveness while we fight with each other and turn those seeking away because they never find the love they so desperately need. The denominations were meant to compliment one another not to divide. The enemy has used our differences to split us. I honestly believe that if the denominations could put their differences aside, agree on the basics, and show each other the love that should flow like a river from the body we would see a revival that would make the Great Awakening look like a Sunday picnic.