My recent article entitled, "Is it Possible to be Non-denominational?" obviously pushed a few "easy buttons." There have been defensive responses, personal attacks, accusations of anger, jealousy, and more. -- the site counter is spinning. :-) Sadly, the comments have all been submitted anonymously, so I have not posted them. As a side note, I've found that people who sign "anonymous" are either cowards OR those who have no facts on which to base their opinions. I usually don't even read anything that isn't signed, but I was anticipating some entertaining responses -- and was not disappointed.
Why would I write about non-denominationalism? Simply because there is so much confusion in our own church, across our community, and beyond. For those who thought I was attacking all non-denominational churches, let me assure you that is not the case. Some of my closest pastor friends do not have denominational titles on their signs. More importantly, I will never attack a church (of any denomination, "or not") that has sound doctrine, but those who stir confusion in the Body of Christ are in my cross hairs. The Apostle Paul issued a warning and God recorded it in His Word. 2 Tim 4:3-4 states, "For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4 They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths."
Paul's warning is playing out before us as we watch believers choose churches simply based on music styles, service times, recreational opportunities, geographic location, etc. -- regardless of bad doctrine! Even more regrettable is the fact that some pastors will "hide" their church's doctrinal position or write a "cute" doctrinal statement for the sake of not offending anyone. Have we forgotten that while Jesus never offended anyone with His disposition, His position would be considered quite intolerant in today's society. (I.e. - He told the tax collectors to stop stealing, the adulteress woman to stop her whoring, sinners to repent, the religious to start a relationship, and more.)
I plan to continue to address these issues in future blogs, so for clarification sake, let me give you some of my background. 1) Prior to relocating to Hartsville, SC, I worked in a church named Grace Fellowship Church. We dropped Baptist from the name in order to reach more people (and it worked), but our doctrine never changed and the church is still an SBC church. 2) A couple of years ago at Emmanuel, I was accused of trying to make the church "non-denominational because we did not include the word"Baptist" on the sides of our new bus -- even though it is on both the front and the back -- our doctrine did not change. 3) I continue to come under fire because I am willing to fellowship with people and local pastors outside the Baptist faith in community events, and in our local ministerial association; but my doctrinal beliefs have not changed. These are only a few examples, but hopefully you get the point -- I've come under fire since arriving in Hartsville by pastors and people (including Baptists) who have no understanding of the term non-denominational and misuse it as their basis for attacks.
Do any of these illustrations mean I am non-denominational? NO. It just proves that people don't understand what the term means and they have elevated denominational titles over doctrinal positions. For the record, I'm not spiritually or intellectually shallow enough to go along with the mentality of, "Baptist born, Baptist bred, and when I die I'll be Baptist dead." BUT, I do believe that Baptist doctrine is the closest to a literal and accurate interpretation of the Scriptures, so I choose to worship in a Baptist church -- BUT the key point is doctrine, not denomination.
My real desire would be for people to call me a Christian or label me a Biblicist. I think most people in our congregation and those in our community realize that my desire is to follow Jesus, to live according to God's Word, and to point people to Him. I'm more interested in people becoming believers, than I am in their becoming Baptists. This could be why our church is made up of people from a wide array of denominational backgrounds (that sounds like inter-denominationalism), but that's a topic for another post...
