BLOG. 8/23/15. CHURCH DENOMINATIONS CERTAINLY MUST BE CONFUSING
Mercy! If I were an observer unacquainted with much of what the church is all about, I certainly would be confused by denominations. I can have sympathy with such, because many of them are my friends, and the let me know how confusing denominations are. Here, Pope Francis is about to arrive in the United States, and so the news media get all hyped about Roman Catholicism , and this unique pope. Then the presidential candidates are making their way to denominational gatherings and tailoring their campaign rhetoric to accommodate the perceived policy positions of that particular constituency. Does any of it have much to do with the life and teachings of Jesus?
For the first several centuries of its history, the church was a movement and reinventing itself as it moved out into the Roman Empire and meeting the cultural challenges, and the growth pains of such a subversive faith in a hostile world. In the fourth century the Christian faith became the official religion of the empire (for questionable reasons), and its primary location of leadership was at the center of the empire: Rome. For a millennium thereafter the church in the West was fairly unified, though there were major divisions such as the Eastern Orthodox church, the Coptic church, and a few others. Many Christian colonies simply emerged and had little communication with Rome, or anywhere else. (Most people hardly realize that even the venerable St. Patrick had little communication with Rome, communications being so primitive at that time, but that was the only church he knew.)
Then near the turn of the 16th century you began to get rumblings of discontent, perhaps with the direction and the excesses of the church hierarchy in Rome, or its questionable doctrinal aberrations, and protest movements sprang up and were broadly described as Protestant. Here we are, all these centuries later, and with the church becoming quite global, there is this huge proliferation of what we designate: denominations, i.e. Lutheran, Anabaptist, Waldensian, Presbyterian, Methodist, Baptist, Pentecostal—and now expressions from West Africa, and the many African nations, Latin America, the Orient and from the numerous nations and cultures of the world.
Let me stop right here, however, and speak to those of this Western, or North American culture where the Christian faith, though much in the news for its controversies, is diminishing into less and less influence in many ways (and yet probably growing vigorously under radar, and apart from prominent church denominations).
What is a curious outsider to make of all of these denominational labels? How confused should he or she be? What it such a person to make of those who, on one hand, profess to be followers of Jesus, and yet seem to be oblivious to the scandal of their controversies. How do they relate to the basic mess of Jesus, and the Christian faith expressed in the early creeds of the church (Apostles Creed, Creed of Nicea, etc.)?
We are undoubtedly in a post-denominational era. Those seeking Jesus Christ do not go looking for a denominational franchise. Rather, they look for authenticity of life, and for the source that makes people new and hopeful, to find meaning and some authority, or guiding line for their lives. They are not looking for church activities, or colorful television personalities, or any of that baggage—hungry seekers are looking for reality and meaning for their lives, for some sure foundation. Denominations can clutter the landscape. The late theologian, H. Richard Niebuhr called denominations: “The moral failure of Christianity.”
Have I got you confused? For my part, let me recommend a couple of good starting places for inquiry: Simply Christian by N. T. Wright, or The Reason for God by Timothy Keller. Start there. Find out what the Christian faith offers, and then go looking for a community or a colony of those who embrace that core Christian faith and are being transformed by it authentically . . . and go from there. But look out! Jesus Christ is powerful stuff!
