There is an old saying in the Bible Belt: If you see two Baptist Churches within a couple blocks of one another there used to be only one. At some point some time in the history of this church there was a split and a new Baptist Church was formed. Especially if these two Baptist Churches are across the street from one another!
I remember riding around with a member of my previous church and he told me the story of how this Baptist Church on the corner separated from that Baptist Church on the other corner. They were on opposite corners. You could walk out of the front door of one and you immediately see the other. He was telling me the split occurred over worship styles. There was a group that wanted to sing new contemporary music and a group that wanted to sing the old hymns. The back and forth went on for years between these two groups. Finally the group wanting to sing new contemporary music decided to leave and establish a new church across the road.
Fifty years later, these two churches are still there and still thriving in their own ways. The traditional hymn church is still singing traditional hymns and the contemporary church is still singing modern worship songs. At the time my church was trying to balance between those who wanted traditional worship and those who wanted a more modern worship service. I believe the point my friend was trying to make is that you can’t be all things to all people. You have to thrive within your identity!
However, I also saw something different that day that is still impacting my ministry 10 years later. At the time I was complaining that the new mega church in town had popped up and had taken half of our members.1 What I have learned over the last 10 years is that my own pride has no place in the Kingdom of God. As John the Baptist proclaims, “He(Jesus) must become greater and greater, and I(John) must become less and less.” (John 3:30 NLT) If I adopt a Kingdom Mentality then I can see the Kingdom of God growing even when my personal ministry may be shrinking. This is incredibly difficult as pastors because we are all programmed to see our ministry as a black and white thing of success or failure. If my church isn’t growing then I am a failure. If my church is growing then I am a success. This makes the Kingdom of God about ME and MY ministry and not about God.
What happened with those two Baptist Churches in rural Louisiana is an example of mitosis. Mitosis is a process where cell division leads to growth through multiplication. The churches had split, but now there were two healthy and growing churches where there was only one before. Yes it took time. In the case of these two Baptist Churches, it took 50 years for their new growth to start forming after the division. The number of disciples multiplied, but only after we viewed these two churches as part of the same Kingdom of God only different in their expression of faith.
I can choose to see multiple denominations and multiple churches as multiple expressions of the faith! The Baptist pastor across the way is engaged in kingdom work. The Pentecostal pastor across the bridge is engaged in kingdom work. The Church of God pastor down the way is engaged in kingdom work.
In Mark 9:38 the disciples try to stop someone from “driving out demons in Jesus name because he was not one of us.” How many of us say this? Oh, they are in a different denomination than us! They aren’t one of us. They look different than us. They aren’t one of us.
What does Jesus tell them?
“Do not stop him,” Jesus said. “For no one who does a miracle in my name can in the next moment say anything bad about me, for whoever is not against us is for us. Truly I tell you, anyone who gives you a cup of water in my name because you belong to the Messiah will certainly not lose their reward.” - Mark 9:39-41 NIV
We can choose to see other expressions of the faith as the enemy or we can choose to see them as someone offering a cup of water in Jesus name who doesn’t look like me, sound like me, act like me. What if division is really about multiplication in the Kingdom of God?
There are three questions I ask myself when faced with a situation of multiple churches and multiple denominations.
Am I operating out of pride? Am I speaking from my wounds that they are not like me and want to do ministry different than I do?
Am I operating out of fear? Am I speaking from fear of how my church or my denomination might be impacted negatively if they succeed?
Am I operating out of scarcity? Am I worried about this expression of faith becoming dry while the other flourishes?
Pride, fear, and scarcity have no place in the Kingdom of God. Because if we adopt a Kingdom mentality, there is only joy for the future. We can become communities of blessing instead of places of lashing out. What I started doing 10 years ago was praying for these other churches around me. I would drive around town and park in front of them and say a pray for them. Praying for their ministries. Praying for their worship. Praying for the pastor and leaders. This practice has transformed how I see these other churches around me. Regardless of how they feel about me and my church, I want to see them succeed for the Kingdom of God!
They actually took half of the members of every church in town when they came into town. However, this has more to do with other factors including: consumer Christianity, lack of real discipleship training in the local church, and cult of personality worship.
“If my church is growing then I am a success. This makes the Kingdom of God about ME and MY ministry and not about God.“ this either leads to anxiety when it’s not or to compromise to achieve. Tremendous Amen to this.
While I’m all in about us all being members of one body, how do you respond to a church that’s teaching unorthodox doctrine?