I was taking a look among the Blogdom of God blogs today, to see what was being discussed in the Christian blogosphere. I must be so out of touch. These are the different labels for Christians (Christian doctrines?) that came up regularly in blog posts:
emergent, cessasionist, charismatic, post-calvinist, fundamentalist, post-charismatic, continuationist, neopentacostalist …
… the list goes on. None of these include traditional descriptive labels such as Baptist, Lutheran, or Catholic. Whatever happened to Christian? I know what that means. At least I thought I did when I got up this morning.
I am not sure, now, that I know what any of these “new” labels mean; do other regular “Christians” out there? And would C. S. Lewis be appalled that us “mere Christians” would have to put ourselves inside quotes to distinguish us from all the labeling going on? What if I don’t want to be in one camp or the other because I don’t know who’s right and who’s wrong? What if who’s right and who’s wrong doesn’t matter nearly so much as just getting through the day doing unto others, and making 30 minutes time to spend in the Word and in prayer?
Back to my stroll through the blogosphere. It didn’t do me much good, since I didn’t understand all the labels and what the debate was about, without investing a considerable chunk of time which I don’t have at the moment. If anyone has summarized the whole thing somewhere, please send me a link so I can figure all this out.
When you consider that there are now different folks calling themselves Christians who are involved in all manner of things that Christ condemned.
Some are involved in advocating evolution from the pulpit.
Some are involved in justifying homosexuality.
I don’t know what label those Christians wear, but I want to be sure that I’m not wearing the same one.
I wonder to… what am I? I get asked often, especially when people ask what church I go to and I respond that I homechurch.
They ask, “But what are you?” I respond a Christian. That usually gets the conversation growing into doctrines, beliefs, who knew who who was a Baptist and they believe, etc…
I wonder if someone has it all laid out who believes what with scripture to back it up. All I know is my name is written in the Book of Life because of Jesus. I am a Christian…
Let me know what you find out…
Love,
Carla Lynne
Several years ago, my husband (who at the time was a from conception, die-hard, to the core, legalistic church of Christ member) attended a Promise Keepers meeting in Washington D.C. I truly believe that the Lord put him there to make a statement. Max Lucado was speaking, and he said “I want everyone here to shout out the name of the church you represent here” and the men, who numbered nearly a million, shouted out the denominations…such that you couldn’t understand a word they were saying. Then Max said “Now, shout out the name of your Lord and Savior!!” and in unison, all those men shouted “Jesus Christ!!”. What an impact that had on my husband, and I am sure thousands of others… that HIS church (my husband’s) was NOT the only one that was right, that there were others that could also be called Christian. To this day, if asked what “religion” or “denomination” he is, my husband will answer “Christian”. We now attend a reformed Presbyterian church, but my husband will not “convert” (become an official member). He says his goal is to lead others to Christ, not to a particular church/denomination. While he believes that there are some churches more grounded in the truth than others, as long as it is a church that is preaching the word accurately and following what God has told us, the sign out front is not as important. Myself, having grown up in a house that did not attend church, I already had those beliefs from when I became a child of Christ. I had to pray and wait for my husband to get there with me.
but I sure am opinionated about theological jargon! 😉 I think that if one operates in the theological world on a consistent basis, jargon can be a useful shorthand to get to the point quickly. However, It is my pet peeve when a pastor or someone trying to communicate ideas to “laypeople” continues using the jargon. It makes me think that either a) the person is showing off how theologically smart they are in a condescending way or b) the person does not truly understand the theological concepts and cannot put them in his or her own words. Whether the reason is a) or b), it is not helpful or communicative to others.
I am as clueless as you are!
This is exactly how we ended up in a home church. Great posted.
Rather than give a concise answer, I’ll tell you a story. Conclusion after.
Once I left my Pentacostal church. It was very “experiential.” I loved the folks there, but long story short, I ended up in a Baptopresbyterian/Charismatic church. It was “legally” Presbyterian USA (liberal denomination in my neck of the woods). It had a lay minister who was born again, and more of a baptist type guy. We were concerned about some of the liberal leanings of the mother denomination, and the lay minister told us “we leave them alone, they leave us alone.” Thus, the statement of faith was that of the mother denomination, and the “Christians” in that church didn’t really care — they were, themselves a mix of all sort of beliefs. Had come out of their denominations, like I had — and we called ourselves “Christian.”
Tragidy hit that minister’s family, and he had to step down. We could not find a born again Presbyterian minister in our neck of the woods (remember — it was the liberal denomination — which I hear is NOT liberal down south, but IS in New York).
So began the pulpit supplies. I am going to shorten this up — as we began voting on what to do, who to have preach — whether or not we should leave the denomination altogether — suddenly a statement of faith became very important. That church suffered split, after split, after split. As we looked at the doctrines, (and we were forced to — my husband being an elder) we realized how little we knew about church history. We were forced to study, and then take a stand. On truth. As we understood it.
We are called to rightly divide the Word of God. We live in a day of seduction in the church. If we have NO statement of faith, then we are open for ANY statement of faith to come in and knock on our door. The church should not be like the world, and “all truth is THE truth.” No. There is a truth. The divisions in the church are a travesty — not because we don’t accept all truth as THE truth, but because we should be as the Bereans, searching the scriptures to see if these things are true.
My husband and I were forced to come to grips with what we believed — where we stood on issues. It took a huge block of our time, but it was the most well spent block of time I have ever spent, because it came down to NOT becoming “theological” so we could label ourselves. It came down to coming into a deeper understanding of God than I had (than we had) ever had. And we know that we know that we know truths that we did not know before. With that we were able to have a clear statement of faith (which really helps those who come in the doors to know if they want to be there, as well).
I am sorry this is becoming so long — what did I think anyhow? Of course it would get long.
The story ended with a large church split. Those who left said “We don’t believe what that Pastor believed, but he was a good guy.” We were shocked. The pulpit supply left because we didn’t agree with his doctrine. The congregation didn’t agree with it either, but he was a nice guy. And a Christian. Who cares what he believed anyhow? Except he was taking people aside privately and covertly teaching them wrongly (IMHO).
I love my church today. I love it. Same church — we stayed. We prayed over the pulpit — for God’s man — a man who cared about truth and would not be afraid to proclaim it. And a congregation who wanted more than a “Christian club” with no real statement of faith. God answered.
I hear you on all the buzz words, and post this and pre that. It does make one roll the eyes a bit. But maybe it means that people are studying — taking it seriously that we must rightly divide the word of God. Study to show ourselves approved. I think it’s important. It is important to be Berean — and also important to have love, and be able to agree to disagree.
As a side note, but on topic — I’ve been tweaking my study on Calvinism (link in my sidebar).
I avoided studying “predestination” for years. I do believe that God Himself allowed me to come into a position where I could no longer turn my head and say “That’s too heavy for me — I’ll leave it to the theologians.” I am so glad He led me to go ahead and study it. I will NEVER be the same again.
God bless,
Deb