Where I used to live, a fair number of people attended church. None of them went to the church I attended and, as far as I know, no one else attended the same church as their neighbors. Even more confounding is that there were two churches within a mile, but no one attended them either. […]
In my post, “Let’s Get Together,” I pointed out the importance of not going alone on our spiritual journey, but rather enjoying the company fellow travelers and the collective safety of going together. While this is best accomplished in person, sometimes that is not feasible. Towards that end, I recommend magazines as a supplemental source […]
The last thing that Jesus did as a free man was to pray. The last thing in prayed for was that his future followers would get along. This strongly suggests that unity was important to Jesus. While unity among his followers was largely realized in the first century that has not been the case in […]
Dividing the Church by Forming Denominations Isn’t Biblical, and It’s Time to Move Past It Jesus prayed for our unity, that we would be one—just as he and his father are one. He yearned that his followers would get along and live in harmony. Dividing into religious sects wasn’t his plan. Yet that’s exactly what […]
Scripture is packed with instructions of how Christians should treat each other Last year I shared 13 Reasons Why I Love the Bible, and I periodically expand upon one of those thirteen reasons. Today we’ll explore how the Bible teaches us to live with each other. Although these lessons occur throughout the Bible, let’s focus […]
Jesus Wants Us to Live in Unity but Instead Our Manmade Denominations Divide Us I recently attended a friend’s ordination ceremony who had graduated from seminary and became a minister. It’s not the first such occasion I attended, and it won’t likely be the last. It was, however, the first time I really listened to […]
Arguing Over What is True Has Divided Jesus’s Church for Centuries I’m a huge advocate of Christian unity, that as Jesus’s followers we should all get along and live in harmony. Denominations and theological perspectives don’t matter; Jesus does. In the book of John Jesus prays that his future followers will play nice with each […]
Pursue Christian Unity The last thing Jesus does before his arrest and execution is to pray. The last part of his prayer is for the unity of his future followers (John 17:20-26). Yet two thousand years later, we still wait for Papa to answer this imperative request from his Son. We are not one, far […]
Most Christians Carry Unexamined Criteria that Others Must Agree with Before They’re Accepted I was once interviewed for a volunteer position at my church. The pair of interviewers cranked through a series of pre-assigned theological questions to determine my supposed worthiness to lead. For some queries the answers were straightforward; others, not so much. On […]
When Paul writes to his protégé Timothy, he instructs Timothy to warn the people not to quarrel over words. Isn’t that what most theological debate is, people arguing about words? People who claim to follow Jesus end up arguing about the meaning of certain words. They build their own theology around their understanding of these […]