Not a Denomination

A few weeks ago I preached at my dad's church, I reused a sermon, honestly one of the best ones I've written to date, and afterwards one of the ladies came up to me and was telling me what a great job I did. Then she made a statement that really bothered me, "That's Nazarene" refering to the sermon. She's one of those people who you just let talk in order to avoid a discussion you can't win, so I didn't say what I was thinking, but that thought that entered my mind was, "No, that's the Bible."

I know I've shared this with a few people before, but I hate denominations, and honestly I'm not living for a denomination. Yes, I was raised in the Church of the Nazarene, my education is Nazarene, my credentials are in the Church of the Nazarene, and they are the denomination I agree most with when you look at the foundaion of it, what it has become is a seperate issue. But I don't live for the Church of the Nazarene.

Denominations aren't going to go away, they can't becasue people are different. One person will say that a certain passage of Scripture means this, while someone else will say it means something completely different, and both of them could be completely wrong, the point is we are creative people with the ability to think, and because of that we will disagree. Maybe when we all take our thoughts, that line up with the character of God and the rest of Scripture, and put them together, that's when we arrive at something close to the truth.

I don't live for a denomination, but for the God that the denomination is supposed to be about. One of my professors once said, "All churches, all denominations, tend to fall in love with themselves, and that is the greatest form of idolotry." The denomination losses site of what they were founded for, what they were made to do. That is what my sermon series on Philippians is trying to show.

To illustrate, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is perhaps the holiest site in Christendom. It is built over the traditional site of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus. The church is literally falling apart, and the keys to the church are held by a Muslim family. Within the church are six different denominations, and this is what is destroying the church.

Nothing can be done in the church because of the power struggle between denominations. There is a ladder on the front of the church that has been there since at least 1852.

http://atlasobscura.com/place/immovable-ladder-church-holy-sepulchre

Denominations are ruining this Holy place. When I was there I had the opportunity to knee under an altar where they say the cross stood, the only words I could get out where "Thank you" yet in this same building denominations struggle for control.

When will we set aside our pride and arrogance and simply humbly fall into service building the Kingdom?

Peace be with you