why denoms…?
got into a chat session on one of the church planters FB just before Christmas when a lady asked “why are there different denominations?” “why not just one church?” thought I might expand on that a little bit, sorry if you’ve heard it before…
first, THEOLOGY matters. we believe different things, and interpret scripture differently. even within denoms we have our differing opinions but most of them can be worked around. over Christmas my nephew and i had a rather lengthy, probably a little heated discussion over a topic, that i don’t want to fight over here so i won’t mention it. it got so intense he called later to make sure we were alright. i loved the discussion actually. i know neither of us left with a new opinion but it was fun, challenging to “argue” over some fine points of theology. anyway…one church believes you can lose your salvation, one church does not. one church believes you don’t receive the Holy Spirit until a “second baptism”, one believes you recieve the Holy Spirit at salvation. one church believes that water baptism is essential for salvation, one believes it is merely a sign of obedience. one church believes that to inherit eternal life you have to die in a “state of grace,” one believes it’s all about grace. some think they are the only ones going to heaven, they are wrong. i could go on. but THEOLOGY is one issue we gather around.
another issue that denoms and churches gather around is related to theology but it is PRACTICE. how we worship is one practice. one church worships with robes on the pastor and choir, one does not. one church sings out of the red hymnal, one does not. one church reads from the “lexicon” each week, one does not. one church (denom) appoints pastors through a superintendent, bishop, whatever, and one does not. one church practices the sign gifts each week (tongues, healing, ecstatic worship), one does not. some denoms have a set preaching schedule that each pastor is supposed to follow, one does not. some churches think all missions is local, some think all missions is international, some think you gotta balance the two. so some churches gather around PRACTICE.
another way we gather is around PREFERENCE. one church likes to sing out of a hymnal, some do not. some churches need an organ playing to worship, one does not. some want country music, some do not. some want music to rock, some do not. some want the pastor to teach and explain every little detail of the Hebrew/Greek/Latin languages, some do not. some want the pastor to scream and holler and throw a fit when he preaches, some do not. some want to whoop and holler and jump pews, some do not. some want worship to be contemplative, some do not. some want all preaching to be evangelistic, some want all preaching to be to the saint, some need a balance. so we gather around PREFERENCE.
then you have the discussion of interdenom or non-denom. i personally just want to be part of a church. you know like the designations in scripture…the church at Antioch, the church at Jerusalem, the church at Rome. why can’t we just be the church that calls themselves ________ . let the church call themselves whatever they like but be the church. in a sense West Ridge is Baptist because we give to Baptist causes. in a sense West Ridge is Christian Missionary Alliance because that’s who we work with in Burkina Faso. so we are interdenominational, not really because we have our distinctives that keep us from being a part of every denomination. so we are non-denominational, not really because we participate in denominational activities from time to time. so i think we are just a church, called West Ridge that works with a lot of different organizations. now honestly here at West Ridge i am the minority voice on this issue. most would say we are non-denom and that is the official line.
and so we can all disagree on the finer points of theology, practice, and preference but we need not be disagreeable when it comes to agreeing that the majority of the world, nation, state, city, neighborhoods are lost and going to hell. therefore i want to help you be better at being who God has called you to be. believe, practice, and preference all you want but let’s work together so that “whosoever will” may be saved. (oops, just tipped my hand on my theology 
).
West Ridge School of Church Planting has trained Christian Churches, Methodist Churches, Assembly of God Churches, COGIC Churches, and a lot of Baptist, Non-denoms and Interdenoms. but they all believed that Jesus is the way to salvation. as my friend Tilly Burgin says, “let’s just hover around John 3: 16 and let God do His work.” amen to that.
