I’ve been reading Mad Church Disease. Yes, I’m a late reader because they didn’t make it available on the Kindle until recently. The stories that Anne shares in the first few chapters blow me away – I grew up in a church that struggled with issues at times, but I never heard of stories like the ones that she shares in the book. Then, Kim (my wife) shared some stories from her past church experience (she grew up in the church as a pastor’s kid) – wow!
My family got a late start into church and the one that we attended was a larger baptist church – probably has always run close to 1,000 people each weekend as long as I can remember. Honestly, I always heard things “after the fact” and you never really knew what was true and what was gossip. Maybe my parents were able to protect us on some level (if they did, I am grateful).
My time in the church has been challenging at times but great. However, I made a lot of assumptions based upon labels. That’s right – if you were not Southern Baptist, you probably didn’t believe all of the Bible, care about “lost” people or desire to live for Him. I was not legalistic about it – I just did not fellowship with other people with other labels.
Over time, my path has crossed people with different backgrounds and I realized, “There are people with other labels that love Christ, the Bible and desire to serve Him.” As I have reflected on this, my statement for the future is this: I want to be defined by my LORD not my LABEL. I want to focus more on what we understand about Scripture and less about what we make divisive in Scripture (I want to focus on THIS).
Paul always defined himself by Christ, the gospel and the people God wanted to reach. I love this passage:
Though I am free and belong to no man, I make myself a slave to everyone, to win as many as possible. To the Jews I became like a Jew, to win the Jews. To those under the law I became like one under the law (though I myself am not under the law), so as to win those under the law. To those not having the law I became like one not having the law (though I am not free from God’s law but am under Christ’s law), so as to win those not having the law. To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings. 1 Corinthians 9:19-23
Unfortunately, everyone wants to know what label you are. Can we try to redefine that? Here’s a thought -
Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to one hope when you were called— one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. Ephesians 4:3-6
Ephesians 4:3-6 is just what i need to help me win over my friends…..thanks for sharing this today
thanks for reading
Awesome! I’m praying you see them come to know Christ!
It’s been a fun read! And, it looks good on the Kindle
Growing up as an Independent Baptist, labels were huge. If you didn’t read the KJV and listen to hymnal music in your car, you were evil. I now hate labels. I am so thankful that God placed me where He did, but even more thankful that He taught me that the labels were wrong. Did I already say that I hate labels? If not, I hate Christian labels.