Transcript
Speaker: Don't be a perfectionist. Remember, have an accurate view, a sober-minded view of yourself. And remember that in committing to be a part of that body, you are receiving the grace of God.
Speaker: Welcome back to Verity Podcast, friends. My name is Felicia Misenheimer, the founder of Every Woman a Theologian, the ministry that hosts this podcast. I'm so grateful you're here listening or watching on YouTube as we dive into our next topic in the Thinking Biblically series, which is Thinking Biblically About Denominations.
Speaker: Now, any of you who followed me on social media know that I love church history and I love talking about the different streams of the Christian church.
Speaker: There are over 8,000 different Christian denominations. And sometimes when I talk about this and talk about their history and their development, people will tell me, well, denominations are just evidence of how fractured the church is and we need to find the one true church that is the most accurate the closest to the early church movement, and they find themselves just continually disappointed in their engagement with the church today, always looking for that perfect expression of what Jesus was talking about. I hope that by listening to this episode, you will be encouraged may be a little convicted about that whole process because we're going to talk a bit about how to understand denominations from a biblical point of view. But then at the end of this episode, I want to give you some criteria for finding a church.
Speaker: I also, at the beginning of this episode, I'm going to articulate to you why being in a church is so important. It is not optional if you call yourself a Christian. In fact, to call yourself a Christian and not be within a church body is an oxymoron.
Speaker: You cannot be a believer in Christ who is long-term outside of a body of faith. And so we are going to talk about why this is important. And i just want to encourage you that it is possible to find a healthy church and to glean what God wants for you in your Christian life. Now, a little background on this.
Speaker: So I have been a member of or attended over a dozen denominations in my personal life over the last 37 years. How old am I? 37. And that's due to a variety of factors. um One of those was that my family was in the same church until I was 14. It was a church where my parents were married. It went through a massive split when I was 14, but the area in which we live in Michigan doesn't have a lot of non-Catholic churches. We were not a Catholic family, so we were looking for an evangelical Protestant church to attend.
Speaker: and there were not a ton of options. And so we visited a lot of churches in that time um until we found a church that we became a part of. And then then I went to college, and then I had to visit several churches to find a church there. was a member of multiple churches over the course of my college years, and then moving to different locations around the country and living in different states in different churches for that reason. um and then sometimes leaving churches over over disagreements and things like that. So adding it all up, I've been in a lot of different settings. I've been
Speaker: in Reformed churches. I've been in Wesleyan churches. I've been in Methodist churches. I've been in Charismatic and Pentecostal churches. I've been in Catholic churches, Orthodox churches, Anglican churches.
Speaker: I've been in Messianic Bible studies. I've been in a lot of different places, denominations. And I think that my experiences in being in all of these different settings, I didn't i didn't even mention the many different kinds of Baptist churches that I was in and the non-denominational ones.
Speaker: Being in these different settings has given me such an appreciation for the diversity of the church, but also has given me an understanding of where we are different and where we are not. And I think for people who have only been in one denomination or even just one church their entire life, while there are pros to that, there can also be this fear of the unknown or this kind of othering of Christians who are in different denominations because they've never experienced it Or they go once and they are full of judgment over how that church is going about things because they believe their way is right. And so we're going to we're going to look at this a little bit.
Speaker: Obviously, we can't deep dive 8,000 different denominations in one episode. I want to share that backstory because it played a big role in my ministry today. One of the gifts I hope I give ah the world through this ministry of Every Woman a Theologian is the unity of the church around the core of the gospel and around the historic behaviors and virtues of Christians throughout history.
Speaker: That's what I hope, that we can unite around those things and that we can walk those things out as a church and recognize that many of the things that we fight about, that we argue about, many of them, not all of them, though, as we'll see, are secondary issues.
Speaker: I now get to minister and teach women's events and women's retreats and Bible studies and things like that in all different denominations. There was one month I had the privilege of teaching in a Reformed Presbyterian church. in a Wesleyan church, in an independent fundamental Baptist church, and in a non-denominational church.
Speaker: All in one month. And it was fantastic. And every single church had women who were faithfully seeking the Lord through His Word and His Spirit. Beautiful thing. Absolutely love it. Okay, so let's let's back up. We're going to be looking at John 15 in just a moment. That's going to be our base text for today. um But before we get there, let's talk about what the church is.
Speaker: the word The word church. i mean, talk about church. Some people say, well, church is a feeling. Church is a building. Church isn't a building. it's ah It's the people. So you don't need a building. You don't need to gather because you can just be with Christians and that's enough.
Speaker: What is a church? Okay. The English word church is taken from the Dutch word kirk. And the Dutch word kirk is is taken from the Greek for assembly.
Speaker: So the assembly of the righteous, the assembly of God's children for the purpose of worship. And the Greek word is taken from the Old Testament Hebrew word for the assembly of Israel gathered to worship.
Speaker: So when we use the word church, which has, you know, morphed and changed linguistically all over, you know, the years and the ways we've used it, We need to keep in mind that originally that word was not referring just to a building, nor was it referring just to people, but it was referring to the assembly, the whole assembled gathering of Christians or believers in God for the purpose of worship, singing, and instruction in the law.
Speaker: So when you see Israel assembled to hear from Moses in Exodus, and you see Israel assembled to hear from Ezra, and then you go to the New Testament and you see the church, the new Israel assembled at Pentecost, and you see them assembling, continuing through the New Testament, this is the church.
Speaker: Why are they gathered? They're gathered for worship. They're gathered for singing. They're gathered for prayer. They're gathered for instruction in the law. which is the word of God. So we can't say, number one, that church is just a building or just a social construct because a lot of times they were gathering in the open air or in somebody's house.
Speaker: So it's not a cathedral. It's not a building. Even though those things are beautiful, they're not necessary for the church to exist. At the same time, you can't say that a bunch of Christians just getting together for a cookout or hanging out in nature is church because that's not what church is. Church is an intentional gathering with a leader who is instructing people in the truth of God and leading them in worship and prayer.
Speaker: And together as a community, they have agreed upon that law as their accountability for their behavior, both towards one another, so horizontally, and towards God, vertically.
Speaker: The Levitical law in the Old Testament was broken down into those things. types of law. In fact, the entire first half of Leviticus has to do with the relationship of humans to God, so the sacrificial system. And then the second half of Leviticus has to do with the horizontal relationships, person to person. And we see an echo of this when we move over to the New Testament, as Jesus re-articulates God's law, but he gets down to the heart of it. He says, you've been observing the sacrificial system, and you haven't even been observing it in your heart. Let's get to the heart of what it means to be the church.
Speaker: And he rearticulates the Levitical law, but in a new way under the new covenant of Christ in the New Testament. A lot of people are confused about church today because they have tried to do as Andy Stanley told everyone to do and unhitch the Old Testament from the New. But you can't do that. You can't understand the New Testament without the Old Testament.
Speaker: You can't understand Jesus' words without Jesus' words through God in the Old Testament. You cannot understand the purpose of being in a church if you try to divide the Bible up into this is obsolete and this is still worth listening to.
Speaker: So we have to take it as a whole picture and look at the consistent narrative across all of scripture to understand what's my role. Why do I need to go to church?
Speaker: okay Now, um we're going to touch on, because we're going to look at church history in a second, we're going to touch on Catholicism and Orthodoxy a little bit. um And I do have an email I wrote about a year ago now, about why I'm not Catholic. And so if you would like to read that, you can email us at felicia at feliciamasonheimer.com and I can send you that email that I wrote. I am not Catholic. I'm not becoming Catholic. I have significant theological disagreements with both Catholics and Orthodox Christians.
Speaker: In so far as they put faith in Jesus Christ, as their savior, affirm the trinity, affirm the creeds, we are in agreement. And that is why I will not say that Catholics, all Catholics are not believers. Many evangelicals in my community would like me to say that. And I will not say that because I know many devout Christian Catholics, devout Christian Orthodox believers. And yet I do not affirm all of their theology and I do not agree with it. And I have significant objections, but that is not what this episode is about. I feel I need to say that.
Speaker: in order to proceed forward with what I'm about to share. So in Catholic doctrine, when you go to Mass, you are receiving the grace of God through the Eucharist. Like, God is actually dispensing grace as you consume the Eucharist. You are receiving grace from him. And this is something that is it's an important part of Catholic doctrine. you can also receive grace through the other sacraments and through confession. You know, there are ways you can risk continue receiving this dispensation of grace.
Speaker: But because Protestants don't believe this, for the most part, not in the same way, There has begun a trend where Protestants kind of, and mainly evangelicals, not so much mainline Protestants, and by that I mean your Anglicans, Presbyterians, etc., more evangelicals.
Speaker: I see this problem. There's this idea of like, well, if I'm not getting anything out of church, church is now optional. Right? So you'll see Catholics, like nominal Catholics, going to Mass and going to confession because, you know, there's something there that is necessary to to continue being Catholic. like you You'll never be, you know, I'm not saying that you'll lose be it your Catholicism. not saying that. But I am saying this this is something that's an important part of being Catholic.
Speaker: But even evangelicalism, if you just don't go to church... You just don't go to church. Like, what's the harm? That's kind of the the attitude. It's like, well, i nothing's going to happen to me. So, yeah, if I'm gone three Sundays a month for soccer tournaments and i totally, you know, six months out of the year, I'm just not at church. Like, who cares? Nothing's go to happen to me. It's not a sin.
Speaker: I'm still Christian and I can commune with God in my car on the way to the soccer field. That's kind of the attitude in America. So I want to push back on that. Because i argue that actually Protestant evangelicals do receive grace through attending the assembly of the righteous, through coming to their church service. They receive it in many ways, and by refusing to attend...
Speaker: By not making it a priority, by not saying this is the epicenter of my life, my faith and the people that hold me accountable, this is the epicenter of my life. by not By not saying that, by saying everything else is the epicenter of my life, you are actually cutting yourself off from a grace God wants to give to you.
Speaker: God's grace is his unmerited favor to you, but it's also the strength to grow in spiritual maturity. And so by saying this is not a priority, you are cutting yourself off from the strength to grow in spiritual maturity, the accountability, the being known by other Christians who are ahead of you, and by serving other Christians who are behind you. So what's this grace that you get as an evangelical when you go um to receive communion, to receive instruction in the Word?
Speaker: The grace is... that strength to continue maturing. It's the love of the people around you in this church that want to know you and to pour into you.
Speaker: It's the ability for you to pour into other people. It's the grace that you give someone else because you're actually there enough to do it. It's the grace of you becoming a fully formed Christian and not just one that's stunted and immature for months and years. It's the grace of you suddenly understanding over time what the Bible says and what it means. It's the grace of being held accountable in areas that are uncomfortable but that are helping you actually grow. It's the grace of realizing where you're being overly critical and submitting that to the Lord and allowing him to refine it in you.
Speaker: All of these things are graces that are provided to us by God through being in the gathering, the assembly. And we cut ourselves off from that grace when we say this is not a priority because that's what we're saying when I'm not talking about chronic illness situations. I'm not talking about your postpartum with newborn. I'm talking about it's been two years. and you're still not making this a priority because you can't find the perfect fit. We're going to talk about how to find a church at the end.
Speaker: but But I understand that this is challenging for some of you who are listening, but I want you to keep listening because you are cutting yourself off from grace God wants to give you. And there is no framework anywhere in Scripture, Old Testament or New, where a Christian was removed from the assembly. In fact, the only time that that happens is when someone is cut off from the assembly because of their sin.
Speaker: there We don't see people like, I'm done. i'm not I'm just not in the assembly anymore. No, people don't want that to happen. That's called being excommunicated. You didn't want to be cut off. You wanted to be part of it. And because we live in a society in America where our feelings, our preferences, our experiences are we If the church does not provide those experiences, feelings, and preferences, I'm leaving and going to go find a different church.
Speaker: We can come to it like consumers. It has to fit every check every single box. And I can tell you, as someone who has been in many, many, many churches, none of them checked every single box for me.
Speaker: And the one I'm in, I love dearly, and it does not check every single box for me. Ultimately, We are in the church because we are Christians.
Speaker: We attend the church. We go and are instructed and taught and held accountable and loved and loving others because we're Christians. Because to be Christian is to attend the gathered assembly.
Speaker: They cannot be separated. So now let's talk about denominations. Denominations. over 8,000 denominations. So we're going to look at some of the main um big movers in this conversation. And then we're going to look at, um we'll talk about some of the history of how they developed as we go. So at the very beginning, you had the Jerusalem church.
Speaker: What is the original church? That might be what you're asking. like What's the original church? Well, it's the Jerusalem church. It is the church that Jesus founded with his disciples. It was the 12 and then everyone who followed Jesus um and believed the 12. It is the people gathered at Pentecost. That is the church. That's how it began.
Speaker: Now, in John 15, Jesus says this, i am the true vine and my father is the vine dressser every branch of mine that does not bear fruit he takes away and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes that it may bear more fruit already you are clean because of the word that i've spoken to you abide in me an i in you as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine neither can you unless you abide in me I am the vine, and you are the branches.
Speaker: Whoever abides in me, and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in me, he is thrown away like a branch and withers, and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned.
Speaker: If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be my disciples.
Speaker: Some translations say, if you remain in me, if you abide in me. And in our Bibles, because we read them in such a individualistic sense, we read this as if Jesus is talking just to one person, but he's not. He's talking to the corporate gathering of his disciples.
Speaker: So he's saying, if you all remain in me, and bear much fruit. You will prove to be my disciples, plural. He's not talking to just one person. He's not just saying, remain in me individually in your living room. He's saying, no, you all remain in me, abide in me, corporately, communally, in me, and bear much fruit, corporately, communally. And if we go forward over to Galatians 5, we see the Apostle Paul talk about what this fruit is.
Speaker: Further, if we go into Romans and Corinthians, we see what the spiritual gifts are. And both of those things are the fruit, corporately, of what the church is supposed to be putting into the world.
Speaker: And so in ah Galatians 5, we see, what what does he say? The fruit of the Spirit. It's love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and its desires. And if we live by the spirit, we will walk by the spirit. And here's the last part that's interesting. He says, let us not become conceited, prideful, provoking one another and envying one another.
Speaker: So in this section, he's not talking just about individuals. He's talking corporately. He's saying you bear this fruit corporately and that if you do that, you won't be envying one another and you won't be provoking one another out of your conceit, your self-focus, your overt individualism.
Speaker: This is the weakness of the American church. Well, what I want is this. This is my preference. My desires come first. And everyone else is in the way of that. They're making it hard for me to be a Christian.
Speaker: So I'm out. Jesus said that's not an option. That's literally not an option. You have you ah are a Christian, so you're part of the church. So guess what?
Speaker: Life on earth is going to be a lot of bearing fruit. And sometimes other people aren't bearing fruit. And it's really hard. And you still strive together. And you still are part of that community.
Speaker: Because it is your family. It's your spiritual family. And we we never stop being family with them. hard as that is, frustrating as that is at times. Now, I'm not talking about remaining in an abusive church.
Speaker: Churches that tell you, if you aren't speaking in tongues, you're not saved. Churches that tell you, you need to sow a seed and you know you need to just give more money when you can't afford it or you're not truly devoted to the body. Churches with leaders who are forcing you to give all sorts of honor But it's actually just veiled control. Not talking about that.
Speaker: talking about the average Christian church that is full of sinners. And it's going to hurt your feelings. And it's going to step on your toes. And it's going to make you feel really uncomfortable.
Speaker: The way every church I've been in has ever done. Because that's what it's like being human. So knowing this is Jesus' priority. He wants us corporately...
Speaker: To remain in him. But he says something interesting. He is the vine. So Jesus is the vine. And we are the branches.
Speaker: And so we're all growing out of this core that is Jesus. And when I look at the denominations around the world, I see that image.
Speaker: These are the branches that are growing off the vine. And there are some branches that will be removed. And there are some branches that will thrive and bring glory to the Lord.
Speaker: But let's go back in a little bit of church history to see how we got this many denominations. So number one, all of the churches started with the Jerusalem church. And the church spread rapidly. It spread into Turkey. It spread to Gaul. It spread down into Africa. It spread to Asia. It was spreading quickly because of the Roman Empire and their road system.
Speaker: And so it goes all the way up to Britain. It goes to Russia. it's It's everywhere. And the church at this time in Jerusalem was predominantly Jewish, but quickly became predominantly Gentile.
Speaker: And even in the Gentile church structure, they carried over the Jewish-inspired worship practices, the liturgies, singing the Psalms, reading the scriptures, because at this time they would have been using the Jewish scriptures and teaching the Messianic fulfillment And then as the works of Paul and Peter and James and the Gospels, of course, were written down, they were distributed and passed around so that the different assemblies could read those words.
Speaker: And so within the first century, you have copy after copy of these um documents. passed around for people to read in their assemblies. So the worship would have, at first for the Jewish gathering, been very similar to a synagogue. um But then as time goes on we see it morph a little bit, um especially in the Gentile churches.
Speaker: You've heard me talk about this before, but um the church, the Jewish Christian church was gathering um oftentimes on um Saturday because they had the day off, but Gentiles did not have the day off. So they would gather either late Saturday night or very, very early Sunday morning before they would go to work. Most of them were slaves. So we know that the Lord's Day, the resurrection day, was a significant day of worship um because they were celebrating that Jesus rose on that day. And so Sunday it became a day of of worship for Christians, um usually early in the morning.
Speaker: So as time unfolds, the church is gathering. Persecution starts in Rome. This continues to spread the church. They continue to gather in homes and in small smaller places where they can worship privately um under persecution.
Speaker: And in the three to five hundreds, once Constantine legalizes Christianity, the persecution drops off. And after 313, the churches start to kind of establish into, they can be in buildings. They can become more of a structured reality. When Rome falls in the 400s, we see a massive shift because when the Visigoths come down and and conquer Rome, the entire governmental structure of the empire, I mean, it's falling apart.
Speaker: Nobody thought this day would come, and yet here it is. Who had a hierarchy? Who had a structure at that time? of at least 100 years, the Roman church.
Speaker: So the Roman church steps into this chaos and offers order, offers care, offers food, and offers this ministry to the Roman population during the conquering of Rome.
Speaker: And out of this, the Roman church began to gain more and more power and more and more governmental influence. And this began to change the kind of seat of power in the Christian church from Constantinople, where Constantine was seated and where the Orthodox Church was located, still is,
Speaker: to now Rome as this other kind of authority, like growing authority here. And so we won't get into all of the details, but this begins a bit of conflict between Constantinople and Rome, these two massive churches um where the bishops of these two locations, they're supposed to be in unity.
Speaker: And based on who you talk to, you'll hear two different stories. But in the Orthodox view, Rome starts overstepping. They start kind of trying to make decisions and take control of things that they are not, in Constantinople's eyes, responsible to take over, and vice versa.
Speaker: And so if we fast forward to 1054, There's a massive schism between these two churches. And instead of being one church, we end up with the Eastern Orthodox and the Roman Catholic churches, the Western and the Eastern expressions of Christianity.
Speaker: So this was a massive shift. and it And there's other theological reasons why that happened, not just governmental. um But there was a lot of history at play in that time. So you might be wondering, well, OK, so is this still Christianity in the four hundred s Yes, it was. This was, if you were a Christian, this is how you were worshiping. This is where you were gathering. And yes, it looked very Catholic and very Orthodox because it was. Or very Coptic if you're down in Africa. This was how Christians worshipped.
Speaker: And a lot of the liturgy was taken from originally the Jewish synagogue. And so there's so many similarities if you watch the development of the liturgy over those thousand years um from Jewish liturgy into Christian liturgy um and throughout. So now let's fast forward 500 years to a very important moment. And that moment is the Reformation, 1517, Martin Luther a monk um starts to read the Bible for himself and realizes that the Roman Catholic Church has begun to depart from what Scripture is saying about the true gospel, specifically in the area of indulgences, which at the time...
Speaker: or were issued by the pope and an indulgence would give a special grace to free someone from purgatory um by doing something on earth so oftentimes donating money or saying a certain number of prayers at the time they were trying to fund the building of a cathedral and so there was an increase in these indulgences and martin luther was so enraged by what he saw that he wrote his 95 theses against indulgences, and he pinned them to the door of the church in Wittenberg.
Speaker: You probably know this story, but this launched the Reformation. And we call it the Reformation because... Originally, Luther's goal was not to split from the Catholic Church, but to reform it.
Speaker: But that didn't happen. Instead, the Catholic Church doubled down on their particular view of the situation, and Luther split from the Catholic Church, taking many people with him. Now, this is a very short summary. This is not a church history episode. I wish it was. I love it. But there's other people involved in this story. There's John Wycliffe translating the Bible into English. You've got Tyndale, who was building on his work. You've got um Henry VIII over here in England, you know, divorcing his wife and deciding he's the head of the English church and the Anglican church begins, you know. So you've got stuff going on. Some of it's not so great. It's not godly. It's not biblical, even though it's being started by people who are reformers. The reformers killed each other. They killed Anabaptists. They killed Baptists. There was so much bloodshed in this time. It was not a perfect time. And I think being honest about that as Protestants is very important.
Speaker: Calvin, not a perfect guy. You have a lot of stuff going on. Luther, also, the stuff he said about the Jews. You have stuff that is really uncomfortable in church history that I think Catholics point to and say, well,
Speaker: None of this is looking good for Protestants. How can you say that this division, this fracture could possibly be good? And here's how I answer that. I would say, number one, the goal was not fracture.
Speaker: The goal was formation to holiness, and the Catholic Church refused it. That is why this happened. And so we can't go back to the 500s and fix that with new popes and new cardinals. But the church of that time did not respond. Now, there is a counter-reformation after the reformation within catholicism itself that did change a lot i can't get into that today But the Reformation would not have occurred, in my opinion, if the Catholic Church had recognized the error of their ways in the pursuit of indulgences and other sins. um And so there was a split.
Speaker: And out of this split came many others. So one of the first denominations to come out of this was obviously the Lutheran Church. And the Lutheran Church um is similar in liturgical structure to the Anglican Church, which I also mentioned. It came out of this similar time. The Anglican Church um in 1534, King Henry VIII declared himself the head of the Church of England. um This is always kind of funny to me. I love studying the Tudor era and Henry VIII, and so I've watched a variety of shows and documentaries about it. I've read a ton of books about it, and i do find it very interesting that a lot of this started because of King Henry's sinful desire to divorce his wife.
Speaker: And yet God used it because William Tyndale was the Bible translator alive at the same time as Henry VIII, and it was actually Henry VIII who put him to death. um And when he died, Tyndale prayed, Lord, open the King of England's eyes. And three years later, it was Henry who commanded that all English churches...
Speaker: have a Bible in English in their sanctuary. And so the Lord answered Tyndale's prayer. um and I think it's really interesting just to see how the imperfections and the sins of man God can still use to accomplish good purposes, like providing the Bible in English to his people.
Speaker: In 1549, Thomas Cranmer produced the Book of Common Prayer, which was an English liturgical prayer book, um which is also very innovative for the time. And so this is a fundamental of the Anglican Church, um which in America is called the Episcopal Church.
Speaker: So in England, it's Anglican. In America, it's Episcopal. But now we also have the North American Anglican Church, which is the more conservative branch. The Episcopal branch is liberal, and the North American Anglican is more conservative. So the same goes for the Lutheran Church in America. There are two different branches. There is the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the ELCA. This one is the more progressive church. And then the Lutheran Church, Missouri Synod, is the more conservative church. Okay, Presbyterian churches. So Presbyterians come from Calvary. Calvin. So you have Luther. He kind of sparks the Reformation. And then you have Calvin about a generation later. Calvin was French, but he did most of his ministry in Geneva, Switzerland. And he wrote in 1536, the Institutes of the Christian Religion, um which really transformed the the Reformation. It took it further than it had been before. and led to what we now know as Presbyterianism. In 1643 to 1649, the Westminster Standards defined Presbyterian doctrine, and then in 1789, the Presbyterian Church of the USA was first organized. Now, like the other three mainline denominations, or the other two, Lutheranism and Anglicanism, in America, there are two main Presbyterian churches. There's the PCUSA, which tends to be the more progressive denomination, though not universally, and then the PCA, which is many know as Tim Keller's denomination. I was a member of a PCA in Virginia for six months, and I loved it. um Even though I'm Arminian, I still loved it. So that's kind of a little history on the Presbyterian church. The next one is the Methodist church. So this came a little later. This one was founded actually by an Anglican priest, John Wesley. He was Anglican until he died. So he never stopped being Anglican, which is interesting. um John and Charles Wesley, um they, as Anglican ministers, spark the Great Awakening, the First Great Awakening. um And this is in 1738.
Speaker: Charles Wesley is a famous hymn writer and John was a famous preacher and evangelist. So what John did is he actually developed these Bible studies. He divided them by men and women and women were allowed to lead. in their studies, and he um initiated these structured Bible studies. And in these studies, they had a specific method of worship, which is where they got the name Methodist. So eventually, this comes across the ocean, and the USA Methodists um form a separate church body. And this is in 1784. So a very early U.S. church, similar to the Presbyterian church. So right around the founding of the U.S., they have Methodists and Presbyterians coming over. So the United Methodist Church um is the predominant Methodist presence in the U.S. But one thing that's very interesting is that we're actually watching denominational development in real time. because only a few years ago, the global Methodist church was was established because of the increasing affirmation of LGBTQ plus clergy members and marriages within the mainline Methodist church. In my own area, the Methodist community is extremely progressive um in many different ways. And so the the Methodist churches that who are faithful to the historic sexual ethic and other important values that are in scripture, have disaffiliated and either become part of the global Methodist denomination or are independent. So um this is in real time happening. The formation of the global Methodist church um is a big um is a big historical event.
Speaker: Okay, the next one is the Anabaptist churches. And I find that a lot of my audience isn't as familiar with Anabaptist history. We lived in Lancaster County for a year. And when we lived there, we um were in a church with a lot of former Amish and former Mennonites. And we're also friends with people who were still in the Mennonite movement. My first baby was delivered by a home birth midwife who was Mennonite.
Speaker: We love Shirley. And so I have studied Anabaptist theology because I do have a significant Anabaptist um following, and I'm grateful you're here.
Speaker: And I also find their history fascinating because they disagreed with the prevailing Reformed view, and yet they also were coming out of the Reformed movement. So they first began in 1525.
Speaker: They were Protestants, so they were part of Luther's movement, but they disagreed with infant baptism. They believed in believer's baptism, which is either called Anabaptist. It means re-baptizer. So they've been baptized as infants, but they would re-baptize themselves, each other, um because they wanted to follow Scripture's outline in the book of Acts.
Speaker: But this set them against the Reformers and the Catholics. And so they were being killed left and right. In 1537, Menno Simons begins leading the Mennonite movement. So Menno Simons was originally united with the founders of the Amish. i forget his name. um But they split over disagreements. And so there's the the Amish and the Mennonite. But Menno Simons is the founder of the Mennonite movement. In 1682, a Quaker, William Penn, founds Pennsylvania. So Quakers are technically an offshoot of Anabaptist theology, um but they are still kind of within that same um realm. One of the things that really sets them apart is that they're peace churches. So they believe in non-resistance and pacifism. So participation in any war, owning a gun, even voting, um is not something that a lot of Anabaptists will do.
Speaker: So Mennonite church and the Brethren church, also all within Anabaptism, the Amish and Quakers would all fall under that denomination. The next is congregational churches. and we're almost done here, guys. We got to look at Baptist churches of Christ and Pentecostals. But congregational churches, um this is something that you'll see often when you look at early American history. Congregationalists called pilgrims came on the Mayflower to pill Plymouth. So the pilgrims were congregationalists. Um, and they start as a house church.
Speaker: And this was in 1607 when they first started 1620, they come over to America. Um, they might practice infant baptism or believers baptism. It was kind of a mixture. um but over time, the congregational churches,
Speaker: um kind of took on a new name. They call themselves United Church of Christ, the UCC, but they're not part of the Churches of Christ denomination. It's different. United Church of Christ is not the same. So the UCC, formerly the Congregational Church,
Speaker: churches, so you'll see two different versions. The UCC is one of the most liberal denominations in all of the U.S. Congregational churches is another mainline body, um and then related to that is the conservative Congregational Christian Conference. So different expressions, the UCC being the most progressive in that um denomination. Okay.
Speaker: Baptists. So we could talk for a long time about Baptists because they have a lot of offshoots. And why do they have a lot of offshoots? Here's why. Because Baptists like to be independent. They do not like to have a hierarchy at the center of their denominational structure. unlike Catholics, Orthodox, Lutherans, Anglicans, Presbyterians, and Methodists. So these mainline denominations usually have a hierarchy, and they're actually a denomination, whereas Baptists are usually part of something called a convention. And you might be wondering, well, what's the difference between a denomination and a convention? i will answer you. A denomination usually has that top-down structure, um distinct sacraments,
Speaker: really distinct like code of worship, whereas a convention is more like we're all in it together, to quote High School Musical. um You're partnering together, but it's more like all these local churches that are self-governing have decided to agree upon certain things and support one another for one source, I think it was J.D. Greer, said joint missions, charity, and seminary support. So they're working together, but they're not actually being run by the convention.
Speaker: So decisions that a convention makes are doesn't and always matriculate into what's actually functionally happening in these churches. they're not It's not like having a district like you would in a denomination like Methodism, where the church, the denomination owns the parish or owns the land on which the church sits, which in the Methodist church, this was actually a big part of the struggle in the split of global Methodism is that churches...
Speaker: had a certain amount of time to like buy their building back from the denomination. And if they didn't, then it was just a it was really messy. So that's not how it is for Baptist churches.
Speaker: So the Baptist churches began with John Smythe and other Puritans in 1612. In 1639, the first Baptist church in America was established in Rhode Island. um But most Baptists, you have a wide variety. The Baptists over time You had Reformed Baptists and you had Free Will Baptists. Eventually, during the Civil War, you formed the Southern Baptists because of the slavery issue, because you had the ones in the North and you had the ones in the South. The Free Will Baptists are Arminian, whereas Southern Baptists are kind of split. Some are Calvinist, some are not. um There's American Baptists. there's National Baptists.
Speaker: There's all these different kinds of Baptist churches. There's Independent Fundamental Baptists. So they all are rather independent. And then you have churches that were originally part of a... coalition or convention, um and eventually kind of disbanded and became non-denominational. Almost every single non-denom I've been a member of was actually Baptist or was Pentecostal, one or the other.
Speaker: So Baptist churches typically, very evangelical, believe in, you know, salvation by grace alone, Souls of believers upon dying go to be with Christ. um Baptism by immersion, though, is the big thing.
Speaker: We're not going to doing any infant baptism stuff. Not like some of these others. I'm not sure if the congregationals do infant baptism, but I think they do. um Anabaptist churches would baptize believers, um but the rest that I've mentioned would be doing infant baptism. So, um Baptist churches are by immersion.
Speaker: They're a dunking church. So let's look at Churches of Christ. Church of Christ, this was a little bit later establishment, 1801, started with a revival, Cain Ridge revival in Kentucky.
Speaker: And then you see the that group of Christians unite with Alexander Campbell's disciples of Christ. So they came together.
Speaker: um What's interesting about Churches of Christ is they tend to make the claim that they are modeling themselves after the early church. One of the things that's a marker is that a lot of churches of Christ do not use instrumental music in worship. So no instruments, just vocals.
Speaker: um International churches of Christ does teach that its members alone are saved. And so there are some people who will tell you that they came out of church of Christ and they feel that it's a cult. Others who come out of it and say had a totally different experience. So there's a really broad range of experience in the church of Christ. um very different experiences across the the whole. All right, our last one is a Pentecostal church. So I know a lot about the Pentecostal church history because my family goes back four generations in the Pentecostal church. In fact, my great-great-grandma would have been involved in the very early revivals on the West Coast as it was journeying across to where they lived in New Mexico
Speaker: um They were being affected and influenced by the holiness movement, which was born out of the Pentecostal revivals. On the West Coast, you had the influence of people like Amy Semple McPherson, who's the founder of the Foursquare Church, and the Foursquare denomination still exists. Amy Semple McPherson was over in California, and before her, you had William Seymour and the Azusa Street Revival that was over in California. 1901, 1906, that's when this was happening.
Speaker: By 1914, the Assemblies of God Church begins to organize charismatic denomination. And you see over time more of these develop.
Speaker: So The Pentecostal church begins in in the night early 1900s with these revivals, develops into the holiness movement as well across the church. It kind of moves from west to east a little bit. um And born out of this over time is the Christian and Missionary Alliance. You see the the um Church of the Nazarene.
Speaker: You see Church of God. You see um Vineyard Ministries. all coming out of that movement. So it's interesting to study it because the Pentecostal movement is a young movement.
Speaker: um And what marked them was baptism by immersion, but also speaking in tongues as evidence of the baptism of the holy spirit And some Pentecostal churches will teach you that if you do not speak in tongues, you are not saved. And I have an episode about that. So we've covered them all.
Speaker: Oh my goodness. That was a lot of work, wasn't it? A lot of work. And I hope you're still listening. You're probably like, oh my word, that felt like 8,000 denominations. But I wanted to give you a big picture of the the main players here because I think it's important for us to look at them.
Speaker: I didn't get into all the details on all of them, but I gave you something to start with um because, and some of the history, because one of the things that I've realized from being in these churches by ministering to their members is that there's a core.
Speaker: There's a core that we agree about. There's a core that we can affirm. There's a core that we can say yes and amen to. And then there are things that we really significantly differ on.
Speaker: And we might wonder, well, how do I know I can unite with ah a denomination or church? And how do I know when I need to separate from them? And that's a really great question. Denominations form for a variety of reasons.
Speaker: Sometimes it's a conflict over doctrinal orthodoxy. It's kind of like I said about the Methodist split. And the Anglican split before it. And the Presbyterian split um but before that. All of these splits that have happened, the Lutheran one, why did they split? Over the definition of sin.
Speaker: Calling something holy that the Bible calls sin. That says that it's wrong. That says this is not God's design for sexuality, for marriage, for human living. This is not outside of God's will. But the church wants to call it holy.
Speaker: And so they cannot come into agreement and the church splits. Sometimes denominations form because of adherence to doctrinal orthodoxy and the unwillingness of some people to do that.
Speaker: Now, sometimes denominations form in a conflict over practice, denominational practice. So this might be um how you go about baptism.
Speaker: So if a church is... believes. Let's go back to the Anabaptist example. Everyone at the time, the Catholics, the Orthodox, the Presbyterians, the Lutherans, all believed that infant baptism was the way to baptize.
Speaker: But the Anabaptists disagreed. They read scripture and they saw believer's baptism. And so there was a conflict over practice. And so they formed a denomination based on the reading of scripture to honor that believer's baptism. So sometimes that is how a denomination forms. So both of them, now at the time, they were being killed for it. So they did not believe that this was just a difference of practice. Now we look back and we say, oh yeah, well, you could baptize an infant or you could baptize a believer. And either way, um you can still be a believer.
Speaker: It's a significant theological issue, but you cannot say this person is not a believer in Christ because they were baptized as an infant or because they baptized their infant. We cannot say that because the the text, it can be argued either way.
Speaker: Now, I am a credo-baptist. That means that I practice believer's baptism, not infant baptism. So I have an opinion on that. But i know many faithful Christians, including faithful Christians for 1500 years of church history, who were baptizing infants.
Speaker: But sometimes denominations do form over a conflict of preference. And this is when denominations are forming in an unhealthy way and when we don't want to be pursuing pursuing that.
Speaker: So if the gospel and Christian life in Christ is the vine, any denominational formation that preserves that vine should be unity affirming.
Speaker: Are we uniting around the vines? even if this results in a different branch of the vine, are we still uniting around the vine of Christ and his holiness? Now, I want to mention one thing, because when I talk about this and I say, i would not attend a church that was affirming same-sex marriages. I would not.
Speaker: Well, why not, Felicia? Why would you not? Well, I'll tell you why. Because in Galatians 5, Someone says, well, they have the fruit of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness. You're telling me you wouldn't attend a church that does this. A denomination that formed to affirm these things. I would say no, because they affirm the works of the flesh.
Speaker: Because if I go up just a little bit in Galatians 5, it says, if you are led by the spirit, you're not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident. My other translation says obvious.
Speaker: Sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.
Speaker: So if you are not only endorsing that people do this, but practicing it yourself, you will not inherit the kingdom of God. And I cannot fellowship with you in the body, pretending that we both are inheriting the kingdom of God.
Speaker: So denominations that form over orthodoxy, that form over upholding the truth of scripture, I can go back and we can look at Romans 1 and we can talk about Romans 1 and what it says here, because this was a problem in the Roman church. And it said,
Speaker: For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world and the things that have been made.
Speaker: So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Speaker: Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. And therefore God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth of God for a lie. Verse 26, For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions, for their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature And the men, likewise, consumed with passion for one another and committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
Speaker: So if a church is teaching that these passages are irrelevant, they have partnered with suppressing the truth.
Speaker: And they have become futile in their thinking. Their foolish hearts are darkened. They do not inherit the kingdom. And they are not in fellowship with anyone who is walking towards holiness.
Speaker: So no, will I attend some of these denominations who are calling what is sin holy? i will not. Now, the same goes for a church who, if we were to go back to the Gospels,
Speaker: And look at what Jesus says when he's talking to the Pharisees. I'll see if I can find the reference. Jesus is talking to the Pharisees and he tells them that you are tying up heavy burdens on the people.
Speaker: and making them carry a load that you yourselves don't carry. So would I attend a church that is telling women that their sole purpose in the world is to be a wife and mother, and if they dare step outside the home to work a job, they are now out of the will of God?
Speaker: No, I would not. Because they are going beyond what Scripture teaches about the purpose of woman, and they are teaching something that is tying up a heavy burden putting a law upon her that God himself does not lay upon her.
Speaker: Would I attend a church that is saying, you have to read this specific translation, and if you don't, you are outside the will of God because this is the only one that is inspired? Probably not because I'm seeing those same signs of tying up that heavy burden. What about attending a church where we see people saying one thing in person and then there's a culture of gossip where everybody's talking about everybody behind their back?
Speaker: Probably not. Why? Because gossip and slander are things that God says he hates in the book of Proverbs and that he opposes the proud. So see, when you are choosing a church, there are things scripture speaks to that you can use as a check. And sometimes you're in a church for a little while before you find out this stuff, which is unfortunate and why I've had to leave at times. But a church that is claiming the gospel, then denying its power, whether that's in legalism or in licentiousness, this is not a place where true Christianity is going to thrive and lead to maturity like I talked about at the beginning. So what do you look for in a church? I got to wrap this up.
Speaker: How do you look at all of these denominations? How do we think about this wisely? Well, first... Look for doctrinal truth. I kind of already talked about this, but look for doctrinal truth.
Speaker: The Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed are really great starting points. ah The Athanasian Creed is actually my favorite, if you'd like to read that. Historical creeds written by church fathers. You can read through these, and you can see these are the basics of the gospel, but it's not just it's not just like, oh, you know, believe the Trinity, and who cares how you live? No.
Speaker: The Crees just summarize the basics of the gospel. They're not like all there is to Christianity. In fact, I would recommend every Christian read the Didache. D-I-D-A-C-H-E. It is an early church document, first century, describing Christian life and the ethics of early Christians. Guess what it talks about?
Speaker: Abortion, sexuality, holiness among brethren, Read it. This is what early Christians were living according to in addition to affirming the gospel. So this wasn't something where it's like, well, if I affirm the Trinity and, you know, the creeds, the creeds don't say anything about whether or not to love my neighbor, so I don't need to love my neighbor.
Speaker: Nobody would agree with that. But the creeds don't say anything about sexuality, so we say it doesn't matter what I think about sexuality.
Speaker: Doesn't make sense. This is our basis here. What does it say? The works of the flesh are obvious and the fruit of the spirit are too. Pick one. You can't have both. So look for doctrinal truth. Then look for social change.
Speaker: Is this a church that is so inward focused, so doctrinally focused that they're never evangelizing? They're never reaching people. the The pro of denominations is that they form thoughtfully for the most part.
Speaker: The downside of denominations is that the strengths of one are not the strengths of others. So the Baptist churches are excellent at being word-based. But you know who's really good at evangelism? Pentecostal churches.
Speaker: Because they're urgent for the gospel and they want people to know. Now, Baptist churches are really good at missions, but Pentecostal churches are really good at American missions, if they's if they're American. Because Pentecostal church is one of the biggest churches in the world, by the way. We have Baptist churches will often send people overseas. That was a big part of their work. And it was incredible. But somebody's got to hold down the homeland. And Pentecostal churches are great at that.
Speaker: Methodist churches, excellent at social involvement, social change. were They were one of the first to speak against slavery. They spoke for women's rights. There was so much that they did that was fantastic.
Speaker: But they could have learned from the Presbyterian churches in terms of doctrinal strength. Presbyterian churches could be a little frozen chosen. Maybe they needed to learn a bit from the Methodists and the Pentecostals when they came along. The Anabaptist churches, excellent at hospitality, excellent at building community.
Speaker: Sometimes they could get a little too inward, sometimes legalistic, and needed to learn from some of these other churches how to open their hearts to the fullness of the gospel.
Speaker: Denominations are beautiful in the sense that they're all springing from the vine, but they must be willing to learn from one another. I get the privilege of sitting in this seat, so I get to learn from so many churches that I get to serve. I get to go in and benefit from like, wow, they do this and they do this and they do this. This is incredible. Like, I love this. This is amazing. um But we need to learn from each other. So when you're choosing a church, look for doctrinal truth. Look for social change.
Speaker: Look for maturing community. Not just community. So not just solidarity. Maturing community. That means you need women ahead of you. And you need women behind you.
Speaker: You need people who are pouring into you. And you need people you are pouring into. It should never just be static. And it should never just be community where you're venting all the time.
Speaker: It should be community where you are growing. You are moving forward. You have actual goals for your spiritual life. And you're sharing those. And then lastly, when you are choosing a church, hold your preferences loosely.
Speaker: Do not have unrealistic expectations for a church. What I mean by that is, it's not that you don't have standards, but I mean that you aren't coming to this with that kind of like,
Speaker: I need a man in finance, six, five, blue eyes. You know, that when we come to it with that posture, it's like, well, if it doesn't check all my boxes, then I'm not going to even waste my time here. Nothing's going to check all your boxes.
Speaker: Nothing. And so let's look at these three things. Look for doctrinal truth, social change, maturing community. Doctrinal truth might be expositional preaching, like verse by verse, x you know, expositing the passage, or it might be topical.
Speaker: but it's still the truth of scripture and it's still leading people towards maturity. There's not one way to do that. Sermons were often topical throughout Christian history. They weren't always expositing a passage. You'll see sometimes in the Reformed community, that's kind of like, well, unless it's this expository preaching, it's not doctrinal truth. No, that's not true.
Speaker: Actually, you can have a topical sermon that is leading people into depth, leading people into maturity. What about social change? Well, you might have that being done in a way that is leading people towards love for others, or you could be doing it out of fear. You could be doing it out of judgment. So the heart matters in that. And then, of course, the community piece. So your preferences need to be held loosely in regard to things like Worship styles, what the church looks like, how many programs they have, things like that.
Speaker: Look for the main things. And then sometimes you coming to that church means that you get to start something or be part of starting something. When I came to my church, one of the things I wish there was was a really strong women's ministry Bible study. And at the time, that didn't exist like weekly. So now I get the privilege of leading that. And it's such a joy to me to get to do that. So sometimes you come to a church for the purpose of being the change or bringing your skill set and your spiritual gifts to that body.
Speaker: Hold your preferences loosely. Now, I'm not saying that in going to a church, you have no standards. I'm not saying that you stay in a church where a leader is manipulating you or abusing you, like I mentioned earlier. And I'm not saying that you stay in a church when you know this is clearly not working.
Speaker: Like this is clearly dysfunctional. We need to find somewhere else. However, don't be an idealist. Don't be a perfectionist. Remember, have an accurate view, a sober-minded view of yourself as you look at the other imperfect humans who are inside that body. And remember that in committing to be a part of that body, you are receiving the grace of God.
Speaker: You are receiving it through worship. You're receiving it through the word. You're receiving it through the people. You're receiving it through the Holy Spirit. You are receiving grace every time you come to that gathering because this is this family of God. This is what you are a part of. And this is how you grow.
Speaker: So whatever denomination you end up in, however you end up discerning it, this is the this is the branch. These are the branches. This is the branches on the vine.
Speaker: And what a privilege that so many of us get to grow off the vine of Christ and become people who reflect his love into the world.
Speaker: If you have any further questions, you can always email us. My inbox is open. It's felicia at feliciamasonhammer.com. If this is your first time watching a video with me, I'm so glad you're here. Thank you for watching to the end. You guys are the MVPs and I will see you next time on Verity Podcast.
