Our pastor is doing a three part sermon series on dealing with conflict, which started last week and continued today. It is based on Matthew 18. When he first mentioned it I have to admit I thought to myself, alright time to check out. I have heard this stuff before and if I am honest, I tend to avoid conflict, so I had little interest. However, unlike other sermons I had heard on this subject, our pastor provided some background on why it is so very important. He provide a number of examples of the tremendous number of splits that have occurred within different denominations and the resulting number of different "types" of Christians there are today. Within the Baptist denomination alone there are 112 different types of Baptists. He mentioned other denominations which have just about as many. Is this what God intended?
"I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me." John 17:20
God intends for us to be one. United not divided. When we are united we show the world what God looks like. When we are divided we spend more time fighting about the minor issues and missing our intended purpose. I would argue that there would be far fewer denominations today if, we the church, took this stuff to heart. There is a lot of negative talk these days about the church. By those outside the church and probably even more by those inside the church, particularly in my generation. I think the challenge for us at this time is to stop complaining and to start living lives of grace so that we can live out Christs prayer in John 17.
"I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me." John 17:20
God intends for us to be one. United not divided. When we are united we show the world what God looks like. When we are divided we spend more time fighting about the minor issues and missing our intended purpose. I would argue that there would be far fewer denominations today if, we the church, took this stuff to heart. There is a lot of negative talk these days about the church. By those outside the church and probably even more by those inside the church, particularly in my generation. I think the challenge for us at this time is to stop complaining and to start living lives of grace so that we can live out Christs prayer in John 17.
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can we get some updates here???
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