An essay on the embracing diversity
of belief within the Christian community
by Rev.
Larry D. Ellis
One's view of scripture will certainly mold their
theology of the nature of the church,. There are at least three
positions that are widely held among Christians. Some hold that all
statements are true and without error of any kind and are applicable for
all culture and all times. When numbers are employed, they are
understood to be exact. The bible is a history book as well as a book of
science when these topics are addressed. All empirical truth is to be
evaluated in light of what is said in the scriptures. A second position
is that scripture is true and valid for the intended recipient and is
infallible in the arena of faith and practice. They must be interpreted
in the cultural environment on a case-by-case basis to see if they are
universal truth, and hence to be embraced today. A third position says
that we live in the age of a new covenant. Certain old testaments
absolutes don't apply today and therefore study of the Old Testament is
not for directive guidance of our spiritual lives rather a historical
record. We are permitted to do in our worship only those things that are
actually affirmed by Jesus in the New Testament.
There is a practice of remembering certain "sins"
which bring one down an unalterable course such as divorce (more
unforgivable than murder in some churches) and propensity toward
homosexuality.
Styles of music vary widely in churches. To some music
is either unimportant or only important because some of the attendees
insist upon having it. In these churches aggressive bible teaching is
common, often with the unstated belief that the use of music would
detract from the ministry of teaching. In those churches which believe
that music is an important element of our worship, the styles of music
employed may vary widely. Some use exclusively classical style sometimes
resembling 17th century England while others use only pop style that is
virtually indistinguishable from Las Vegas including wireless mikes,
personality centered performances, lights and accompaniment tracks. To
others both these extremes seem out of place in the church - one being
out of date and the other too secular. Some churches prohibit the use of
choirs or choral ensembles in worship believing that these tend to focus
on performance rather than worship. They believe that these groups
discourage rather than encourage participation in worship. Other
churches develop and benefit from large choirs being theologically
driven that choirs like clergy are called to prompt the congregation to
widespread participation in worship.
Small group bible studies are seen by many as the
non-negotiable biblical model for Christian fellowship. Some of these
groups expose a sin of bibliolatry - the worship of the bible rather
than seeing it as being or containing the Word of God.
Some denounce psychology as being of Satan denouncing
all wisdom of men, yet they interpret the scriptures for large
congregations with knife sharp dogma. Other churches seek and employ
trained Christian counselors employing psychological and spiritual
discernment to administer grace and help to those in need.
There is the prosperity gospel that teaches that God
will always bless the faithful. If we or full of faith we will receive
earthly riches. On the other extreme are those who are called to a vow
of poverty, living and humbly serving God behind the scenes, far from
public view.
There is the liturgical church who emphasize the
sacraments, office of leadership and employ written prayers and creeds
used for hundreds of years. The free church is often very personality
based often with spontaneous expression.
There are the Pentecostals and many non-Pentecostals
that look every day for God to bring a new miracle. They pray fervently
for changes in individuals, churches and society. Some believe that the
Kingdom of God starts here on earth - in the church and continues as we
gather in Heaven. This theology motivates some as stewards and
ecologists of the earth. There are those Christians who believe that God
has called them to mobilize armies into widespread political action.
Such include Martin Luther King, Jesse Jackson, Jerry Fallwell, Pat
Robertson, and countless priests and pastors. There is widespread
disagreement over the pro-choice / pro-life camps. Many believe that
human life begins at conception. We must therefore defend the most
defenseless with all our might. Others see human life as beginning upon
some later point in the pregnancy, some as late as being delivered.
Therefore, the right of individual privacy and the importance of keeping
the government of out personal lives on this very personal decision is
paramount. Both camps are cemented in their positions by their strong
system of personal values.
There are the dispensationalists who believe that the
age of miracles has ended with Jesus' return to heaven. Some of these
believe that the kingdom of God is NOT on this earth and that it will
all burn up anyway therefore, stewardship of our earth and its natural
resources of water, air and minerals is not a high value.
The theology of the creation has for many centuries
motivated the Church to be the center of art, not only music, but
theater, painting, sculpture. The church is the steward of the arts -
the Renaissance period, Baroque period, paintings, sculpture. Today
drama, orchestras, large Christmas and Easter pageants are a regular
part of certain Christina worship. Models of this type of value system
can be seen in both liberal and conservative congregations.
In some traditions, the clergy normally wear clerical
collars while in public and vestments during worship. Others shun any
such practice, saying that such is not only unnecessary but carries
vestiges of traditions such as Roman Catholic of which they do not want
to be associated.
We have a spectrum of theology concerning baptism.
Some believe it to be a requirement for salvation such as Church of
Christ, Lutheran and Disciples of Christ. Others have what are known as
Sacrament – a means of grace. Here baptism, though not regenerative in
nature, is an expression of God reaching out and touching us. Such would
be the expression in the Episcopal, Methodist and Presbyterian churches.
Finally some see baptism as a symbol of what Christ has done in our
salvation. This would be the view in most Baptist and Nazarene churches.
Ecclesiastical government within a particular church
can be quite different from another type of church. Almost all churches
have some type of representative board to help make decisions. Some are
governed by long distance remote control. Some churches are governed by
local congregational decision on many matters. On a formal level there
is the representative type of government with one or two boards elected
to act on behalf of the congregation. Such would be found in
Presbyterian, Assembles of God, and Nazarene churches. Congregational
rule is common in many churches; all decision are made by the vote of
the entire church membership (or in some cases the male membership).
This would be typical in Baptist., United Church of Christ and Church of
Christ churches. Governments within churches related to other churches
take many forms. Episcopal - Bishops Catholic, Methodist, Episcopal. On
a pragmatic level, often the pastor or priest decides the majority of
all issues. We also need to understand that there are also those power
people in the church who might not be officially elected to
decision-making positions, but whose opinions are not to go unheeded by
the official bodies.
Symbols are very important in some traditions,
optional in some traditions and virtually prohibited in others. The
Orthodox and Roman churches not only employ symbols. Many of these
symbols become icons. These statues and paintings become a means of
God’s imparting his Spirit to us. There is a full embrrassing but less
sacramental position in the Anglican/Episcopal tradition. Churches in
the evangelical tradition – most Baptists and Methodist as well as many
independent churches take a position that, while they don’t want to be
accused of worshiping idols (graven images of God or statues or
graphical representations of any of the saints), they will embrace some
symbols. This is most commonly used symbol is a cross. There will be
crosses in the church, on the pulpit, the communion table and even
perhaps on the trays that hold the communion cups. They will permit
artwork as an expression of Christian truth. It is critical that these
crosses will not ever be a crucifix, a cross with Jesus depicted on the
cross. The common expression when a crucifix is that they worship a
risen Christ, not a dead Christ, implying that certain traditions focus
on Jesus’ death too much or that there is no belief in the physical
resurrection of Jesus from the grave. There is an emerging third
position on the use of Christian symbols in Christian worship. For some
time the Seventh day Adventist movement has taught that any visible
symbol such as the cross or crucifix or statues of Christians is sin.
The "Seeker movement" or "user friendly" church now feel that any use of
Christian symbols, such as crosses, altars, stained glass, traditional
choirs and even organ music, might make a person who is not in the
Christian tradition feel uncomfortable. The spaces in which these
churches gather will resemble concert halls and municipal auditoriums.
Any thing that would bring to mind in a secular person the image of "the
institutional church" will be carefully excluded from being a part of
their worship environment. In fact many non-traditional items now can be
seen as the emerging symbols of this tradition. These would include
things such as a major investment in audio/visual systems used in the
meetings. Large screens and overhead projectors and synthesizer led
small musical groups are a given in this expression of "church".
Some of our Christian groups claim exclusivity in
Christendom - Church of Christ, Mormon, Seventh Day Adventist as well as
the Roman Catholic. Hopefully each of our Christian groups believes that
they are closer to what a true church should be or at least that they
are operating within the church with a deep sense of personal call
striving to move their tradition toward some particular agenda in
worship expression.
Emphasis of foreign missions and evangelism will very
greatly within today's church in America. Some churches have large
personal and financial commitments to missions through denominational
programs. Other churches often fund many independent mission programs
such as Youth for Christ, Young Life, Wycliff, Mission Aviation
Fellowship, Campus Crusade, and the Navigators. Some congregations will
fund their mission causes with a generous fixed percentage of their
total income. Others provide little or no money to ministries outside
their four walls and over which they cannot exercise complete control,
actually saying that "charity begins at home."
Sometimes there is a tension between evangelism with a
personal faith in Christ and Social justice made reality in the
political arena.
There is wide diversity in the nature and style of
authority in the church. Certainly a part of this is to establish
accountability for those not in leadership to those in leadership. This
can provide protection for purity and accuracy of the doctrine. Some
believe that unless everyone is under the authority of others, there is
great exposure to heresy and temptation to sin. There is a large portion
of the Christian community that would say that biblically based
authority at least for the church is founded on MALE leadership. Women
are provided "protection" so long as they submit to their father,
husband or other spiritual male authority. Others see that fundamentally
at the core of Jesus' teaching was the liberation of womanhood from the
bondage of cultural oppression that was the practice in the first
century religious and political practice. To them Jesus’ vision of
spiritual leadership shattered the images of women who were not taught
spiritual truth, and especially the Jewish role of women of the day and
call the church to withdraw any gender distinction in rolls of
leadership and ministry. Women are ordained and called as clergy with a
sense of completeness when both male and female are teaching and
celebrating communion in the church.
Lifestyle differences vary not only from denomination
to another. Mennonites and Amish keep themselves separate from this
world and culture. There are large groups of conservative as well as
many liberal Christian churches who feel their role of political justice
is a mandate from God and a mission driven out of a commitment to be
faithful to their central Christian values. Many times local cultural
customs and prejudices are heavenly intertwined with the practice of our
faith. This can range from social organizations, dress codes, localized
codes or morality or immorality.
Worship is a priority for some circles and others make
worship primarily a directive teaching ministry. Some have high outward
emotion such as Assembly of God, the Vineyard and the Pentecostal
churches. There are the middle of the road traditions such as Southern
Baptist, Evangelical Free and Wesleyan. There are groups with a very
limited external emotional expression such as the Methodist,
Presbyterian, Lutheran and Episcopalians. Finally there are the very
quiet such as Quaker.
Early Christian churches met only in homes of the
believers. Often these meeting were secret to avoid persecution or
death. Today, most countries provide a lot of freedom to gather to
worship. Certainly there are exceptions such as in many Arabic countries
as well as Communist countries such as Cuba and People’s Republic of
China. Apart from these places most people can worship if they so
choose. The evolution of the Christian movement has its roots in both
the Roman Church and the Orthodox Church (Greek). From each of these
particularly the Roman their have been a number of derivative
reformations. Martin Luther attempted to bring reform to the Roman
Catholic Church. His followers ultimately established the State Church
of Germany the Lutheran Church. There were other state churches
established in Scandinavia and England. Major reformers from the Church
of England were Charles and John Wesley. Most early reformers gave their
energy to reform from within rather than break away and start their own
churches. Their followers eventually formed what became the Methodist
Church. We have the Puritans who fled England and Holland for religious
freedom to the Colonies. We have the Dutch reformed Church from Holland.
However, today when there is a particular issue that is viewed
differently from those in power in a church, it is a common thing to see
withdrawal and the establishment of a new church formed by the
dissenters. Perhaps this is an influence brought on by our Western
independent mindset. The writer leaves this for your consideration.
Several years ago, some listened to Pope John Paul in
Denver speak to 300,000 youth about the importance of a personal and
vital relationship with Jesus Christ and weeped with joy over the bright
future of the Roman Church in particular. Others are discussing whether
or not the Pope was the Antichrist.
There is probably no greater area of diversity within
the Christian community than in our theology of the Holy Spirit. The
Pentecostals expect each Christian to experience the manifestation of
speaking in tongues. The dispensationalist teach that in this new age
any such manifestation are either a charade or worse yet authored by
Satan himself and should be prohibited from practice within the
Christian movement. Others more centralist in practice, acknowledge the
legitimacy of the doctrine of spiritual gifts, including, tongues,
interpretation of tongues and prophecy, even though certain of these
manifestations might not be within their own personal realm of
experience. For them such expressions are not a litmus test for either
orthodoxy or heresy.
Many if not all of these diverse and contradictory
beliefs stem from a sincere study of holy scripture by their proponents.
At times accepting certain truths seem to be at the exclusion of others
that are just as fervently embraced by another group. Our western,
structured reasoning process helps push us to be critical of those who
are not like we or whose ideas are incompatible with our own. Again,
certain Christian traditions are very homogeneous. Even this is
changing. Southern Baptists once embraced at the highest level the
priesthood of the believer. It was this belief that the individual
Christian could read the bible and God’s Holy Spirit would reveal to him
or her what God would have them believe and do. Today this thinking is
all but gone across the denomination. The fundamentalist in power have
purged the "liberals" from their seminaries. Churches who are not in the
fundamentalist camp are sometimes precluded from helping fund
denominational missions. The Anglican/Episcopal church was founded with
the value of tolerating or even encouraging participation from those
whose theology was not homogeneous. It was after all an amalgam of both
the Protestant and Roman tradition. While diversity in theology is still
common, diversity in worship styles is emerging as well. For centuries,
worship from the Book of Common Worship was always the practice. Today
one can find a number of non-traditional parishes where traditional
liturgy is not practiced. Socio-economic diversity is not very common.
It seems that most Episcopalian and Presbyterians probably earn a higher
income than Baptists and Pentecostals.
It is the writers conviction that each of us can be in
different places at different stages of their Christian life. We can be
born into one expression of Christian faith and embrace it all our life.
We can also transition from one to another and even back at times as we
move to different geographic parts of the world or as we continue our
spiritual journey. Our unity within the kingdom of God is not based on
our sameness, rather upon our love for and worship of the same God. God
the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit are our most profound
example of God’s affirmation of diversity with unity. A single note
played by and entire orchestra is strong but cannot compare to the
strength of the same orchestra playing a broad cord with each section of
instruments playing the individual notes prescribed by the composer. We
need the benefit of our diversity to keep us individually challenged and
growing. When we affirm our diversity in the Christian community we can
have fellowship with others whom God has great love. When we attempt to
invalidate or demean another’s sincere experience of God we inflict pain
and suffering as well as place ourselves into the role of God, who
Himself declares what it means to rightly divide the word of truth. The
scripture's explanation about the Trinity is an excellent example that
at the heart of God is the high value of unity. Unity is not based on
sameness. It is based on individual uniqueness being knit together by a
common calling and purpose given by God. May this become our experience
within the diversity of our Christian community.