“I’m glad I’m not...” A plea as we wait for Pentecost

“I’m glad I’m not...”

“I’m glad I’m not SBC (Southern Baptist Convention).”

“I’m glad I’m not ELCA or LCMS (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America or Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod.”

“Well at least we are not a big-box evangelical mega-church.”

“Sure glad we are not RCC (Roman Catholic Church).”

“The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you,’ nor again the head to the feet, ‘I have no need of you.’...Now you are the body of Christ, and individually members of it” (1 Corinthians 12.21, 27).

The election season, and therefore the campaign season is upon us. I’m not talking about the nation, I’m talking about the church. So our placards are out. We are making snarky t-shirts, pointed tweets, and claiming our hashtags. This is my least favorite time of the “church year.” 

The sectarian streak AND false (or at least substandard) teaching are both damaging to orthos. God cares about both, and so has revealed it in his word. 

The common heart beat and confession of faith in the church is a powerful thing. Our agreement on essential matters bears powerful witness. So is the paradoxical community in unity, even when they are in tension. Our disagreement, while in unity on non-essential matters, bears powerful witness.

I am not Tanzanian Assemblies of God, but they have invited me to preach, and made me feel at home. I don’t know how we would do what we do in the rehabilitation of formerly exploited girls apart from the Tanzanian Pentecostals. Everyone gets to play in their house, not just those with degrees and pedigree. They expect healing to happen, and make room for desperate cases, because they have a radical belief in the goodness of God based in his word.

I am not a Roman Catholic, but I don’t know what the unborn, the refugee, or the impoverished elderly person in San Pedro would do without the pro-life movement, Catholic Workers, and Little Sisters of the Poor.

I could say the same about any group in the Body of Christ. The hand is not the eye, nor vise-versa. But we can’t say, “I have no need of you.” And, I don’t think it is ever appropriate to say “I’m glad I’m not...” 

I’m glad for the SBC, the TAG, the RCC, the ELCA and LCMS, for the mega-church, the Benedict-option community, the generous cessationist and charismatic, for the biblically committed egalitarian, and the pro-woman complementarian, the Amos reading and believing social-justice activist and the Epistle reading and preaching Gospel Coalition member. What a beautiful bride God is preparing for his beloved Son!