I grew up in a protestant denomination in the United States, which is probably the most religiously diverse nation on the planet. We bear the name Protestant because people like Martin Luther, John Calvin, and a host of others saw corruption in the Roman Catholic church, spoke up about it (the protest), found it impossible to cleanse the Roman Catholic church of the corruption they saw, and in the end separated themselves from it.
Where there had been one church for most of Europe, there were now Lutherans and Calvinists and Anabaptists and Anglicans in addition to Roman Catholics. Each group claimed to be the True Church, sometimes to the point of maintaining that there was no salvation outside their branch of the tree. Wars were fought, people tortured and killed, entire nations would change their official religion, and some believers would leave their homelands to find a place where they could live their faith without persecution.
The American colonies became a magnet for the religiously disaffected.
One result of this messy situation was the decision by the Founding Fathers to include free exercise of religion in the Bill of Rights, since the colonies each had their own religious traditions. There would be no national church; every citizen would be free to worship as a Catholic, Anglican, Baptist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, or whatever.
Ongoing Division
Another result of the Protestant Reformation was and remains the continuing division of the Church into more and more denominations. All you had to do was convince enough people that Denomination X was no longer true to its historical roots or that some new theology made it necessary to leave, and you've created Denomination Y.
This raises an important question: Do we define the True Church correctly?
Since the earliest centuries of the Christian church, it has been important to weed out false teachings (heresy), and many of the epistles and the early creeds were written to draw the line between correct and incorrect doctrine. After all, it is important that we embrace the truth and not allow false teachings.
At the same time, Jesus prayed that his followers would be united. With hundreds upon hundreds of Christian denominations, each justifying itself as "more true" than the others, that's one truth that seems to escape us. We are called to follow Christ, who is the Truth, to embrace him - and not follow those who lead us away from him.
What Is the Church?
Some believe that the church exists only for the elect (those who are "saved"), and thus the earthly church should only contain believing members. This was the position of the Radical Reformation: Only believers are truly members of the church, so infants should not be baptized. These reformers who held to the view that baptism is a sign of faith had already been baptized as infants, and when they were baptized as believers, they earned the label Anabaptist, which means baptized again.
Some believe that their denomination has an exclusive hold on salvation. If you have been baptized within their tradition, you're in. They treat the sacrament of baptism as something magical, as though a little water and the right words said by the right person automatically reconciles you to God. Their children grow up believing that they are saved, regardless of what their lives show - exactly the thing that frustrated those early Anabaptists.
Some believe that the church exists for the world, functioning as a lifeboat to save those drowning in sin or a lighthouse acting as a beacon for those caught in a storm.
The Church Is for the World
I used to believe that Christians have an obligation to belong to the most true church, which is usually defined theologically (to paraphrase a Canadian Reformed pastor I once spoke with). Infant or believer baptism? What is the nature of the eucharist? How do faith and works fit together? Should we only sing Psalms or can we sing other types of music? Can we have musical instruments in church? King James or a more modern Bible translation? How deeply does sin infect us? And let's not even get into the debates over the end times and styles of worship!
I now believe that Christians have an obligation to follow Jesus, find fellowship with other believers, and witness to God's love, grace, and mercy in their daily lives. If you love Jesus and want nothing more than to do his will, we are family regardless of your denominational label. We are family even if some of us have imperfect theology. We are family even if we can't agree on everything. We are family because we have the same Father in heaven.
Our Mission
The church isn't called to huddle together, hone its theology, purify itself, and turn its back on a world in sin. We are called to worship God, encourage each other in the faith, live lives pleasing to God, and shine our light in a dark world.
For many of us in the church, that means breaking the "exclusive church" mentality, as though the church is some sort of club that exists only for its members. That attitude is not conducive to evangelism - it paints unbelievers as outsiders.
We need to foster an inclusive mentality, as though the church exists to bring others to Christ. Those on the outside are not seen as damned sinners but as potential believers. Those of us who have experience God's love, grace, and mercy need to be ready to toss a lifeline to those lost in sin, pain, anger, frustration, lust, greed, pride, and selfishness so that they can find the freedom from the grip of sin that we've experienced.
We don't need to continue separating ourselves into more and smaller "true" churches with an exclusive hold on the gospel. We need to come together as disciples of Christ, recognizing that the true church is marked by love, joy, and peace.
We may never break down the denominational fences, but we're free to ignore them and recognize each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. True church happens when two or more come together in Jesus' name.
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