Don’t get me wrong.
I love belonging.
I don’t often feel I belong. Most of the time I feel a lot of a misfit. Whether because of me gender (true story, folks), me ethnicity (maybe it is cos I is black), me deep approach to living and other internal foibles it has always been difficult to feel I belong. When I meet with my brother I know we belong to each other as Drydens. My home life with the children and wife is also where I belong (more often than not). Beyond that, however, getting that feeling can appear hard to come by.
Thus, I love belonging.
There have been really special times in my life where I’ve been with brothers and sisters in Christ and there was that sense of being in one accord. We had the desire to do great things for Christ and to love and support each other in what we had to do.
Belonging is something I am into big time.
The question of which church I belong to, isn’t one of my favourite questions. Especially among Christian folks, it might come across as a simple request to explore someone’s denominational persuasion, but actually more often than not it’s a question to elicit difference. What does your lot believe? How is it different to my lot?
Polite and friendly though it appears, it’s not really the thing that binds our hearts together with cords that cannot be broken.
Growing up church affiliation even on a local level, let alone a denominational one, was a source of protection and pride. This is where I affiliated, this is how we did church, and though there may be one or two issues, we were doing fine thank you very much. Those outside of that were to be considered warily especially if their doctrine didn’t tick all the boxes.
For me that kind of attitude turned out to be counter-productive. Rather than exhibiting a Christ-like meekness and humility that encouraged others and sought to make peace and establish real bonds of friendship, fellowship and fraternity, this attitude kept people at arms length. At best there were alliances of convenience. These alliances were only as purposeful as they were convenient. No bridges to be built as such, just a case of relating to keep up appearances and keep in a loop. Of sorts.
It took me leaving the ‘comforts’ of my own local church background and actually relate with other Christians as if they were people rather than wanderers from the truth who needed to be straightened out by Dr. Doctrine. Over 15 years my hang-ups with denomination and specific church affiliation has really been relaxed, and I’m more uptight about connecting with God’s people. I’m more hung up on fellowship and experiencing the diversity of expressions of faith and the diversity of giftings and how enriching it is to be among God’s people whose only main beef is to meet with, engage with, share with, and subsequently encourage each other to live for Jesus Christ.
Does that mean anything goes? Does that mean I’m not bothered about genuine doctrinal error? On the contrary, if Jesus is the goal, truth and living out right teaching becomes all the more important. It’s just that it is not an exclusionary exercise. It’s not testing others to reach my measure of righteousness. If I’m a flawed believer, I expect others to be flawed and if I’m open to be corrected and built up in faith, then the feeling can be mutual and we can make progress together, regardless of the labels we put on each other.
I get tired with the labels anyway. What are we protesting about now? How can we be so catholic if we’re so hung up on things that divide rather than unite? There may very well be benefit in a Methodist approach and there’s much to enjoy and celebrate in being immersed in Christ’s life as promoted by Baptists – but that’s not all there is to the journey. Neither is it THE thing about Christ. Yeah we need the charisma in action in our lives. Of course we’re grateful for Pentecost. But again these are only partial aspects of the whole truth.
Simply being a follower of Christ connects me to you, and as we connect and share Christ, the differences between us are not barriers stopping us from enjoying fellowship together. You really are my brother and sister in Christ and there’s so much to celebrate about just that.
The local community to which I belong is important for my growth. Those brothers and sisters help shape my daily walk with Christ. Yet my identity is certainly not defined by denominational association and local church affiliation.
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
dmcd
Life With CD 