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October 22, 2009
 

That Dreaded Question

Whenever I tell folks that I am starting a new church, they ask me, "So, what is your denomination?" I dread that question. Not because I am not glad and thankful for my denomination, but because it requires so much explanation. Sometimes I feel like George Whitefiled, who when preaching from the balcony of the courthouse in Philadelphia in the 18th century, cried out,

"Father Abraham, whom have you in heaven? Any Episcopalians? No. Any Presbyterians? No. Have you any Independents or Seceders? No. Have you any Methodists? No, No, No! Whom have you there? We don’t know those names here. All who are here are Christians.... Oh, is this the case? Then God help us, God help us all, to forget party names..."

Don't get me wrong. I actally like my "party" name. The PCA represents a solid, historic, reformed, orthodox, and winsomely evangelical perspective on the Bible and all of life. However, I'd prefer to lead not with a party/denominational name, but with the name of Jesus, the crucified, risen, reigning and returning Savior. Does that make my denominational affiliation unimportant. Not at all. It just means that it is not ultimate. Jesus is, and the question of whether or not I am resting in his righteousness for my salvation and not my own.

Nevertheless, rather than run from the denominational question, I supppose that I actually could harness the strength of my denominational affiliation. After all, the PCA centers its theology on the grace of God in the gospel. That's not a bad place to begin a conversation about the church. : )

Filed under  //   denominations   pca   whitefield  

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September 28, 2009
 

One Church, Many Places

I am starting a new church, and one of the questions that I get asked almost every day is "which denomination are you." Baptist? Presbyterian? Methodist? Episcopalian? Non-denominational? Although Creekstone does have a denominational affiliation for theological accountability and practical support, I like the atitutde of the 18th century revival preacher George Whitefield, who said,

"Father Abraham, whom have you in heaven? Any Episcopalians? No! Any Presbyterians? No! Any Independents or Methodists? No, no, no! Then whom have you there? We don't know those names here. All who are here are Christians... Oh, is this the case? Then God help us to forget party names and to become Christians in deed and truth."

Now, I recognize the necessity of and even the value of denominations (especially for theological accountability), including my own (for which I am deeply grateful). However, I don't care whehter someone is baptist, presybyterian, pentecostal, methodist, etc. In fact, I hope no one IS any of those, since IS is a word of identity. For the Christian, idenitity is not a matter of denominational affiliation, but of Jesus affiliation. I suppose we could say that I have an association of necessity with my denomination, but an association of identity with Jesus. As helpful and nurturing as my denomination has been to me, only Jesus is my righteousness. He is the one who died, rose, lives and reigns.

This is why I prefer to spell denominations with lower case letters (like "small p" presbyterian, "small b" baptist, etc.), and reserve the caps for JESUS, PROPITIAION, CROSS, GOSPEL and words like that. Naive? Maybe. But as Os Guinness says in The Call, "In the New Testament, it is not so much that there are different churches in different places as that there is one church in many places."

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