Unity of the Church in our city

For about 10 years now I have been considering the practices and doctrines of the modern Church. I have been comparing them to the NT examples of Church life, trying to find a real way to live this life in Chirst.

I have come to many different conclusions,

One, those who divide the Body of Christ because of doctrinal differences are sinning. Paul dealt with divisions that were forming in the Church he founded in Corinth, which was based on their favorite teachers, or what gifts of the Spirit that operated through them. Paul called this division sin. I see the same thing at work in our denominations today.

Two, life in Christ is not about building a better program, building, system...etc. All the parts of the modern business of Church. Instead it all is about relationships, friendships in Christ that take on a family type of loving care and concern for each other.

This life of Christ can be found in any of the walls of any of the buildings used for religious meetings. Sometimes it exists there in spite of the system operating there. Anywhere there is a true followers of Jesus, this life will be found.

I have asked from my first years in the Lord, why we didn't do or see what is reported in the NT in the Church today? All I got was non-answers to my questions. Maturing of the organization was the most given answer, like the Church matured beyond loving one another, giving to those in need, the poor, the widows, the orphans...


As a response to what I saw, the abuses, the political posturing of Church leaders, the false distinction between clergy and laity, the lack of real service in the average Church member, the lack of pratical loving relationships replaced by operating programs. So much is wrong, that it is hard to find a place to start.

But start I feel we must.

My first response was to try to find a better way, a better way to live in Christ in community with other believers. I read about House Church, and at first I thought I had found the main missing element. A simple way to meet, without many of the problems that seemed to me to be inherent in the systems of Church I had seen.

I still feel that way about the systems, but see something else. Something that has always bothered me, the division created in the Body of Christ by denominations.

I have studied many different denominations, the history, how they started, why they started, what their early goals were and where they ended up.

I found first off that most denominations believe the same things doctrinally, but choose their own ways to express them.

As I read biographies I found that all true believers experienced the same things, but expressed them in the terms of their denomination's doctrinal stance. The revelation of the Holy Spirit, the guiding of the Holy Spirit, learning to love one another and reach out to help those in need, being conformed to the image and character of Christ, are all common elements.

Yet denominations will go to war with each other over how they word these life experiences.

What I am hearing today is that the Lord is calling his Church back to unity. To see beyond the minor doctrinal differences, and learn to love one another in more than words, but in deed. To take one another by the hand, and serve one another, and serve with one another.

To find the unity that is in Christ alone.

A link where this is in the works now is... The Church of Liberty, Kansas...
http://www.thechurchofliberty.com/index.htm