Reflections on My Experiences In Multicultural Christianity

I had an awesome church experience this morning and I just wanted to share.  I was out of town for the weekend and I ended up visiting a church that is a bit outside my cultural tradition, but not totally unfamiliar territory for me.  The church was a fairly large, very active, independent fundamental Baptist church. They support over 365 foreign missionaries and are planning to take on 5 more.  They have a Christian school, a radio station, a bus ministry, jail & prison ministry, shut-in ministry, addictions ministry, Spanish and Korean services, and many other ministries.

Although this type of church is a little bit different for me, there are things I just love about their culture.  I love their zeal, their emphasis on soul winning and foreign missions, their bus ministries that pick up children who would not otherwise have a ride to church, their special music, and their sound Bible doctrine.  The people at this church seemed especially welcoming and friendly.

The sermon today was on the return of Christ and the pastor encouraged us from the scriptures that Jesus’ return seems so close at hand – we are to be watching and working while we await His coming.  He reminded us that we cannot be saved by our works, but we are saved to work – our work is to spread the gospel.

For some reason, I was more blessed than usual by the service today.  I was brought to tears a number of times by special music or things that were shared from the pulpit.  I think there is so much blessing we miss if we limit ourselves to one cultural tradition alone.  As Evangelicals, we need to remember to major on the majors and minor on the minors and enjoy fellowship with the whole body of Christ (without compromising in major doctrines of course – I Tim. 6:3-5).

I grew up in Baptist churches, but they were not independent fundamental.  They were more similar to mainstream evangelical churches (on the conservative side).  During my junior high and high school years my dad pastored in one community where the pastors of various denominations (Methodist, Southern Baptist, Conservative Baptist, Congregational, Non-denominational, Pentacostal, Assemblies of God) would meet together for prayer each week.  They went on prayer retreats together.  The churches would get together for community singspirations and we would participate together with other churches in gospel outreaches.  Our church was supposed to be Baptist but we had people from many different denominational backgrounds in attendance.  Sure, we didn’t see eye-to-eye on everything, but we thrived during that era by our unity in the essentials.

I then went to a non-denominational Bible college where I relished the diversity of views while remaining in agreement on the essentials.  I love a good theological debate over topics like Calvinism vs. Arminianism.  I don’t agree with either system and I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle, but I always gain a deeper understanding of God and His ways when I debate with someone who holds a view contrary to mine.

I was reflecting during my car ride home today about the bond that ties us together as believers in Jesus – we can enjoy fellowship across such a wide variety of denominations because we share the same core beliefs about who God is, who we are, and how we are saved.  There are minor differences that really don’t amount to a hill of beans.  Whenever you have a group of 2 you are going to have at least 2 opposing, strong opinions on unimportant things.  The institution of marriage illustrates this point.

But unimportant differences in non-essential beliefs are entirely inappropriate right now.  We need to keep focused on the essentials and not get sidetracked.  Jesus is coming soon!

To my LDS friends:  Is religion getting in the way of your relationship with Jesus?  Come join our multicultural crowd and let’s pursue Jesus alone!

We will welcome your strong, opposing views on “minor” details… 🙂

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