A Body Divided

"Are 360 church denominations the work of Jesus? Was it his movement that divided us? Unity is a command." — Donald Miller, Christian author.

On Monday, Tim Keller spoke at First Pres. He talked about the idea of the Missional Church and being focused on our Biblical mandate of spreading the Gospel. I was moved by what he said, but I think this works into a larger framework of what Christians really need to be focused on.

I start with that quote from Donald Miller because it has given me pause since I heard him say it in April. Miller is one of my favorite authors and thinkers, and I love the challenging ideas he forwards. He is an optimist, I think, so he seems to focus on what could be. I can't help but focus on what is.

The fact there are 360 denominations are a problem. But there are some very real reasons for some of the divisions. The reasons come down to the fact that, in America, we seem to embrace the idea we can take the Scriptures and use them to justify any position we want. Hence the incredibly high number of divisions and the fact that the body of Christ in America, much like America as a whole, has never been more divided. All that distracts from The Great Commission.

Then there's the way we limit following that Biblical mandate in our approach. First is the way the church seems to focus on mission. To many in the church, mission is what happens in other countries. Sometimes it's for a couple weeks, sometimes it's longer, but it's the way we spread the Gospel outside of the United States. But what about the work that needs to be done here at home?

Keller talked about the idea of the post-Christian United States, and he's not wrong. We have a lot of problems in this country — the biggest of which is the decay of our inner cities. Our family structures, values, and social structure is all declining. There are very real problems in the United States, and no one seems to be working to reverse that. And I include the church. We don't invest in the urban poor in the same way we do with those overseas. There is nothing wrong with overseas mission — it is necessary — but we need to do some work on the home front too. We can't be apathetic about this.

Another issue, to me, is the gross lack of Christian education. Not only do most Christians not really understand what they claim to believe or why, they don't bother to learn what makes it different from other world views. How do you reach the lost if you don't understand what they believe and what they think and how it differs from what you claim to believe and think? This takes time and effort, but we have a mandate to continue to learn, grow, and find ways to engage the culture in debate.

Too often the majority of Christians want to run away from or shut out our culture. You can't run away or ignore that which you don't agree with. If you don't understand what others believe, think, feel, and are passionate about, how can you change their mind. In fact, often non-Christians know more about what Christians believe than the Christians do. That's a problem.

We do need to be missionally focused, but we need to know how to live out that focus. Until we do, we'll never be able to see America or the body of Christ within America be what it could and should be.