Is Your Church United By the Gospel, or Preferences
We have churches defined by contemporary vs. traditional music. Churches that sing only hymns vs. ones that sing all praise. We have children’s church and Wednesday night youth “worship” gatherings that meet separately from the adults. We have black churches and white churches, liturgical churches and skit-infested, prop-saturated churches. We have hell-fire and brimstone churches and non-condemning churches. We even have churches for young people verses old. You name your preference for style and race and format, and I bet there’s a church out there that will fit you to a ‘t’!
But what should define our churches? The fact that we fall into the traditional or ethnic or creative categories, or that we are united by Christ? Trevin Wax, in his book from Crossway titled, Holy Subversion, boldly states that the body of Christ should be united, first and foremost, by Christ. Wow! What a novel concept. But something that would seem to be so obvious still must be proclaimed, especially when a view of the church landscape shows our unity surrounded by so many other things besides Jesus Christ. In his book, Trevin says the following:
It is important that local churches seek to reflect the kingdom of God. We too quickly segregate our church members based on age, gender, or even musical preference!…Our churches should be multigenerational…We should be seeking to break down walls between generations, races, and nationalities.
Once our churches divide into factions, according to social status, musical style, or ethnicity, we are unintentionally proclaiming to the world that something other than the cross of Jesus Christ unites us. We are showing people that what truly unites us is our musical preference, our race, our age, or our social class – not Christ.
So, what truly is the unifying thing at your church? Is it that everyone there all like the same kind of music, or that everyone there all hold Christ as the head of the church? Is it that you all prefer to be around your “kind” of people, or that you hold the gospel of Jesus above all else? One quick way to tell is to look around this Sunday and see how many there who are different from yourself.
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