You know that feeling when you’ve been labeled? I think most people remember the deepest degree of classification in high school when labels were like signs hung around your neck: jock, nerd, cheerleader, band geek, class clown, class pet, class act. You don’t label yourself, but somehow things just stick. It’s easier simply to put people in a box and classify them.
If we’re honest, we never really leave the social petri dish of high school. There will always be the Mean Girls, Meat Heads, Over Achievers, and Pot Heads. But what I push up against is the inability to change, morph, or opt not to fall into one particularly category.
Not too long ago I received an invite to speak at a church in the Midwest. The invite was so affirming and kind and generous. However, before they would formally extend the invite, they wanted to know if I was Spirit-filled and charismatic. In their church every guest speaker “must have the manifestation of the presence of God in their life” and they weren’t sure if I was in their same theological camp because I’m quite conservative in my teaching.
Shortly after that, a dear friend who I’ve grown up with and attended church with for over 20 years listened to one of my sermons and with much concern stated that she feared that I “sounded like I was a Pentecostal.” I didn’t know how to respond to that. I mean, maybe I should’ve spoken to her in tongues and slayed her in the Spirit so she could at least have some substance to her fear. In her mind, Pentecostals are “our brethren” but more like the red-headed cousin that talks weird and has a twitch. I received her… critique… and prayed about it.
But the more I prayed about it, the less I cared.
I stared at my computer and laughed. I’m too liberal for the conservatives and too conservative for the liberals. I could classify myself as Non-Denominational, but that’s muddled at best.
The idea of theological camps and divides and barriers have been going on since the early Church. I’m from Paul! I’m from Apollos! I’m from Jesus [Ok, so that’s not really in the 1 Corinthians 3 passage, but you get my drift.] We still have the same thing today. I’m Baptist! I’m Charismatic! I’m Lutheran!
Maybe it’s because I’ve always felt like I never really belonged in a group or clique with defined labels that I intrinsically reject this. Or maybe it’s just that I absolutely hate division. There is far too much hatred and diving lines in the world, the last place we need it is in the CHURCH.
I never thought I’d have to answer denominational questions to determine whether or not I’d have a seat at the Church table. With all love and grace in my heart, I don’t think I ever will. I never grew up and said, “I want to marry a divorcee with two kids, fight slavery and free slaves, all while proclaiming the gospel to the marginalized and spiritually anesthetized.” Nope. Never. But God has opened doors no man could open and I’m walking faithfully through each one believing I am coming into the woman I was always destined to be. And because I was open to it, I’m a better person because of it. [And if destined sounds too charismatic for you, interchange with purposed. Rick Warren would approve.]
Am I Baptist? If you mean do I believe in the baptism that John heralded and Jesus participated in? Do you mean to ask if I’m baptized? Do you mean that it is a physical manifestation of an inner change? Do you believe it is a metaphoric act of dying to the flesh and raising up in power? Then yes. I am.
Am I Pentecostal? If you mean do I believe in the working of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2? Do I believe that God is active and moving today? Do I believe we can boldly and brazenly proclaim His glorious work to all who will hear? Then yes. I am.
Am I Lutheran? If you mean do I celebrate the work of a brilliant theologian who fought valiantly for the Word of God? Do you mean that I believe that his courageous acts helped expand the Church and spread the gospel to even lay men? Do I believe in partaking in communion regularly with brethren and salvation comes through grace and faith? Then yes. Yes, I am.
Am I Ecumenicist? If you mean do I believe that all religions are the same and we should ban together to find multiple roads to heaven. No. But I think you would be asking if I believed in the unified Church based of the Nicene Creed, then yes. But then raises up a whole other thing because that would theoretically make me Catholic because by definition catholic means unified whole. But I digress.
Do you see how convoluted this all gets?!
Above any denomination or faction ever existed to divide the Church, one man came to revive the Church. His name was Jesus and it is in HIS name that I put my trust. My faith isn’t in a man, but the Über man, Christ alone. My allegiance to a movement will never trump my commitment to build the Church and draw people together. May we not major on the minors. In other words, may we not squabble over issues we won’t have answers to until we die.
As we sit at the proverbial banqueting table, I want to listen and learn from those who think differently and if need be, agree to disagree. But above all, we are called to L_O_V_E each other. Like John 13:35 says, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”
So what am I? “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.'”
Have you been labeled? Do you label yourself? What would you say you call yourself?
B, I love this post. I could not have said it better myself. In a family of all non-believers and with friends in other churches, I hate the labels. Do I love Jesus should be the only question in my mind. Thanks for posting this. Great start to my day.
I don’t know how that finishes, but I love that we can dialogue about this. Happy Monday!
Ummm yes!!! Please say that, a sister in Christ and I were just having this same conversation the other day. It comes up often when asked, “What church do you go to?”, and depending on who pastors your church, people will either light up, or give off a questioning vibe. However, what I love about my generation is that we desire to be more unified than divided. This is good stuff B!!
“Amen” to every word! Love to start my week with a deep GRACIOUS AMEN!!
i relate to this all too well! as a young woman in ministry during college, it always put a bad taste in my mouth at christian + youth ministry conferences how much emphasis was placed on denominations. often times it came as a “joke” from whoever had the mic on stage, but i just didn’t like it. i’ve come to land in a similar place as what you shared in this post. what i believe goes so much deeper than a clean-cut denominational label. thanks for sharing your heart!
“I’m too liberal for the conservatives and too conservative for the liberals.” <– MY LIFE.
Amen to all of this.
xoxo
THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU. I hate the division of the doctrinal wars that seem to be taking place around me. This post makes me feel like I’m not alone. XO!
Thank you My husband and I planted a church two and a half years ago. We recently relaunched (new church plant/merged) with an older denominational congregation. It was over a year of asking, praying, meeting and more asking if we could be better together. So our young, non-denominational church is now a multi- generational Nazarene church (get excited about an older group loving kids running all over because its been so long since they last saw it). I grew up thinking denominations were wrong and had a list of stereotypes to back that up. I was wrong, much like many of the stereotypes that exist today. I feel like I stand in this gap that should not exist. Lets be what Jesus was all about. The trivial gets on my nerves. There is a long way to go but this is some timely encouragement.
I get asked all too often, and so have this conversation all….the….time.
I try to live a ‘with-God’ life. When we cut down to it, the majority of the labels, institutions, constructs around how we ‘do church’ and what that means we look like are very much what we (humans) have come up with so it can be relatable and understandable to us.
But ‘too liberal for the conservatives and too conservative for the liberals’ is a way I’ve defined myself for decades. Thankfully, there are a great deal of us out here that fit that label. 😉
Thanks for this post! Loved it!
YES. Just YES.
GREAT post! One of my favourites of yours I’ve read so far (am I allowed to have favourites?).
Hello Beautiful Bianca!
I’m Roxanne, Melissa’s mom. The Lord used you to bless me at the last three CCSJC Women’s Conferences. Melissa and I will be there May 31: In The Name of Love, Breathe Conference, Montebello, California to be blessed again! Love you! < Rx
Amen! Amen! Amen! Thank you for speaking what frustrates and makes my heart ache. We are called to lift up Christ, not fight and force man-designed doctrines on people. The Church is to be the body of Christ, one whole body, not separated body parts.
I have been putting together a women’s ministry that focuses on teaching that our identity, worth, value, beauty and entire being is in Christ, not what we wear, have, do and don’t do. I’ve chosen not to do this ministry within a particular church/denomination because it is for all women regardless of what denomination you choose to belong to. We all are called. We all are in need, so I am creating a safe haven for all women. What is so amazing about this is the first question that often is asked is, “What church do you attend?” All that needs to be known is that my life’s purpose is to know Jesus Christ and make Him known.
I’m tired of the should’s and ought to’s, the labeling and the sorting of people into a “box’ that makes sense. We deprive people of expressing who they are freely and keep them from learning who Christ is. Enough already! It’s time to put the focus back on Christ alone!
Amen, amen, amen! This has so been on my heart lately. I used to be pretty comfortable in my my-church-does-it-the-right-way box before God took me on a journey that brought me to churches across the globe. Some of them scared me (like the one where they ran laps around the sanctuary and prayed for fire from heaven); some bored me (like the one where they said everything 3 times, in 3 languages, and went on for 3 hours); and some brought me to tears (like the one a woman started in a violence-filled slum as a safe haven for the neighborhood kids); but ALL of them showed me that God is BIG and His love for His bride is vibrant and alive, and covers the whole crazy, stupid, quiet, loud, emotional, stoic, beautiful lot of us.