Denominations: Mean Girls Style

"Get in the car loser, we're going to worship."

Look around the country (maybe the world, but we'll stick with the U.S. as I know it better).  First you have your…

Jocks and cheerleaders, otherwise known as the Baptists.  

The Thespians, also called Pentecostals.

The Popular Crowd or, Non-Denominationals.

and finally… the geeks/nerds, called Presbyterians.

But make no mistake, all of these belong to the Debate Club, ready with well prepared (or not so well prepared) arguments to prove the other wrong.

Each is marked by a specific set of indicators; the Baptists by their squeaky clean reputations, the Penecostals by their theatrics, the Non-Denoms by their coffee shop worship and cool, alternative Church names (i.e. "Current Church"), and Presbyterians by their passion for the truth (read: minute details regarding scripture) and each can easily be lumped into one generalized category.  More often than not, the different cliques tend to edge away from one another depending on their position on the church social radar, and each generalizes about the other.  

And yet…

Like the stereotypes we see portrayed amongst high school students, these differing denominations (or non-denominations) have far more in common than they might care to admit.  In fact, these often competing entities are actually apart of the same body, the body for which God rent Himself.  Moreover, what they (and by they I mean "we", myself included) fail to realize is that there is more in common amongst those who are loved by the LORD than there is between us and the rest of the world.

I just have a lot of feelings…  

I don't want to downplay our differences, or ignore the fact that there are very serious issues we need to graciously discuss, but I think we need to remember the undeniable fact that we are not our own, that we were bought at a high price (1 Corinthians 6:20), and that God has called us to be part of each other (1 Corinthians 15).  It's ok to laugh at ourselves and maybe even a little at each other, but ultimately we are part of Christ's body, and as such we are called to love one another.  So I'm praying for the Church, that maybe during conflict we remember that Christ didn't just die for us individually, but for the whole body, and that maybe we'd show each other a little more grace…

…but none for Gretchen Wieners.  Goodbye!