denominations

Heading South

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / Leave a comment

I finally got around to it. After months of thinking about it and finally deciding to make it happen, I visited the latest regional campus of Brentwood Baptist Church, The Church at West End in Columbia.

It was a bit of a drive from Brentwood to Columbia. Even on a Sunday, it took 45 minutes. But it was so worth it. I loved seeing this congregation worshipping and celebrating the Lord’s Day together.

I love how each of the campuses has a unique flavor and how each fits the community very well. Each one is a different expression of what a biblical Church should look like.

Several years ago, my goal was to visit each of the current campuses of Brentwood Baptist. At the time, there were 8, but I managed to get to each one. Now, I’m thankful that I’ve been to all 9. Maybe at some point, there will be another for me to visit.

I’m praying for the Church. It seems like more and more these days, the true Church that holds to the true faith will have to be more united than ever to survive. We will have to cross denominational lines and work together. We have to see other churches not as rivals or competition but allies and fellow saints.

God is at work. Whether it’s a massive structure that hosts thousands or a small room with a handful of people, God is present in the midst of them. People are getting saved and baptized. God is calling out faithful men and women to the ministry and the mission field.

Lord, keep us faithful to your true gospel. Bring back Your wayward churches and denominations that have strayed from Your truth. Bring back the prodigals that have wandered away and deconstructed. May we be true to all that You ask of us, and may we be one just as You, the Holy Trinity, are one.

Come Out from Among Them

/ Ragamuffingospelfan / 1 Comment

“Therefore go out from their midst,
    and be separate from them, says the Lord” (2 Corinthians 6:17,ESV).

I think the time is coming when true followers of Jesus will have to “come out from among them and be separate,” as the old King James puts it.

I think for some of us, it will mean leaving churches and denominations that no longer teach the Bible or the true gospel of Jesus. It might mean distancing yourself from a political party (or both of them) that no longer follows biblical morality.

I have to tread carefully here because I don’t want to be judgmental, but I think America has a lot of people who identify as Christians but a lot less who actually follow Jesus. Many are spiritual or religious but far fewer have been truly born again and are regenerate new creations.

The answer to the moral free fall the country is in is not to get “our” people elected or to get “our” platform made into law. It’s not even to get lost people to act right. It’s to get Christians back to believing and acting like Christians. It’s to get churches back to the whole gospel of Jesus and the whole Bible, teaching those old-fashioned concepts like hell, sin, atonement, and salvation.

We probably need to learn how to believe in the gospel again apart from the American Dream that we’ve woven into the redeeming narrative of the cross. We need to return to being the prophetic voice of God instead of vying for political power. We could do with a present day John the Baptist or two to tell people to repent because the Kingdom of God is coming.

We need to get back to the gospel that is for all people. Not a gospel of God loves you just as you are and wants you to stay that way, but God loves you too much to let you live in anything less than His absolute best for you. We also need to love the least of these like Jesus did, remembering when we serve one of these, we serve Jesus Himself.

We need a true revival not of showy emotions and signs and wonders but of confessing sin and repenting and turning from our way and following God’s way. We need to stop conforming with the world and letting it teach us theology and return to being transformed by the renewing of our minds by God’s word.

At this point, I think it will take a miraculous act of God to turn us around. You did it in the past, Lord. Do it again, God. Do it again.