Segregation, Congregation

Some people have called Sunday mornings in America its most segregated hour, upset at the familial and cultural separation of the body of Christ. Each congregation has a limited manifestation of the body – black congregations, Hispanic congregations, poor, rich, European, Asian, et cetera…

Further separation is based on favorite teachings, heresies and arguments. Armenians, Calvinists, Lutherans, Romans, Greeks, Anglicans, Baptists, pre-tribulationists, pro-feminists, pro-pedophile, pro-sexual alignment or misalignment…

Workers in a Lexis vehicle factory each have part of the process of vehicle design and assembly in their day’s work. Some are skilled at electrical systems, some in drive train systems, some in computerized controls. Each is important, but each is only an important part.

It would be wondrous if each congregation could represent all of the facets of the whole body, but almost all congregations are too small for that. My suggestions don’t include perversions listed above, but differences of culture and varied emphases of the workings of Yahweh and His assignments in the earth, individually and congregationally:

Many new believers do not become effectively connected to a congregation in the US. Probably 96% are not related to any congregation by the 4th year after their conversion. Much of that is due to not finding a congregation in which they find a match to their cultural identities. Poor people trying to fit into a rich congregation, people who like country music trying to fit into a congregation where the worship team plays pop rock, levels of education, and other cultural mis-matches can make a new believer presume that the whole body is the same, and that they don’t fit. The Roman church’s influence of a priestly caste leading congregations without regard for what their spiritual gifts may be (pastor, teacher, prophet, etc.), further creates environments in which some people will not fit the congregation they find in their first couple of tries.

The emphases on various doctrines can become “isms” that pretend their emphasis is the only valid one, and all others are wrong. At a much higher level, such as the perspective of the Head of the body, a high level of diversity is valued and promoted. When the diversity becomes a battle pretense, though, it has become a cancer.

Paul wrote to the congregations at Corinth that they were suffering sickness and death because they were not acknowledging the body – the presence of Jesus – in each other. Not just “in their midst,” but in each other. They were discounting the importance of some members of the body, in effect pronouncing condemnation over that part of Christ’s body, and then eating His body and drinking His blood with their meal. They were cursing His body and then partaking of what they had cursed, not acknowledging and honoring His body being present both in the bread and in the persons (1 Corinthians 11:29-30).

So – when we begin to acknowledge His presence in the denominations and congregations and believers with whom we disagree about particulars of how to be His people (not including perversions and murders), we will be releasing Him to greater manifestation in His people by faith in His ability to be greater than our assignment and placement and preference.

Now may the God of endurance and encouragement grant you agreement with one another, according to Christ Jesus, so that you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with a united mind and voice.
(Romans 15:5-6 Holman Christian Standard Bible ©®)

I wish that all people were just like me. But each has his own gift from God, one this and another that.
(1 Corinthians 7:7 Holman Christian Standard Bible ©®)