SeanDietrich.com

SECTS OF RELIGION
By Sean Dietrich

There are plenty of churches in every city you visit. I live in the southern US, so I see them on every corner. I guess that’s why they call it the Bible belt. Down here in the south you can meet people who have been born again multiple times.

THE BIBLE BELT IS TOO TIGHT

In this small city of Destin, Florida there are about 20 churches listed in the phone book. Each church with it’s own different set of written and unwritten rules. Each church has its own bit of property and its own group of “in” people. We call them denominations in American religion. The same thing exists in other religions too, only they are called sects. Sects are merely religious groups within a religious group. Islam and Judaism both have sects also. However, Christianity has far too many sects to even number.

CHURCHES, A DIME A DOZEN

The dangerous thing about sects is that no two sects ever seem to co-exist. The very thing that makes them a sect is their hatred for the other sects. Within Christianity we have over one hundred different sects passionately disagreeing with one another. Each denomination (or sect) has their pet doctrine, which they believe to be of the utmost importance, and they are unwilling to let it go. If all of their zeal could be aimed at unity within the body of Christ imagine what the Lord could accomplish.

JUST BEING CHRISTIAN ISN’T ENOUGH?

In the book of Acts, simply being a follower of Jesus was enough. No pet doctrines had been formulated yet, and being a Christian was all that mattered. In the whole world, there was only one church. There weren’t huge buildings, just believers all belonging to one Lord and one body. Divisions didn’t exist, if you were a Christian, you were in. God hasn’t changed the rules; He still wants unity within the Lord’s body.

Imagine the genuine Christians you know hanging out with one another and spending time together whenever and however they desire. Imagine if church buildings, service schedules, and group labels didn’t stand in the way real fellowship. What God wants, is Baptists and Charismatics to fellowship with one another and become former-baptists and former-charismatics.

CHANGE OF THOUGHT

Chances are I won’t change the people think, but I can change the way that I think. If we made the effort to extend our love and fellowship to all Christians, no matter which preaching clubhouse they attend, or what our differences are, God could do some cool things.