The inside of the new Wesley United Methodist Church in Marshfield. (Photo courtesy of WAOW-TV)
CONLEY COMMENTARY (WSAU) – Consider today how different our churches are. Some congregations kneel, others stand. Some have closed communion – for confirmed church members only – others have an open table. Some people dress up for church; other churchs are come-as-you-are places. I even know of a church in North Carolina where, spring through fall, people sit on plush chairs in an apple orchard each Sunday.
I am certain that God doesn’t sweat the small stuff. There’s no one church that’s “doing it right”.
Consider the early churches in Rome, and Corenth, and Thessalonia, and Ethesia. There were no cars, or postal service, or facetime then. The early churches in those ancient cities were of different ethnicities, different cultures, different languages. Of course their worships would be different. I believe God intended for worship to look different in different places. Such diversity is a gift – that the message of Christianity is universal; just as vital for different people in different parts of the world.
What matters are the basics: that Jesus is the living son of God, that our sins are forgiven through his sacrifice on the cross, and that we are promised eternal life if we make Christ our Lord and Master. I believe if a church gets those three things right, the rest is just window dressing.
And yet many of us Christians are too quick to wag a finger at other churches. “Oh, where is your bell tower?” “Oh, you don’t sing the right songs.” “Oh, you don’t celebrate certain days on the church calendar.” This is hogwash. Well meaning and faithful men have added their own preferences, their likes and dislikes, into how we worship.
Yet God knows our heart. He knows if we are truly His. And once we are, whether we stand of kneel doesn’t much matter.
Chris Conley
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