When Religion Gets Confused With Christianity

My mother grew up Irish Catholic and my Father German Lutheran at a time when the two did not mix. In fact, there was a very distinct dividing line in the community separating the two, the railroad tracks. To one side was the predominately Irish Catholics families, and to the other the German Lutherans. To be Catholic or Lutheran defined who you were as much as being German or Irish did. It was definitely a different time.

When my Grandpa discovered that my mom had been dating a Lutheran boy he was furious. My Grandma rushed up from the barn to the farmhouse to warn my mother and asked her to pack a bag and leave before Grandpa came up from the barn himself. My mother packed a bag as she was told. She called my future Father then walked down the long dead end road out to the main road and waited there for him to pick her up. My mother was not allowed back on the home farm for SEVEN years! That was her punishment for disobeying her Father's wishes. I am not even sure if my Mother understood the boundaries my Grandpa expected her to stay within, or if she was openly defiant of them. Regardless, my Mother ended up marrying my Father, maybe as much out as need and loneliness as anything. In trying to control the situation, my Grandpa pushed my Mother into the one thing he wanted to avoid. What irony! Needless to say, my parents are divorced today and my Mother has since gone back to her Catholic roots and faith but we children were raised Lutheran.

It should come at no surprise to us, then, that as my family, and my sister's family, move away from the Lutheran faith toward a Christian, but non-denominational Church, that we should be experiencing conflict with our extended families. If we look to the history our parents have themselves lived through, and the environments they were raised in, it is easy to understand where they are coming from.

Over the Summer, both of our families, independently made a move to a new Church. It just happened to be the same one, and I do believe there to be divine purpose in that. Imagine my surprise when I shared with my sister that we were attending this new Church, and she shared with me that their family also had started attending there. This Church has 3000 worshipers every weekend across three services, so it was easy to not know they were there too. My sister previously had been attending the same church we grew up in, along with our Father and paternal Grandparents. She started experiencing the conflict first, and it has since spilled over to my family.

Last night while celebrating our daughter's twentieth birthday my Father had many comments to make about our Church. "It's an entertainment Church". "I get more out of our Wednesday children's church service than I get out of your Church". "We don't sit around in the basement talking about the financial world" (a misguided perception of the bible study we host in our home called The Truth Project). "If you need to keep defending your Church somethings wrong." He then tells me that both my sister and I get too worked up and that he is only kidding.

I looked around the table and saw my children. All of them present have not yet made a personal choice for Jesus for themselves. I wondered what these so called 'innocent, tongue in cheek jabs' from my Father about the Church we were attending played out in our children's minds. I usually let these things just slide in the attempt to maintain peace. However, I looked my father in the eye and said this is why I get upset. "It is important to me for my children to have a saving faith and when you criticize and make fun of our church you undermine our credibility with them."

I can understand my Father's perspective based on his history and upbringing. I can understand his fear or concerns. I understand his framework and how it was shaped.

I would love to share with him that our Church is biblically sound. I would love to share with him the work Jesus has done in our lives. I would love to share with him how much we have grown in Christ since joining this church. I would love to share with him how much I appreciate the christian education he provided for us as children, and how I am continuing what he modeled in my own family. I would love to share with him the love of Jesus that I have come to experience deeply and how our church works very hard at making disciples who will expand the kingdom of God. I would love to show him, as a friend recently said to me, a whole other side to Christianity that I never knew existed. We are following the faith of our Fathers, just not under the Lutheran denomination.

Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, and Evangelical are all labels man made up to group themselves together and form an identity, to separate themselves from others. I guess in a fallen world, these things are sometimes necessary. However, none are mentioned in the bible and Jesus himself prayed that believers would be one just as He and God are one. How can we be one when we draw lines that divide? Satan will use these titles to divide and conquer. Satan would love us to believe the title is more important than the truth being taught. Satan would love us to believe that the man made rituals, worship style, and human traditions are more important than the biblical content being taught. Satan would love us to keep dividing into fractions, smaller and smaller, more exclusive each time. A house divided by itself cannot stand! That's what Satan wants!

I've heard a lot of people calling for, and praying for, reformation and revival in today's Church. I understand why. We have made the church 'ours' and have forgotten that it is Christ's Church! He is the head. It should be his purposes we seek to live out! There are Christians (Christ followers/disciples) in every biblically sound Church denomination and these denominational lines should not prevent us from being as one with each other and with Christ purposes. There are also many who believe themselves to be Christians who are not showing any evidence or fruit of that in their life and that goes across all denominations as well.

So, I am not necessarily, pulling away from a denomination, but rather running toward Christ! I run straighter and more effectively in the Church we call home today than I did elsewhere. I believe my Church to be biblically sound, effectively teaching and leading, and making disciples of the members who then become willing to do Christ work in this fallen world. I want my children to come to a personal decision for Christ for themselves. When my husband and I are being fed and led, we can feed and lead our children, and with the support the Church provides along with us, they have the information they need to come to that choice. I hope they will end up on the same narrow path and be able to run as straight and as effectively as possible, too!

For now, I pray that our families will not let Satan divide us and for Christ to intercede in this matter.