Division Problems

We open a new denomination ever 48 hours. Every "non-denominational" church is simply a denomination of one, with no oversight, no safety net, no backup funding, no church discipline. Many, MANY denominations in church history were founded on the premise that denominations are wrong and they wanted no part of it, including: the Society of Friends (Quakers), the Plymouth Brethren, the Anabaptists, the Moravians, the Churches of Christ, the Christian Church, Local Churches (Witness Lee), the Disciples of Christ, the Church of the Nazarene, and countless smaller ones.  In nearly all cases, NO ONE being raised up those denominations is taught that at the core they started to OPPOSE denominationalism and see unity.  (And exception would be the Witness Lee group that still teaches City Church and anti-denominationalism - but you can only have unity if you join THEM because they're the totality of the City Church and everybody else is wrong. See the problem?)  Despite their best efforts, they all ended up spinning up into denominations anyway.

I'm banned for life from a bunches of congregations around Kansas City. One was because I prayed for someone without permission after being warned that I wasn't "trained" and on the "approved" list. (That place later burnt to the ground.)  I'm banned for life (I think) from another because I mentioned City Church and the pastor had been so hurt by Mike Bickle in the 80's that it instantly triggered him and he said, "Not you, not your family, not anybody that agrees with you is ever welcome here again." (So if you agree with me, you're banned from Liberty Christian Fellowship, too. FYI) I tried and tried to explain to him that I wasn't talking about the same thing, but he was too hurt to listen. I tried for two years to talk to pastors, just to have them bite my face off because I touched their sacred cow. One pastor refused to have ANYBODY in his congregation come help us give food and clothes away in their little burnt out town unless I could assure him that every single person volunteering was committed to ONLY using the 1611 King James exclusively. (That church isn't there anymore, either.) 

After two years of trying to talk about unity with pastors and visiting 300 congregations, the Lord said to give it up and go talk to the poor and the addicted and the homeless. That they would listen and be grateful for His gift. And that's pretty much the way Jesus did it, too. It might just be impossible for Pharisees to listen. So don't be a Pharisee.

We're TRAINED to see differences, to divide. But that's how the world works. Romans 12:1-2 says that we can't really expect to know His mind until we STOP conforming to the pattern of this world. As long as we're determined to divide, then we can't be ONE. And one of the most HORRIFYING passages in the Bible is when Jesus prays for us that we would be One because then the world would KNOW that God sent Him. How condemning is that? That the most miraculous sign, the most convincing argument that Jesus was who He said He was - is when the Christians can finally play nice together! Isn't that more important then the Great Commission? In fact, how can you expect to do the Great Commission so long as we're NOT One?! He goes on in John 17 to explain that it can ONLY be One as He and the Father are One when we are FULL of Him and He's full of the Father.  Do you know how to get FULL? Is your church teaching that? We can help.

Denominations of the Church

• Currently there are over 51,000 Christian denominations in the world.
• A huge new Christian nonconfessional megabloc,the Independents/Postdenominationalists,is growing rapidly and numbers 19% of all Christians. These 386 million Independents in 220 countries have no interest in and no use for historic denominationalist Christianity. (2001)
• From only one million in AD 1900, Pentecostals/Charismatics/Neocharismatics have mushroomed to 524 million affiliated (with unaffiliated believers, 602 million). (2001)

Growth of the Church

• From only 3 million in AD 1500, evangelicals have grown to 648 million worldwide, 54% being Non-Whites.
• The country with the fastest Christian expansion ever is China, now at 10,000 new converts every day.  (Iran is exploding now, too!)

Persecution of the Church

• More than 70% of all Christians now live in countries where they are experiencing persecution. In some cases EXTREME persecution.
• 14 million converted Hindus, Buddhists, and Muslims have opted to remain within those religions in order to witness for Christ as active believers in Jesus as Lord. (Described as Cryptochristians)

Unreached Peoples

• Out of 648 million Great Commission Christians, 70% have never been told about world’s 1.6 billion unevangelized individuals.
• There are still thousands of language groups who do not have a SINGLE page of the Bible in their language. 98.7% of people have access to scripture in 6,700 languages leaving 78 million in 6,800 languages with no access at all.
• The majority of the unreached people groups are in countries that are restricted access. Western missionaries may not even be able to get to them.
• Despite Christ’s command to evangelize, 67% of all humans from AD 30 to the present day have never even heard of his name.
• 648 million Christians today (called Great Commission Christians) are active in Christ’s world mission; 1,352 million Christians ignore this mission.
• Organized Christianity has total contact with 3,590 religions but no contact at all with 353 other religions and their over 500 million adherents.

An AD 2001 reality check: 50 new facts and figures about trends and issues concerning empirical global Christianity today."
(from Table 1-1 in World Christian Trends,William Carey Library,David Barrett & Todd Johnson.)

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