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Saturday, 21 September 2024

Distinctiveness of denominations

 I have attended and had milestone moments in many different denominations. As people go to multiple churches during their lives, perhaps living in towns or villages where only one or two churches were there to choose from, or when family members and friends all attended different churches, the distinctiveness gets diluted. To me that is a good thing, more spiritual, less worldly. Distinctiveness is a fruit of the flesh. Sometimes it is even destructive. It can usually lead to stress, especially for girls preparing for a life where they might need to be able to marry men from backgrounds different to their own, perhaps because they live in a small town or village. It can even cause family ruin. Learning is risky too, because as you experience the Holy Spirit learning, you might learn things that risk you being shunned by elders. Distinctiveness sucks. It can make leaders rich from book sales and conference invitations but it can ruin their hearers, rather than save them. Disunity is not the only evil it causes.