These are my thoughts for today.

This morning I went to the "collective protestant" chapel service at Camp Walker. It was interesting. As many times as I try to go to these services, the contemporary and nondenominational, I just don't get it. I haven't been able to deal very well with all the Amens, the hand raising, the altar calls, and the "extemporaneous" prayer. I know it's because of my rearing but you would think that a Christian is a Christian and that if you could go to one service you could go to most and feel right at home.

This is NOT the case. Since the time of Martin Luther, the protestant movement has taken many twists and turns. One of the latest is the non-denominational "mega-church". They are a wonderful missionary idea which has led massive growth in the Christian faith. But not without consequence. Many times the doctrine and preaching are very shallow and Biblical interpretation is whatever the pastor answers when confronted with a new question. Faith is not the issue here, there is no lack of faith and belief in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, the issue is depth.

Repeating Jesus or God or Father 200 times in a service will bring you in no closer contact than one sincere statement of the same. An example of this is the Lords Prayer. Father is mentioned only once at the beginning and then subsequently referred to by your, you, yours, thy and thine depending on the version you were taught or use. If you challenge the idea that the prayer taught to us by Jesus himself didn't have enough "calls" to the Father then I must question your faith or at the minimum your ability to hold focus on the Subject to whom you are praying.

Even though the churches "plug you in", I have heard of many who desire more depth in their worship. This not being the self introspection and bible reading and interpretation, but depth of worship with more structure and tradition in the sanctuary, at the altar, and in the church year. I have found that these people may start out in the "mega-church,"or simply the non-denominational church, but end up "church shopping" or as I would prefer to call it denomination shopping to find the church which has the doctrine most consistent with what they have come to believe and feel in their heart as well as their interpretation of the Bible (and perhaps as noted later on their Political view may play a role as well). Needless to say the Bible does and can be interpreted in many different ways (unfortunately this can be problematic as some (like many lawyers) will twist it into whatever suits their needs at the time).

The question begged is, why do these people start on this path and what determines where they end up? I am certainly not an expert on that topic but I can and have thought about it a lot. Now, I'm not going to be PC here because I can't and talk about different denominations as though they are the same. Many church alliances have been formed which may or may not be an attempt to more singularize theology or to bring denominations closer together. Some of these "alliances" give their parishioners the "opportunity" to worship at other denominations and fully partake in their traditions, to include the Sacriment of Holy Communion. The quandry is what has happened in these denominations to cause a need for these alliances, and why are there only certain parts of a whole denomination which will do this. For example the Lutheran Church (of which I am a member) has been split into many seperate denominations. Why? In Germany there is only one German Lutheran Church, why then has the US split the denomination into 3 major and one minor denominations as well as many other sub-groups? I give you this, we have the Wisconsin Synod, the Missouri Synod, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. What is odd is that certain political views tend to predominate each of the Synods (there are always outliers). A truist would say that a denomination should not be divided by political party or values. Thus the truist will look only at the theology/doctrine before joining a denomination as opposed to looking at the people. Now I will go on to say that this separation is not at all limited to the Lutheran Church. It can be seen in Presbyterian, Methodist and Episcopalian as well as the non-protestant Catholic and Jewish faiths. I ask you to ponder why, in the US, we have split even to our core religion? And I propose that the answer is not what you want to hear.

Back on track. The movement of new believers into the denominations. As mentioned above there are many different denominations all preaching a similar message. The message of Jesus Christ. When a denomination questions the teachings of Jesus and what the Bible says, that church has lost it's cornerstone and needs to look back and rebuild. For all others the incoming new believer will be looking for something that digs deeper so they can learn more about their faith. This is a journey and one church may not be the destination. Thus it is imperative that the basic foundation of the church be preached each and every week (and even in midweek). Many churches have defaulted to modifying or changing their traditions to accomidate or bring in those new believers. I will not go into depth on that subject other than to say, there are many people which will stumble on this and perhaps be drawn in (wonderful) but through their training in the doctrine of the church they must be on the same level as a Junior Confirmand. To give only a rudimentary education and release as a full member is to slowly and gradually forget the roots of the church. This must not be allowed to happen, for the sake of the Christian world we must not forget the foundations of our faith. It's not just about God, it's about salvation by Grace through Faith in Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. This and this alone!!