*SOUTHERN BAPTISTS RE-NAME THEMSELVES. MAY I SUGGEST “CHRISTIAN”?

You may have read the news that the Southern Baptists are about to change their name as a denomination. Their reasoning is that it no longer reflects their identity accurately.

As a former Southern Baptist (Licensed and Ordained) I couldn't agree more. Their name has never really reflected their actual identity. Not even on the first day they coined it.

If there's any possibility that I might still have a vote in this debate, let me suggest the name "Christian". Only this title properly reflects the true identity of those people.

In fact, if that title isn't the most accurate name for this group of people, it may be time to re-evaluate being associated with them at all.

At some point in your walk with Jesus you need to come to the realization that you are not a Baptist, a Methodist, a Lutheran, a Charismatic, a Pentecostal, or a whatever. You are either a follower of Jesus and therefore a member of the one and only Bride of Christ, or you are not.

There is only One Church. It is made up of people who may disagree on how to reflect the Infinite, or who exhibit a different focus on a particular gifting, or who emphasize their own brand of adoration, but in the end there is only One Bride of Christ.

Ask yourself, "Are denominations God's idea or man's idea?" Does our division advance the Gospel or inhibit the effectiveness of our witness?

I'd like to submit that our denominationalism is a sin. It is the fruit of our pride and our inability or unwillingness to love one another in spite of our differences of opinion over matters of doctrine or inflections of scripture.

Christ is what unites us. Only Jesus.

If you are putting your hope in Christ, and if it is your ongoing, daily intention to follow Jesus and put His words into practice, then you are a member of the Church with full membership privileges. You are important. You matter. We need you. You need the rest of us.

Let us be One even as Jesus and the Father are One. That was the prayer of our Lord, and it should be our desire as well.

If you belong to Christ you are my brother or sister. You're in the Family.

"How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are!" - 1 John 3:1


"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me." - John 17:20-23