Know the Difference

Who or what is your calling?

Who or what is your hope?

For whom or what are you waiting?

Is it Christ, your pastor or the Pope?

Confused, convoluted and conquered

The state of many a Christian

Charged and ready to do “mischief”

Rather than commit to Christ’s “mission”.

Devoted to a “church of Christ”

Rather than to the “Christ of the Church”,

Unsettled because of distinctions

And always appear to be in search.

This might be you or it may not be

But give a listen whatever your state,

Some terms can be rather confusing

So let us some distinctions make.

“Christianity” and “Churchianity”

Are the first I will put on your plate,

We have exchanged the former for the latter

And now “my church” has become the state.

There is no church like my church

My church is the “church of choice”,

The church that’s alive is worth the drive

Come and hear God’s voice.

In my church there are “apostles”

In the others there are “apostates”,

We are the “one and only church”

Where only ordained persons officiate.

There is one “flock” and many “folds”

Some denominations claim them both

And sometimes in their pronouncements

They bind their members to an oath.

Between “organism” and “organization”

We really need to differentiate,

The Church is a “family” not a “faction’

There is no need to hate.

  

The church must be Christ-Centred

Since it is the body of Christ

But often it is Council-Centred

As though a council paid its price.

The “sect” overrides the “Saviour”

And its “traditions” obsolesce the “truth”,

The replacement of the “Individual” by the “Institution”

Is evidenced by abundant proof.

Through the institution many are “deluded”,

To the same they make a “profession”,

Severely lacking in their “devotion to Christ

And denying the Holy Spirit’s “possession”.

The Church possesses a rich “heritage”

As chronicled in the Acts of the Apostles

But many “heresies” have become obvious

Through the infiltration of ungodly people.

The “church building” becomes the emphasis

Rather than the focus being “Christ’s Body”,

My church becomes “The Only One”

And not like the others: “One of the Only”.

Believers are called to be “separate”

But many have striven to be “separatists”,

Somewhat like the Scribes and Pharisees:

These were ignorant in their bliss.

These were “reformed” not “transformed”

And they conformed to a creed

But they ignored the “born-again” call

And premised their righteousness on their deeds.

Many today are earnest churchgoers

But they are bored to death

For they having not been born-again

Have experienced neither peace nor rest.

These sit in their churches and brood

Or they roam from place to place

Hoping to find the “Church of Choice”

While the “Chosen Church” they cannot trace.

They may even search the yellow pages

Trying to find such a church

But won’t find the “blood washed church” there

No matter how hard they search.

The Bible is where they will find it

Not in the latest telephone directory,

The Church is a family not a faction

And the Holy Spirit ensures its unity.

It is based on the apostles’ doctrine

Jesus Christ being the chief cornerstone,

It is an “organism” not an “organization”

And the Holy Spirit sets its tone.

Its message is the Gospel of Jesus Christ

The good news of God’s salvation,

Its mission is to reach the lost for Christ

Across all ethnicities and in all locations.

Stewart Russell © July 2018