2011 Annual Review: Making SPACE for God's NEXT

    Once a year, we spend one day talking about our life as a church - where we’ve been and where we’re going as a church.  Today is that day.  If you’re new with us, consider this a brief look into what’s going on here.  You’ll see that good things are happening.  If you’re not new, walk with me as we try to understand our history, our present, and where God is leading us for our future.

    As I’ve been thinking about this year for our church, I’ve also been thinking of a story from my Texas history class.  The key story of Texas history is their struggle for independence from Mexico.  Here’s a 30 second summary.  Texans rebelled against Mexico and had some early victories in 1835.  Yeehaw!  Mexico responded with a well-trained army under the ruthless General Santa Anna.  The small, unorganized Texas army started - as we say in Texas - gettin’ whoopped (beaten).   Under General Sam Houston, the Texas army retreated, recruited, and trained ... retreated, recruited, and trained.  They were building strength and waiting for the right time.  Finally, in 1836, the Texans attacked, captured Santa Anna, and won the war.
    On the surface, it looked like they were moving backward and getting weaker.  But they weren’t.  They were getting stronger and preparing to move forward from a position of strength.  They were preparing for victory.

Denominations: What Happened & What Now?

There are almost 7,000 languages currently spoken on earth.

  We started with one.  Then came the tower of Babel - when God confused our languages and sent us running to the ends of the earth, scattered into the small groups of people who could understand each other and get along together.

There are some 33,800 different Christian denominations around the world.

  We started with one.  Then came a host of historical events, which sent us running to the ends of the earth, scattered into the small groups of people who could understand each other and get along together.

What happened?  I feel like Rodney King, after the Los Angeles race riots, “People, I just want to say, can we all just get along?  Can we all just get along?”

  Apparently not.  No, we can’t just all get along.  

Today, we’re talking about denominations (교단) - all 33,800 of them, and we’re going to do this with a few different basic questions.

• What happened?  
• Why?  
• What now?  

What Happened?  The History.

 1. The Early Breaks -  The first major breaks within the Church - kind of like denominations - happened in the 5th century.  Both splits were about one issue: How is Jesus both divine and human?   In 431 the Assyrian Church of the East, centered in ancient Iraq, split away because they insisted on the separation and clear distinction of Jesus’ divine and human natures.  20 years later, the Oriental Orthodox Church, split away for the exact opposite reason.   

Interestingly, in 1984, the Pope and the Syriac Patriarch issued a joint statement about these divisions: “The confusions and schisms that ... arose only because of differences in terminology and culture and in the various formulae ... express the same matter.  Accordingly, we find today no real basis for the sad divisions and schisms that ... arose between us ...”

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