Living Water: As Bold as a Lion

Chapter Ten in our weekly bible study of Brother Yun's Living Water: Powerful Teachings from the International Bestselling Author of The Heavenly Man.

The chapter is about being bold.

As Brother Yun says: "The will of God should be the primary focus of all Christians. To glorify Him should be our greatest honor and privilege. All else is a waste of time, and this world is perishing while too many Christians live out fleshly lives full of compromise and selfishness."

This is all too true of me. But I think that Brother Yun forgets that our life is lived here on earth. And the earth is full of sin. We have to die to ourselves daily in order to live forever.

But God uses us in our imperfection to advance His purposes.

We have to die to ourselves and depend on the Lord to change us. It is not something that we can do in our own power.

But as the Lord changes us we can be bold in telling others about Christ. We must be bold and we must look for the opportunities that come our way to tell others about Jesus while we live our lives in this imperfect world.

Anything else falls short...

Community

Amidst all the busyness of day to day life, my mind keeps going north to Moorhead, Minnesota where my parents live and the flood rages.

Talking with my Mom and Dad and with my sister and reading the paper on line just drives home how important community is. Not the noun community, the verb community.

This is where life is lived with each other. This is where college and high school kids stop to help unload a stranger's pickup truck of sand bags at a stranger's house. This is where people go to church for support when their house is surrounded by flood waters and they don't know if it will still be there when they get back.

This is where a guy sits in his living room in shock at the rising waters while friends and neighbors battle on in the basement to save his home. This is where a guy works all day at this job and then goes and works half the night to help strangers defend their homes.

It's where young and old come together to do what seems to be impossible. It's where people drive four hours to help fill thirty pound sand bags in a stadium filled with sand and bags. It's where the colleges let out class and the students go to work helping the neighbors they haven't met in a city that may be their home for only a short time.

It's where the wife in a home threatened by rising water takes the time to feed the people that she doesn't know (and may never see again) that stopped to pile some more sand bags on the dike simply because the job needed doing.

Community is more than a place to live, it is a place where life is lived with each other. It is a place where when troubles come people band together and do their damnedest to solve the problem instead of sitting around and waiting for the government to do something. It's a place where leaders lead instead of wringing their hands.

Its where a sense of peace comes when all possible has been done and everything is in God's hands for good or bad.

Community is a place that I miss an awful lot at times like this...

CIA Summit First Wrap Up

Finally home. Whew!

Got home this afternoon (Sunday) from Nashville. We drove in to see Bradford pears at full bloom and a couple of neighbors have broken trees from the weight of several inches of snow. It''s good to be home.

Last night was the wrap up of the CIA Summit in Nashville. After tornado sirens and large hail (which we managed to avoid), the Momentum Awards ceremony was held followed by a concert by Margaret Becker.

Yesterday was a good day of presentations on the Future of Music, Marketing in an Internet Age and Producers and AR. Solid information presented.

At the concert we were talking with a young couple attending the Summit for the first time. They said that they got more information out of this conference than they have any other and that they had attended a lot of conferences.

Loralie and I came away with a long to do list in order to move her music ministry forward. The music industry is changing and there is a fundamental shift in how the public consumes music. The future is about engaging fans.

It is an exciting time to be involved with music.

And I am tired.

CIA Summit Day 4 - First Pass

Wow! Again.

And I am beat...

What a day! (again). This will take a while to process through.

And it is late and tomorrow we need to hit the road and head home. Heavy thunderstorms hit Nashville today while a blizzard hit home and flooding was going on in Minnesota. Will be good to get home.

We heard a ton of good stuff again today, but the highlight had to be Tom Jackson. He is a live performance producer who helps artists get their shows ready to go. We will listen to some tapes from last year on the drive home, but the thing that he said that really hit home was: "Don't let anyone tell you that you are too old to do this." It was something that I have never heard him say before.

It was also good to hear that the artist has to build a relationship with their fans. And we heard lots of good ideas on that.

So much more to process and think about and more to write but my mind is pretty much mush.

In a good way though...

CIA Summit Day 3 - part One

Wow!

My head is spinning! Started the day off with some music and then teaching by the Pastor of Provision International, Scott MacLeod. Great message on serving the poor and widows and orphans, especially in the poorest neighborhoods.

Grant Norsworthy than got up and hit us right between the eyes with a powerful message of worship not just through music but all the time. What an incredible message! Grant was the bass player for Sonic Flood and he talked a lot about the paradox of Christianity. Grant also took Dietrich Bonhoffer's quote on cheap grace and updated to today.

I love this quote:
"Cheap worship is the mortal enemy of our church. Our struggle today is for costly worship."

While I still think there is a huge battle against cheap grace, cheap worship rings so true to me.

We also have to admit that sometimes there are things wrong with us. That is a hard thing to do.

Then we had presentations on the structure of the music industry and a panel on management. Followed by an interview with a publicist and a panel on branding and a panel on merchandising. And somewhere in there was a presentation on podcasting and traps for musicians in thinking too highly of themselves and losing sight of God in it all.

The best part is the networking where we can talk with other artists and see what they are doing and what we can do to improve Loralie's ministry. Got to see the rappers from North Carolina again today as well as Change of Heart from California. They finally dropped off the charts and Loralie moved up to number 1! Pretty neat to see it finally happen especially at this conference.

Off again to a late night session of hanging out with other artists.
This is getting tiring...

CIA Summit Day 2

Today was kind of an off day.


We slept in and then went to the Summit. We listened to several singer/songwriters and heard differing levels of talent and production values.


Then we drove around downtown Nashville to see the sites. Nice to have a bit of time to do so.


Next we headed out to Radnor Lake Natural Area which is close to our hotel. Very neat place. We went hiking for a couple of miles. We saw a cardinal, a couple of Canadian geese, lots of turtles sunning themselves on logs, squirrels, a woodpecker, a duck, a chipmunk and an otter on a log eating a fish ( I think it was a crappie). It was good to get out and stretch our legs in the outdoors for a while and see the beautiful lake even if it was under gray clouds and the wildlife moving around. And it was the first time that I have seen an otter in the outdoors.

Then we headed down to the Mecca of debt free living Financial Peace University home to Dave Ramsey. We took the picture of the sign and the building and went inside to find the place under construction. Bookstore closed and the studio not open for viewing. Kind of anticlimactic.

We also heard today that one of the biggest reasons for failure in the music industry is that musicians carry too much debt.

Back to the hotel to saw some logs and then to the Foundry to just get blown away by a presentation on Business, Occupation and Ministry by Artists in Christian Testimony International. Really good presentation and there was info in there for about twenty posts. Byron Spradlin had some excellent stuff on the artist as a craftsman.

I think the big aha I got was that God may not use your occupation as your calling. It is an occupation and a way to support yourself and your family. And it is a ministry vehicle, a place to do ministry. And business is not bad in Christian circles. More later on all this.

We sat next to a couple of young Christian Rappers from Winston-Salem North Carolina. Had a great talk with them. Names are Nick and Mike. Good guys and fun to talk to. Late night and good to be done for the day. Tomorrow the real conference starts.

And my head will probably be ready to explode by the end of the day...

CIA Summit (Day One Addendum)

Getting ready for day two of Nashville.

Looking forward to it. Will be a day of singer/songwriters and bands showcasing their talents and music.

Last night, those who were at the songwriting conference had their names put in a hat and if their name was drawn they could go sing a song. We heard some good and some not quite as good. Some New Southern Gospel, Bluegrass, Praise and Worship, Contemporary Christian and even a guy who played like Jimmy Buffet. I don't quite know how to classify him.

But classification isn't important. Whether it is in the music industry or in the world. Classification only helps us develop reference points with which we can communicate with others. It hinders us in that it puts others into boxes in our minds that they probably don't belong in.

And when we do that we start to dismiss people because we confuse the boxes with the people.

And that is not good.

So today I am going to listen to music. Some I like and some I probably won't like. And regardless of the genre' (my big word for today), I will do my best not to put people into little boxes.

Could be an interesting day.

CIA Summit

Wow! First day of the CIA Summit in Nashville.

This was the songwriting seminar. Loralie attended and I audited. In a neat part of town in an cool old brick building in the inner city called The Foundry.

Lot's of good information and on songwriting that transfer to other disciplines (like writing). And lots of good techniques specific to songwriting.

But more than that it is a good chance to network and find out what other Christian artists are doing.

We've met people from North Carolina, California, Washington, Illinois, Missouri and there are more to meet in the next few days. We still have to meet the guy from the Netherlands and the guy from Australia.

A couple notes on the drive down: ten hours.

But a good chance to listen to CD's and talk. Some really good CD's from Tom Jackson on performances and managing your music ministry. This was recorded in Kansas City in 2005 and is still relevant today.

Time like that is a blessing.

As is this conference.

Sandbagging

My Dad just celebrated his 79th birthday.

I found out today that he is a sand bagger.

A little background.

I grew up in Moorhead Minnesota which is right across the Red River of the North from Fargo North Dakota. The towns sit in the middle of the Red River Valley which is basically flat for 20 miles in each direction from the river.

Every few years there seems to be a major flood with a lot of overland flooding. This is where the water runs over the land spreading out across the valley.

A couple of weeks ago, there was a major snow storm with a bunch of snow dumped on the area. Then it got up to 50 degrees this past weekend with some rain. And the ground is still frozen. So there is a lot of flooding in the area.

Sheriffs have closed roads and requested that schools cancel classes. One county closed 30 roads and said absolutely no travel after dark since they can't tell what roads are washed out. Portable flood barriers are being brought in to help control the damage.

The National Guard is being called up to help out.

Water systems are being shut down to prevent contamination and people are being asked to conserve water (seems a little strange in a flood). Stores are staying open late to allow people to buy flood supplies.

The colleges and tech schools have let out students to help sandbag. High school students are skipping class to sand bag. Prisoners are serving their sentences by filling sand bags.

Neighbors are helping neighbors and a community comes together.

I have to remind myself that the stuff is only stuff. Tough as it would be to be flooded out it is only stuff. But there are lives at stake. People are working too hard and stressed out watching the water rise.

And my 79 year old, retired teacher, cancer surviving father is down at the river helping two of his friends sand bag their homes.

And now for Something Completely Different

That is how my favorite show from the 70's started: And now for something completely different.

And this has nothing to do with Monty Python's Flying Circus.

But it is completely different from what I usually write about.

This is about basketball.

Kansas played North Dakota State today in the NCAA tournament in Minneapolis. This was the first time that NDSU made the tournament. Ever. First year of eligibility.

So in spite of the fact that my wife got her Masters at KU, I dug out my NDSU t-shirt and Bison hoodie to wear today here in the heart of Jayhawk country. I got the t-shirt when our daughter thought it might be good to attend college there. I think the hoodie came from Grandpa and Grandma for Christmas one year.

I don't think that most people recognized the colors or the logo. But that is OK. I still felt good about supporting the Bison.

And we also realized that our son Dan has played basketball against the starting center for KU: Cole Aldrich. This was back in eighth grade when Dan's team went to the national Lutheran school tournament in Valparaiso Indiana. They played a team from Bloomington, MN that had several kids over 6 foot tall. One was Cole who was 6'8" at the time. As an eighth grader. He's now 6'11" as a Sophomore in college.

I think Dan was around 5'4" at the time.

Dan's team lost.

But it is interesting in any event.

And one of the coaches on Cole's team was Randy Brewer who played for the University of Minnesota when I was going to school there. Same time as Kevin McHale.

So tomorrow it will be time for something completely different (from this at least).

And it was good to see NDSU put up a good fight.

Shepherds and Sheep

Interesting comment in Frank Viola's book: Reimagining Church: Pursuing the Dream of Organic Christianity. He talked about the common view of pastors as shepherds of their flocks.

The idea is that the pastor shepherds his flocks and encourages it to grow and flourish.

A couple of problems with this point of view. One is that it puts the pastor in the place of Christ the Good Shepherd. That opens up a whole can of worms regarding the priesthood of all believers and will have to be the subject of another post at another time (or more likely several posts over time).

Anyway, Frank also points out that earthly shepherds are "incapable of breeding their sheep. They also steal their wool and eat them for dinner!"

Is that the picture for you want of the modern pastor?

Rather than being an absurdity, unfortunately, too many times that picture is all too accurate. We only need to read the paper from time to time to see the "falls' that prominent pastors and leaders have made.

Rather than a leadership marked with humility and servanthood there is leadership marked by ego and greed. This runs counter to every picture of leadership in the Bible.

Both Old and New Testament.

Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of examples of egotistical and greedy leaders in the Bible, but without exception they are held out as examples of how not to behave and pay a price for their misdeeds.

I am beginning to question the need for a professional clergy.

I am not sure that it is a biblical concept.

And that too, will have to be the subject of another post on another day...

Living Water: True Freedom

Chapter Eight of Brother Yun's book Living Water: Powerful Teachings from the International Bestselling Author of The Heavenly Man. The chapter is titled: True Freedom.

In this chapter, Brother Yun recounts how it took prison for him to realize the freedom that he had in Christ and that "prison is mainly a state of mind rather than a physical place." He realized that by praising God in all things and for all things he could still be a witness for Christ in the midst of filth squalor and violence.

But even more powerful was how he talked about people in the "free" world who are tightly bound. People's hearts are "tightly chained with sin and addiction" and even though they look normal "they are prisoners within." Furthermore he states that this is the condition of many who attend church and: "They need the truth of Jesus to set them free!"

How true! We walk around with our smiling faces and we pretend that every thing is OK when we desperately need to get well. The problem is that our addictions, bitterness, sin, unforgiveness, lusts, greed, hate, etc, etc are comfortable to us. Christ is asking us if we want to get well and we are going: "Uh, let me think about that for a while. I am not sure that I want to give this up right now."

Once we let Christ heal us he can use us to reach others who are bound to the same sort of sin that we have been freed from. This process may be instantaneous or it may be gradual but the healing will take place.

And true freedom is ours for the asking.

We just have to ask Christ to set us free.

And He will.

Integrity

Went to lunch today. Usually I go home for lunch since it is only six tenths of a mile from work: close enough to walk home and back if I want. But I digress (as usual).

Anyway, today Loralie and I went up to Vineyard Christian Fellowship for a lunch sponsored by the Integrity Resource Center. Integrity Resource Center was founded and is run by my friend Rick Boxx and this was a recruitment event for the Kansas City Faith Incorporated event on 17 April.

Rick has the "vision of restoring integrity and faith at work."

Integrity is often missing from the business world. We only have to look as far as today's headlines with Bernie Madoff going to jail for perpetrating an estimate $50 billion dollar fraud to see that this character trait is sorely absent.

Rod Handley, President of Character That Counts was the main speaker today. Rod was formerly the CFO/COO of Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA). A couple of points really resonated with me.

Rod said that the root word of integrity is the same as that of integer (whole number, I had to look it up, too). The quote is that: "God is interested in integers and Satan is interested in fractions." What truth is wrapped up in that statement! Satan comes only to divide and separate. But God is interested in the whole person.

Rod also pointed out several results of integrity. A couple that stuck out to me were: A clear conscience and leaving a legacy.

These are extremely important results. Having a clear conscience before God is rare. Too often we retreat into self recrimination or self justification and we never admit to God our sins, our shortcomings. And we all fall short of the glory of God!

And leaving a legacy is critical for a man today. I am not talking about the legacy of money (although that would be nice), I am talking about the legacy of my life written in the lives of my children and others. But first my children. And by living my life in integrity to the greatest degree that I can with the help of God, I will leave that legacy.

I referee soccer. Frequently, prior to a game, I've had a parent or coach jokingly (I assume) ask me how much it would cost for their team to win the game. My response is always the same: "You don't have that much money." A couple of times, I've had a guy get his back up and say: "How do you know how much money I have?" And my response is always that my integrity is not for sale at any price.

That is an easy one. As Rod pointed out out, we need to exhibit integrity in all the little things too. For if I sell my integrity for a dollar, I might as well sell it for more.

May you walk in integrity in all that you do.

Living Water: Lazarus, Come Out!

Chapter Seven of Living Water by Brother Yun: Lazarus, Come Out!

Interesting in that Brother Yun draws the two stories of Mary and Martha together. He points out that in the West He has come across three types of people in the church.

The first is like Martha: busy serving others. They do lots of good things but mostly they are done for the sake of doing those things. As a result they miss Jesus in their midst.

The second is like Mary: sitting at the feet of Jesus.

The third is like Lazarus: dead. Spiritually dead for three or four days. Yet the parables show that Christ can bring the cold dead back to life. What hope there is for the churches of today where there is little or no apparent life or joy!

The Western church is generally like Martha: "You know the truths about God's Word in your head, but you still like to run your own lives." What a condemnation!

But even more: "So many churches and individual believers think they should make their own plans and strategies, then ask God to bless them."

I know that I and my church have been guilty of this recently.

And this is so contrary with what God wants us to do. He wants us to approach Him first and listen to what He has to say instead of arrogantly assuming that He will bless what we want to do because we want to do it.

"All that matters is that Jesus loves you and He wants to be your best friend."

Articles

Two articles came my way today. Each in their own way have given me much to think about.

The first was reported by Rachel Zoll of the Associated Press with the headline of "More Americans say they have no religion." The survey was the American Religious Identification Survey.

This article points out that the number of Americans who say they have no religion is growing and is now at 15%. Roughly 75% identify themselves as Christian and another 10% identify themselves as other (Jewish, Muslim, etc). This is down from 86% in 1990.

There is a downward trend in the number of Americans who say that they are Christians. And remember, just because you call yourself a Christian doesn't mean that you are one.

The second article was in The Christian Science Monitor by Michael Spencer and titled "The coming evangelical collapse."

Mr Spencer expects that within the next ten years there will be a major collapse in evangelicalism in the United States. The main points are that evangelicals have tied themselves too closely to political conservatism in the culture wars. We have also failed to pass on to our young the ability to withstand a cultural onslaught on their faith. They know what they should think but not why.

It pretty much comes down to a widespread ignorance of the Bible. We have failed to become biblically literate. We have failed to use the Bible as a relevant tool in our day to day life.

A couple of good passages from the article:

"American Christians seldom seem to be able to separate their theology from an overall idea of personal affluence and success."

We miss the boat. From our performance based worship services and corporate style church governance, we have allowed the culture to dictate how we do church. This includes the rise of the modern mega church and the continued fragmentation of denominations.

Mr Spencer also asks the question: Is the coming collapse a bad thing?

I don't think so. First of all I don't necessarily agree with his basic premise that the evangelical church will collapse within the next ten years. But as I have grown increasingly dissatisfied with the corporate church and canned, passive, performance based worship, I have come to the conclusion that radical change is sometimes a desirable thing. And sometimes that radical change is painful to all involved.

And finally, Mr Spencer states:

"We can rejoice that in the ruins, new forms of Christian vitality and ministry will be born. I expect to see a vital and growing house church movement. This cannot help but be good for an evangelicalism that has made buildings, numbers, and paid staff its drugs for half a century.

We need new evangelicalism that learns from the past and listens more carefully to what God says about being His people in the midst of a powerful, idolatrous culture."

Amen, brother.

We need to be aware of whose we are and where we are. And I think that all too often we forget that.

Satisfaction

Yesterday was a very satisfying day.

I learned how to use a new computer program (EMail Marketing Professional).
I set up several e-mail lists to use mass e-mail capabilities.
This included both importing an email list and hand entering a bunch of contacts.
I tested the set up.
I developed an email to mail out.
And I sent it out.

I fully realize that there are a whole bunch of "I"s in those sentences as well as this sentence. My point is not to glorify the work that I did. Loralie had to do a lot of work in getting the email list together and check my test emails.

But the whole point of this is that we got something completed that took a bit of effort and we got it done at the appropriate time for what we are trying to accomplish.

And that is very satisfying.

All too often I have a bunch of not quite finished things going on and I just never get around to finishing them.

And the satisfaction of finishing a task is lost.

It takes finishing something like this to remind me of the simple joy in completing a task.

I need to do this more often.

Now I have to get those shelves finished for Ellen...

Debt

I went to church last night.

They gave out numbers on how they were doing with the budget which is not good.

First some background and a disclaimer: I have talked about everything that I am going to mention with the Pastor and leadership of my church. That is the disclaimer.

I hate debt. Debt is wrong. It is not evil, just wrong. We still have our mortgage, but we've paid off our consumer debt. We're still trying to figure out whether or not to pay off the mortgage.

Some background. Our church has $5 million in debt on the building. Last Mothers Day, a marketing presentation was made in place of the sermon on the need to build an addition on to the building in order to "support the ministry." This was a shock to most people in the congregation. Nothing had been said prior to Mother's Day.

Later, around July, prayer started around the whole thing.

Part of the plan was to reduce the debt with 20% of the proceeds going to debt reduction. The goal was somewhere around $3 million.

Roughly $1.4 million has been pledged. Far short of the goal. And blamed on the economy. I happen to believe that God will provide regardless of the economy if it is in his will.

Our payments on the debt run around $20,000 a month.

Interesting. For that is about what we short in offering for February.

I know that if we try to do this in our human abilities we will have human results. And so far the
results seem to be about what the rest of society is experiencing.

Is this God trying to tell us that we would be OK if we pay off the debt? Or is it just me trying to see what I want to see in my humanness?

Humbling

My wife Loralie is a singer/songwriter.

Actually, she is an excellent singer songwriter, but I have to admit that I might be slightly biased. But only very slightly.

She is a member of IndieHeaven, an organization for independent Christian musicians. Indie Heaven has as part of their site (indieheaven.com), Fan Faves where artists can post their songs and then fans can go in and vote for them once a day. Songs move up and down the chart based on the fan votes. Songs stay on the chart for 30 days.

Loralie posted her song "Face of Jesus" last Wednesday. It was up to 10 on the chart as of this morning.

I sent out a total of around 100 emails to people urging them to "vote early and vote often". Most are fans and some are friends and some are both.

The response has truly been amazing and really humbling.
We've heard from our daughter that a friend of hers is voting every day and asked his co-workers to vote also. We've never met the guy. but he is excited about the whole thing.

A lady in a retirement home (I mean "lifestyle enhancement community with a minimum age of 62") who goes to our church said that she was voting every day.

We got an email from a friend saying that his family was casting five votes a day since they have five computers.

Another friend called to say that she and her husband had just voted on their computers. Kind of a couple thing.

We heard from a couple that moved to Florida and had my original e-mail forwarded to them. The wife said that Loralie's song reminded her to forget the busyness of life and focus on what is important. Wow!

And these are just part of it.

My Mom is watching the chart everyday (I am not sure if she has asked the Knit Wits to vote though).

It is really humbling and it is really neat to see how the message spreads and the tribe grows.

Part of the beauty of Fan Faves is that it allows us to connect with Loralie's fans and ask them to do something simple. It engages them with her music and ministry in the absence of a live performance or a new CD.

People want to help and this gives them something concrete and easy to do.

And it also exposes her music to others who may not have heard it before. And some may not know Jesus.

Helping others know Jesus is what it is all about.

Even if we never know who might hear.

I have to go and vote now...

Living Water: The Person God Uses

My copy of Living Water by Brother Yun is getting pretty marked up.

This week it is chapter six: The Person God Uses.

One of things that stood out to me was the statement: "There is so much Christian activity being done in the name of the Lord today that does not have His power or presence at its core."

I totally agree with this statement. There is so much being done in our humanity. When we do human things in human power we get human results. Whether it is a sermon or a meeting or a fundraising campaign, if God is not in it, it will not have Godly results.

The last sentence of the paragraph stood out: "Such "work" is tragic and never produces true fruit for the kingdom of God." I disagree with that statement. I think that it limits God and I think that God will use even our feeble efforts as it suits him. I came to know Christ through a preacher who has been discredited as a false faith healer and called a heretic.

We are also cautioned to let our ministry become an idol. "We can trick ourselves into thinking that everything is alright because the people seem to be blessed by what we have to say." this happens when we lose sight of why we are doing what we are doing and who gets the glory. If we let the "glory" get in our eyes we start to rely on ourselves and not on God.

We are cautioned to remember that we are nothing without God! How different this is from what we are told in the West! We are told to be self sufficient, to get ahead, to get promoted collect the toys and the house and the cars. Rely on yourself.

Not how I want to live. Anymore...

Church and church

A conversation with a friend last week got me thinking. I know, an unusual occurrence, me thinking...

Anyway, we seemed to be having some trouble connecting until we realized that we were operating under different meanings of a key word. After that it became a lot easy to at least understand each others positions.

And that brings us to church. I think that there are two definitions of church that are not necessarily mutually exclusive but can cause a lot of disagreement.

The first definition is the body of believers in Jesus Christ. The second definition is a group of people who meet together to worship usually in a building also called a church.

Frank Viola (no, not that Frankie Viola) in his excellent book Reimagining Church points out that Paul in his letter to the Romans calls the church all those whom God has accepted (Romans 15:7). Thus the church spans denomination and division. We are called into fellowship with all who believe regardless of what label they (or we) may apply.

The church of Christ consist of all believers in Jesus Christ who have accepted the free gift of eternal life granted through his death on the cross for our sins. Period.

Anything else is divisive. This includes denominations. All denominations. Nowhere in scripture is it found that we have to belong to a particular group for eternal salvation.

I am convinced that there are many sitting in a church on Sunday who don't know Christ and are there for the entertainment. The sermon and the music. Yet they talk about being members of a particular church.

Again: membership doesn't save anyone. Neither does worship preferences.

We must recognize that our brothers and sisters are those who believe in Jesus Christ as Savior regardless of what labels are attached to them. Anything else is wrong.

But we also have to be discerning, humble and patient to know who is our brother and sister.