How old is your church?

Recently, our church has been cooperating with a rather new congregation/church called Rock City.  I'd never heard of it until about 5 years ago when I went to an early movie at the Lenox Center, and found that the church had rented the theater and had about 5 services before noon! It was created in 2011 from a Bible study group. They were so loud, we could actually hear them in some of the other theater spaces.  Now they've grown, and are also having services on Sunday at our local high school and expanding to other suburban locations.  So, as far as I know, this is a pastor-based, rock music service, Christian church, not tied to classic Protestantism like Lutherans, or Presbyterians or Methodists, and not having any authority but its pastor and his advisors, but I'll do a bit more research.  It's the everyone's a pope phenomenon of American Christianity.

Here's an interesting outline--I'd seen something similar on Facebook, although not as complete. Of course, all Christian churches/sects will say they were "founded" by Jesus Christ, and for some reason God let the church go dark (his word says this can't happen), and then their particular founder or group (whose names are not given in the Bible) rediscovered the various truths of the church. This list doesn't include groups like Vineyard or Mormons or the various Wesley off-shoots.  But then, there are about 35,000 just in the U.S., so I suppose it would get too complicated. I've added some in italics that are not part of the web site.

Name: The Catholic Church
Founded in: 33 AD
Founded by: Jesus Christ

Name: Orthodox
Founded in: 1054
Founded by: A separation from the Catholic Church

Name: Lutheran Denominations
Founded in: 1517
Founded by: Martin Luther and his disciples

Name: The Church of England
Founded in: 1534
Founded by: King Henry VIII

Name: Presbyterian
Founded in: 1560
Founded by: John Knox (in Scotland) and John Calvin

Name: Congregationalist (most now UCC)
Founded in: 1582
Founded by: Robert Brown

Name: Baptist
Founded in: 1605
Founded by: John Smyth

Name: Dutch Reformed
Founded in:1628
Founded by: Michaelis Jones

Name: Quakers
Founded in: 1652
Founded by: George Fox

Name: Amish
Founded in: 1693
Founded by: Jacob Amman

Name:  Church of the Brethren/Brethren Church
Founded in: 1708
Founded by: Alexander Mack

Name: Methodist
Founded in: 1744
Founded by: John and Charles Wesley

Name: Unitarian
Founded in: 1774
Founded by: Theophilus Lindley

Name: Episcopal
Founded in: 1789
Founded by: Samuel Seabury

Name: Disciples of Christ (Christian Church)
Founded in: 1804
Founded by: Group of Presbyterian Ministers (Campbell movement, Restoration movement)

Name: Seventh Day Adventist
Founded in: 1860
Founded by: Ellen White

Name: Salvation Army
Founded in: 1865
Founded by: William Booth

Name: Christian and Missionary Alliance
Founded in: 1865
Founded by: Albert Simpson

Name: Assemblies of God
Founded in: 1914
Founded by: A group of Pentecostal preachers

Name: United Church of Christ
Founded in: 1957
Founded by: Union of several groups (including those birthed by the Puritans)

Name: Calvary Chapels
Founded in: 1965
Founded by: Chuck Smith

Name: Vineyard
Founded in: 1975
Founded by: Kenn Gulliksen, John Wimber

Name: Rock City Church
Founded in: 2011
Founded by:  a Columbus Bible study group

Can Hutterites be born again?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddIxHNJ38mk

This is a fascinating film about a communal Christian colony called the Hutterites.  Their origins are in the Amish and Mennonite Anabaptist tradition and there are over 400 colonies in Canada and the U.S. This group live near the Canadian border, but some time back during a time of grief, one family went to a tent revival and were “saved,” and now worship differently than the Hutterites.  The emphasis is on Jesus, not love and commitment to the community of believers. They worship in English, not German.

The Flatwillow colony born again women sell their bread at a farmer’s market and use the time to evangelize. This is different from other Hutterites that only send men outside the colony. The “born agains” have Bible study, a practice not observed by Hutterites who read the Bible literally without questioning or interpreting. The “born agains” will not be able to intermarry with the Hutterites, and the two groups no longer do the same tasks on the 15,000 acre property.

I didn’t know when the film was made, but the eye wear looked like the early 1990s, and I found a WorldCat entry for 1992, filmed by BBC. So this all happened over 20 years ago.  They were making so many dress and life style changes I assume they eventually didn’t follow any Hutterite traditions, although when the film was made they continued them.  I did find an obituary for Eli Stahl from 2011, which follows a comment one of his relatives made in the film about an early death for those who leave the faith.

How liberal is your church?

Christians fight about almost everything--baptism, end times, Bible translations, role of women in the church, clothing (is a zipper more worldly than a button?), but on politics, they do have some agreement. You are probably a member of a liberal congregation (although not necessarily a denomination) if you can spot the key words in your literature, sermons, workshops, retreats, magazines: Healthcare reform, social justice, inclusiveness, peace at any price, Bush blaming or bashing.

If you find yourself nodding in agreement (or nodding off) with most of your religious life speakers, academic faculty and government retirees/CNN wannabees hired to inform and entertain you, then you're in a liberal church. And that's probably where you are comfortable, and where you belong. Peek in the congregational wallet. Conservatives give more than liberals at every level from voluntering time to donating money, but all churches could benefit if the $5/week folks would just double that. Churches could then be right up there with the gambling industry, which incidentally would fall apart without Christians like Governor Strickland, a former Methodist pastor.

Journalists vote 100:1 Democrat party to Republican. Librarians vote 223:1 Democrat to Republican. So that reflects what we see in the news, what gets published and which titles are purchased for public libraries. This is your community; do you really want it from the pulpit? Or check the speaker or preachers' resumes. A Congregational, Episcopal, Lutheran or Methodist pastor who believes marriage is for one man and one woman is probably on his or her way out the door in career terms. Many churches now have their sermons on-line--that might be a clue. Major universities don’t promote conservative faculty (if their views are public) and faculty at 2nd and 3rd tier colleges are probably hoping to move up. For that they'll need to carry the liberal union card. There is no freedom of thought, speech or publishing at major name universities; there is some at the smaller schools. Check the buzz words in the publication or sermon or workshop titles. Terms like “food insecurity,” “health disparities,” "income gaps," “intervention research,” “community-based,” “upstream,” or “racial bias” ought to be red flags. If sin is an old fashioned word in your church, except where it appears in criticizing the Republican party, yes, you are in a liberal church, and I hope you find it safe and comfortable with your beliefs never challenged by Scripture. When you find out you can't even reform yourself, let alone a whole town or country, we will welcome you home with open arms.