The Body of Christ

Over the past semester I have realized all the opportunities that I never took advantage of in Nashville. I lived there the first 18 years of my life, and yet I felt so unappreciative and unaware at the riches in front of me. This past semester I have read about churches, movements, houses of prayer, etc. in Nashville through newspaper and internet articles that I have been dying to visit. I never even knew they existed. So this past Sunday While visiting over the holiday) I went to 3 church services. I started at Fellowship Bible, a church I went to in high school, and it was a really sweet and intimate service. It was 8:00 in the morning on the 1st of January so it was a small crowd, but the message was impacting and communion was so personal. In the still of the morning, a small crowd, in a huge sanctuary, worshiping the Lord and welcoming in the new year. It was such a picture of purity, genuine desire, and peaceful worship.

Next I visited Mount Zion Baptist Church in Antioch. I read an article about the pastors teaching style and how he is a very charismatic speaker that talks with a lightness of spirit yet a strength of conviction. I was one of three white people in a massive sanctuary with 300 plus gospel voiced, "amen" yelling believers that had so much joy, I couldn't help but laugh and sing as we clapped and shifted side to side with the rhythm of the worship music. It was a very different style of worship than I had experienced. I am used to very contemporary worship styles but this was contemporary in a different light. In a traditional Catholic mass there are times to stand and times to sit, but at Mt. Zion you stood when you agreed with what was said! The pastor would say please be seated, but three sentences later, the whole congregation was on their feet saying "glory glory" or "Amen brother"! It was amazing! It was electrifying! The joy of the Lord was there and no one doubted that we were all sitting in the presence of the Lord! It was an image of power, joyous exaltation, and unhinged devotion to the Lord.

Thirdly, I went to a night service at Crosspoint's Nashville Campus. The pastor shared that in the year 2011, over 300 people had committed their lives to the Lord for the first time and that they had a huge problem with attendance....there were too many people coming to church and they are on the verge of expansion! What a fantastic issue! Crosspoint has 5 campuses in the city and neighboring cities in Nashville and are about to launch a sixth in Brentwood. The congregation was ecstatic! We cheered and clapped for the Lord and his faithfulness! The message was given by the shepherding pastor who is very involved in the people and community of the church. He talked about change, connection, and growth for the church. The worship was of the contemporary style and the pastors all have the same hipster style. Literally. The thing I love about the pastors is that they seem so human. If they were walking down the street, I might mistaken one for a grad student, or an artist. They don't put on a show and they don't hid from difficult topics. They are very free in their speaking and very powerful in their word choice and stories. It was a picture of fruitfulness, honesty, and true affection.

These churches, all extremely different in their approach to teaching, worship, even how to take up offering, all have very important messages to give. They pursue the congregation differently, They have experienced the Lord differently, and they teach on very different topics. These three separate pictures all very divinely preach the same message. Though they differ almost 100% on the surface, they all live and breathe for Jesus, they all carry the gospel message with conviction, and they all desire to bring glory and honor to the name of Jesus Christ. Some people see denominations as confusing and divisive, and in some occasions they may be. But, I think God knew what He was doing when He allowed that to happen. These three churches all represent different qualities and characteristics of God. In His sovereignty, God allows many different churches to foster all different types of people, His unique children, not one like the other. There is beauty in the idea that such different churches and such different people all come together in the sight of God to represent the Church, the body of Christ.