BREAKING DOWN DENOMINATIONAL WALLS
Have you ever wondered why there are so many denominations? And what is the purpose of different denominations? Like most of us, we don't like the idea of having many different kinds of denominations. Why don't we just have one Christian church?
Stormie Omartian who is the bestselling author of The Power of a Praying series uses a simple illustration to help people understand the issue. She wrote in The Power of a Praying Church, "How do you compare apples, oranges, pears, blueberries, cherries, papayas, and bananas? Each one has its own great, distinct flavor. But they are all fruits. And when combined, they make a great fruit salad. That's the way it should be with denominations." Then she went on to say, "The purpose of denominations should be to organize believers into distinct families, not to erect walls that separate the body of Christ... We must pray... when the body of Christ should be coming together, [the mind-set of denominational separatism] will be replaced by an appreciation of our differences. Different flavors - one salad."
We should all wholeheartedly agree with her statement. We dream that one day, all of our Laotian churches around the world, regardless what labels of our distinctive denominations, will be coming together as THE BEAUTY OF A RAINBOW when all the colors are also seen together for unity in one purpose that is to introduce the lost world to the salvation in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.
For us the Laotians, we need all kinds of Church Organizations to get the job done (no matter if we are Evangelical, Baptist, Nazarene, Mennonite, Lutheran, Salvation Army, Covenant, Reformed, Seventh Day Adventist, Evangelical Free, Christian and Missionary Alliance, Methodist, Wesleyan, Assembly of God, Bretheren, Church of Christ, Disciples of Christ, Presbyteran, Catholic, Eastern Orhodox, Swiss Brethren, Church of the Brethren, Evangels, Independent, Episcopal, United Church of Christ, etc.) We need more churches in our world. It may take different kinds of churches to reach different kinds of needs in communities. It would be great for each of us to become involved in organizations like these and join our hearts and hands together.
We're calling all of us to pray for this vision of gathering all believers for REVIVAL meetings to celebrate TOGETHER in our "RAINBOW HARVEST FESTIVALS" around the world.