The best news is that we are all one in Jesus, so no need to split over it, or divide up the Convention!
FAR more important was the battle fought between the Conservatives and the so called Moderates of the SBC!
I am Southern Baptist and I am watching our denomination splinter into
different sects. Some are adopting Neo-Calvinism, some have split off into the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, which is the liberal spectrum and embrace LGBT rights, gay marriage, Evolution, abortion etc.
And some have gone Charismatic.
I belong to the last vestiges of traditional Southern Baptists Richard Land called the, "Billy Graham wing" of the Southern Baptist denomination.
The Churches of Christ have been splintering for some time.
There are probably 20 different "tribes" within the Church of Christ.
At one far end, there are still Churches of Christ that do not have classes on Sunday.
There are CoCs that only take the grape juice from one cup.
There are those that don't have any sort of church kitchen within the building.
I call these the "Primitive CofCs".
On the other end of the spectrum, you have CofCs that have become mega churches that do not resemble anyone's concept of a Church of Christ whatsoever.
The Hills in the DFW area comes to mind, along with Max Lucado's church in San Antonio.
Many CofCs have not only introduced instruments after almost 100 years of acapella only, but the instrumental service has become their "main" service.
Which is end of the spectrum is "conservative" and which is "liberal" is in the eye of the beholder.
I could make a case that the old style CofCs are the liberal ones, as I think they tend to take "liberty" to apply law where there is none.
Thus I will NOT refer to the music director as the "Worship Leader"
It is the Pastor of the church who leads the worship
It is the Music Director who leads the church in music.
(Yes, I do realize that music is PART of worship)
I’m always amused at people referring to the assembly as worship.
While we certainly can worship God in the assembly, the assembly is primarily for commemorating Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection, as well as edification of the saints.
Somewhere along the way, we redefined the assembly as worship, and redefined the word “church” as the assembly.
Both of these lies have caused untold damage to the expansion of Christ’s kingdom because they trivialize the gospel and shoe horn it into a series of policies, procedures, and rituals.
The music service has become annoying to me. All the up, down, up down and repetition makes me think of this song every Sunday. Some of the songs we sing in our service are about equally spiritual as well.
No need, offenses are necessary, He will one day soon take care of business:
Luke 17:1 Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come!
Matthew 13
41 The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity;
42 And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
43 Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.
monstarted in 1970's
As Harold Lindsell
told us in 1970's, any Christian church that denies full inspiration of Bible right them starts to devolve into heresy of many stripes!
The makeup of our denomination has been primarily white middle/upper middle class, with most church locations in the suburbs.
(Not that there is anything wrong with being white, middle class and living in the suburbs.)
So the challenge is how do you spread the Gospel effectively to ever-changing demographics (more urban, less white) while holding firm to Scriptural truths?