It seems that throughout the centuries of church history, the church has been divided. Sometimes new thoughts--or a return to old thoughts--namely, the Bible--can be very good. Martin Luther was a great reformer, and brought the Bible into the hands of the people, and taught that we could come to Christ without a human mediator, that we are saved by grace, not by our own works.

But it seems that the many sects and forms of worship today can serve more to divide than unite the body of Christ. Instead of "We follow Paul or We follow Cephas," we hear, "I'm Lutheran (well what kind?) or "I'm Catholic," or "I'm Evangelical Covenant" (what does that mean?).

I'm not against worshiping in denominations with people that are like-minded. It is a wonderful thing to praise God together in a worship style that everyone enjoys, and hearing the word of God from a translation that is accurate, yet understandable. But sometimes we may take the Bible out of context and hold up a verse or two to exclude people. We need to look at Scripture as a whole, knowing Jesus welcomed "the least of these." We are not to compromise clear scriptural teachings, and we should preach against adultery, lying, homosexuality and drunkenness, for example. The Bible, not a list of doctrinal statements, should be our final authority.

As we worship in our individual churches, we need to be mindful that we are part of a larger body--the body of Christ himself. Instead of preaching Martin Luther, John Wesley, John Wycliffe, or John Calvin, we should preach Christ.