28 March, 2024

Building Bridges

Features

by | 17 May, 2020 | 2 comments

By Jeremy Jernigan

The church landscape in America is different than ever before. Most formal denominational groupings seem to be on the decline. At the same time, the rise of multisite churches creates opportunities for mini denominations. It begs the question: What truly makes a denomination? Said differently, What truly unites us? Is it a shared history, a shared creed (or set of distinctives), a shared leadership structure, or something else? No matter how we or others feel about denominations, many of them started with a pursuit for greater unity.

I’m a second-generation preacher who grew up in the Christian church tradition. It’s been said there are only two types of preacher’s kids; I hope my role as a pastor indicates which type I am. I grew up with amazing parents who loved me and loved the church. I never had to compete with the church for their attention. This allowed me to grow up and develop my own love for the church as I began to experience Jesus for myself. My parents are still in ministry, they have close relationships with my sister and me, and we both have a favorable view of the church. In today’s world, that is quite an accomplishment, and I’m grateful my experiences growing up in the Christian church produced this result.

Searching and Learning

As an undergraduate, I began to dive deeper into other Christian traditions. It’s hard to know what is unique to your experience without comparing it to something else. It’s what every married person realizes when they return from the honeymoon and discover their spouse reshelves cups the wrong way (facing up or down, depending on your opinion of “normal”). And don’t get me started on proper toilet paper installation.

I’ve grown increasingly grateful for the simplicity and freedom that comes from the Christian church tradition. It was easy for me to grow up in my faith and keep the main thing the main thing. But I’ve also learned and applied profound theological truths from other traditions like the Anabaptist movement. This at first seemed very strange to me culturally, but the history of the Anabaptists offers much for today’s post-Christian culture. 

What should we do when we see something uniquely different in another tradition? At certain times in history, the answer has been to try to violently erase it by force (this has been especially true of how Anabaptists were treated). Events like the Thirty Years War in Central Europe in the 1600s—which started as a war between various Catholic and Protestant states—are heartbreaking realities of history for those of us who follow Jesus. He prayed to his Father, “I am in them and you are in me. May they experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me” (John 17:23 New Living Translation).

Four Bridge-Building Techniques

In the midst of current cultural and technological shifts, we have an opportunity to incorporate the best we can find in various traditions. This requires a new talent of bridge building and a willingness to enter into unfamiliar territory. It means we must recognize we have something to offer those in other traditions, and we have something to gain by learning from them.

I recommend at least four techniques for building bridges today.

1. Actively listen to others. Listening is perhaps the most underdeveloped skill in today’s culture. Failure to listen is why we are so polarized and divided. If we listen only to voices that confirm what we already believe, we will stunt our learning and growth. It requires little effort to read books by authors from other Christian traditions or listen to podcasts from voices outside the Christian church. Seeking out the perspective of other churches will offer new insights to explore, but it will also highlight aspects of our tradition that we love.

2. Embrace other traditions. Christians from different traditions are drawn to what the Christian church has to offer. We have the opportunity for building new bridges with denominational church leaders as well as establishing a connection with leaders who may be giving up their current denominational label completely. Like a Messianic Jew or a Christian Muslim, we should be willing to create new models of how Jesus can be experienced in unique contexts. Are we comfortable with someone adopting parts of our tradition while keeping parts of their tradition? The history of global mission work indicates we should be.

3. Protect multiple expressions of the church. The sheer volume of available podcasts and resources from churches around the world should convince us we can reach more people with more expressions of the church. In Sacred Pathways, Gary Thomas wrote, “Good spiritual directors understand that people have different spiritual temperaments, that what feeds one doesn’t feed all. Giving the same spiritual prescription to every struggling Christian is no less irresponsible than a doctor prescribing penicillin to every patient.” Building bridges between denominational traditions allows us to create a near-limitless catalog of prescriptions to offer.

4. Build relationships with people from other traditions. We will never know the beauty of other traditions without seeing them lived out in real people. (Likewise, others will never see or understand the Christian church tradition without interacting with us.) A mentor of mine is from the Anabaptist tradition, and this friendship allowed me to see how much there is to learn. It’s why I invest time with organizations like the Jesus Collective (jesuscollective.com) which is bringing multiple denominations to the conversation to learn from each other.

I could list many others, and I’m sure you’ve seen a few more that work well. Now more than ever, we can offer others the best of our heritage, learn from and adopt parts of other traditions, and together move forward with new expressions of the church for a new season of ministry.

Jeremy Jernigan serves as lead pastor of Abundant Life Church, a multisite church in Oregon and Washington (www.alcpnw.com). He is the author of two books, most recently Redeeming Pleasure. Jeremy is married to his high school sweetheart Michelle and they have five kids who all have New York Yankees middle names.

Jeremy Jernigan

Jeremy Jernigan serves as lead pastor of Abundant Life Church, a multisite church in Oregon and Washington (www.alcpnw.com). He is the author of two books, most recently Redeeming Pleasure. Jeremy is married to his high school sweetheart Michelle and they have five kids who all have New York Yankees middle names.

2 Comments

  1. Paul Leavens

    I was wondering what you thought. The last few years we’ve had four of our Bible colleges close: Nebraska Christian college, South Dakota, Minnesota Bible College [renamed Crossroads College in 2002], and Cincinnati Christian University. The campuses are closed. What does that say to us?

  2. Phil Miglioratti

    Bravo!
    It is a moment in history when the Church, once again, must reimagine how we form and function by applying Romans 12:2 to the corporate Body of Christ (not merely our own individual lives).

    I shared these insights and link with the thought leaders and best practitioners on The #ReimagineFORUM.

    Friendly incite to share posts and resources on our free-service platform at The ReimagineFORUM @ Discipleship.Network • Free new-adds Bulletin: http://www.Reimagine.Network

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Latest Features

Follow Us