150 years ago, there was a 13 year old boy (we’ll call him “Andy”) who was as poor as could be, but his parents scrapped together enough money to move their family of three to a new land with new adventures known as the United States.  This was quite a change for young Andy, but he became acclimated to his new home and began to learn and grow mentally as much as he grew physically.  He soon was hired to work on telegraphs, but he was fairly aware that there was more he could do.

Young man Andy didn’t brag about it - he was a hard worker.  He spoke when he needed to, but he put actions to his words.  After some time, still working with telegraphs, he had saved enough money to have some investments in a few growing industries back in the day… over the course of a few years, through God’s grace and Andy’s hard work, he was able to get to the point where he was financially stable.  He was actually fairly well off.  He grew businesses, and history has named him a “captain of the industrial revolution.”

We know him today as Andrew Carnegie.  In his life, he was able to amass a personal net worth of approximately $310 billion (in the late 1800’s).  Our modern world has not seen another individual with that kind of wealth.

“Andy” spent the last 15 years of his life giving away 90% of his wealth to charities, universities, foundations, and even churches (although we have no true record that he believed or accepted Jesus Christ as his personal Savior).  Andy had reached the pinnacle of what this world would term as success - built through a series of transactions that involved his personal dealings with people… daily.

When people started looking to “Andy” as a cultural, economical, and at times, even a political leader of the nation (even though he didn’t hold public office), he made a VERY interesting statement that summarizes his interactions with people throughout his life.

He said, as I grow older, I pay less attention to what men say, and more attention to what they do.  As mentioned above, Mr Carnegie’s life is well documented, and we see very little in his life about “church” - he had actually grown quite disenfranchised with religion for a lengthy time.  He had found society, and the church, to be somewhat hypocritical - meaning words and actions didn’t agree.

Mr. Carnegie’s observations 150 years ago were just as applicable then as they are today, and his thoughts on that weren’t new at all… as a race, humanity has a knack for saying one thing, but doing another…

The Bible talks about that very thing in the book of James (2:14-17).  We also see that Jesus addressed it as well (Matthew 7:21).  We see it played out daily in our news and reports. At the time of this writing, the 2016 presidential election is in full-swing and we hear very little of political platforms and issues, and we hear much about personal issues and past sins…  I’ve seen friends divided more over this election than anytime I can remember.  We see people’s words in NO WAY matching their actions.

So, what are we to do?  Examine ourselves.  Look at our words and our actions.  Are we claiming Jesus on social media but then treating others poorly?  Are we showing up at church on Sunday but not allowing Jesus’ truth to permeate our lives and our actions throughout the week?

Christianity is NOT rocket science.  Your faith was never intended to be complicated (there’s a reason Jesus spoke of having child-like faith).  Your faith in Christ was intended to be LIVED OUT DAILY… not perfectly, but purposefully.  Intentionally.  Lovingly.

So, examine yourself… ask someone to give you some feedback. Be willing to ask a friend if your words match your actions, and if they point to Jesus.  Be ready for the answer…

May your faith not be dead… but may it be alive, and may your words and your actions bring honor and glory to Jesus Christ.

What is the right church? - the short answer is this - one that stands unwavering and unapologetically on the Bible, and sees it as the ONLY source for wisdom and instruction about God, man, life, and faith.  In and around Delaware county, I can lead you to quite a number of churches that will hold fast to God’s Word.  Obviously, I have a favorite in CommUNITY Church, but as we say, we’re not for everyone… but we are for everyone else.

The longer answer is that we need to define “church” - when we’re referring to a localized group of people (some would say “a body of believers”), we would refer to them as a “church” with a lower-case “c,” meaning that the local church is one of many which form the “Church” with a capitalized “C” - In Christ, there is no difference between slave or freeman, Jew or Gentile, etc… all those who claim Christ as their Savior and their Lord make up the Church - a singular body of believers spanning the globe.  And that singular body of believers choose to meet in localized bodies of believers to worship Jesus as King.  As an analogy, consider firefighters or police officers.  They each have their own station/town/area to protect, but are all called to the same service, generally will work together as needed, but also operate independently… and yes, just as there are some poor examples of public servants, the same can sadly be said of people in the church.​
Wow… good question(s).  I’m glad you’re both logical and brave enough to ask the hard questions, because that’s when you really begin to peel the layers back and get to the answers you’re seeking.  Clearly there are a number of questions posed here, so let’s begin breaking them down and analyzing each component, so we can begin putting them back together to form coherent (and detailed) answers.

​If each church is preaching God’s Word, then shouldn’t there be just one church? - yes.  That’s how it started.  In the book of Acts in the Bible, we can read of the birth of the church and they had the same vision, same mission, and same foundational beliefs that they followed.  As the Truth spread and churches grew, there were local churches that were a part of the Church (see above explanation).  I do need to note here, however, that not all “churches” follow God’s Word… some just want to “sprinkle some Jesus” on their teachings, just as we’d sprinkle some sugar on an elephant ear at the local fair.  They don’t make Jesus and His Word their central focus and foundation for beliefs, but rather use Him to suit themselves when it works.  Paul warned his young pastor-friend Timothy of this very thing in 2 Tim. 4:1-5.

I’m going to lump your remaining statements into a single question, and make a point of clarification.  You discuss different religions and refer to denominations under the “religion” of Christianity, so I’m going to go out on a limb and assume you’re referring the question to why there are so many denominations, as opposed to why are there so many religions.  Let’s briefly explain the differences: denominations fall under the umbrella of Christianity, which is a “world religion.”  Christianity falls under the umbrella of “religion,” as does Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Sikhism, and even atheism.  So, we’re going to focus on why there are different denominations within the “Christianity” umbrella.

Denominations of Christianity exist because of a disagreement about “secondary” doctrines - those beliefs that I tend to explain as being held in an open hand.  These secondary doctrines are by definition secondary to the “primary” doctrines that churches hold, which makes it a Christian church (or, a church that follow’s Christ).  I’ve listed these “Primary” doctrines (or set of beliefs) below:

1. There is only one God (Exodus 20:3, Isaiah 43:10, Isaiah 45:5)
2. The one God exists as a Trinity of persons: the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit (Matt. 28:19, 2 Cor. 13:14)
3. Jesus Christ is both 100% God and 100% man (John 1:1,14; John 8:24; Col. 2:8-10; 1 John 4:1-4)
4. Jesus Christ was physically born of a virgin named Mary (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:23; Luke 1:27)
5. Jesus Christ lived a sinless life, died a brutal death as the payment for sin, was buried, and physically rose from the dead, which is called “the Gospel” (1 Cor. 15:1-4, Gal. 1:8-9, 1 Cor. 15:14)
6. The salvation of mankind as individuals is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone according to the Scriptures alone for the glory of God alone, also known as the “5 solas” (Rom. 5:1; Eph. 2:8-9; Gal. 3:1-2)
7. Jesus will return again (John 14:1-3; 1 Thess. 4:13-18; Rev. 19:11-16)

Those are the essentials… and if a “church” believes in those things, then it can Biblically call itself a Christian church.  

The denominations come into play on the secondary (or tertiary, etc.) doctrines that are more open for interpretation.  Some examples of these: 

1. What day of the week should we worship? Saturday? Sunday? Tuesday mornings?
2. Is baptism by immersion or sprinkling with water?
3. How often should we have communion? Weekly? Monthly? Annually?
4. When will Jesus come back? before the tribulation? during it? after it?
5. Should women be elders/pastors? Is that an office reserved for men only?
6. Can I “lose” my salvation?

Some of these doctrines can be interpreted in different ways (which is also Biblical according to Romans 14:1-5), and in doing so, groups of people, tribes of people, etc. have gathered who are like-minded and in agreement not only with the primary doctrines, but also with their own set of secondary doctrines.  Sadly, some denominations exist because they’ve INCORRECTLY interpreted the Bible and have done so willfully in order to allow certain sins (actions prohibited in the Bible) to become allowable.

But, the good news is this - God loves us so much that He puts up with our failures (great is HIS faithfulness).  In spite of our differences, Jesus is still King and worthy of all honor and glory. Thankfully, neither salvation nor damnation is dependent upon our differences - salvation is based on our personal relationship with Christ.  In other words, it’s ALL ABOUT JESUS!!

My encouragement to you is this - find a church who’s willing to stand firm and be unified on the essentials (the primary doctrines), who’s willing to show grace and freedom on the non-essentials (the secondary doctrines), and who’s willing to show love in all things.  I’d invite you to CommUNITY Church, as I’m pretty confident that we try to do that to the best of our abilities.  We don’t always have it perfect, but that’s ok because no perfect people are allowed in anyway. :-)