Christians are some of the most critical people in the world. Why can we not just be supportive of one another’s efforts to reach others for Christ, even if their efforts differ from our own? Good for the Chosen reaching others for Christ. No need to condemn because it’s encouraging screen time. Go Forrest Frank for reaching a new generation with a different kind of music. No need to condemn because a lot is AI generated. Good for that blogger, writer, marketer, reaching others for Christ. If you can do better, do. The world has room for you too. Why? Because people still need to know Jesus! And God made all sorts of people who learn about Him in all sorts of ways. And the world doesn’t need your critique of others so much as it needs your voice for Christ. I confess. I’ve been overly critical at times. May I suggest if you’re there, to give it time?

Phases of Christianity
As Christians, we go through phases. At first, we learn about various aspects of Christianity. Perhaps we only learn one way of church, one way to worship, and it’s all we know. The baby phase. Then we study more and learn other ways, the growing phase (Hebrews 5:14). During that time, it would be only natural to analyze various ways of doing church and Christianity and to view some as better than others. That’s the process of figuring out what we believe and why. Critical glasses are necessary during this phase. Without being critical and using our brains, we become nonchalant or indifferent about not only church, but ultimately, God and Christianity as a whole. The challenge is to not stay in this phase. If you know someone in it, have patience. Give them resources to learn and grow.

Maturity
The next phase, maturity, involves knowing a great deal about Christianity and the Bible and church. It involves having formed convictions and opinions because you have already wrestled through what you believe for yourself in the growing phase. Yet, it also means getting to a place where you do not fear running into someone who believes something different because you know what you believe. Yet also, due to your vast knowledge of variety among the faith, you realize you might not know everything and still have things to learn. While you have journeyed far and might not drastically change your beliefs moving forward, you are open to the idea that some parts of it might change, because through the growing phase, you did a LOT of changing, so much so that you don’t fear it anymore.

I changed churches recently because God led me to. No other reason makes sense. I have a seminary degree and my current pastor doesn’t. He doesn’t preach the way I have been trained that pastors should preach. Yet I’m learning and growing in my faith. Their children’s ministry is thriving. They have a foster care ministry preached about from the pulpit. This new church brought 200 people to Christ over their Easter weekend services.

To say this pastor’s doing it perfect would be to turn my back on everything I’ve been taught in evangelical, mainly Baptist based Christianity. To say he’s doing it wrong would be to question God’s calling on me to attend. I am not ready to do either of those and do not feel the Lord calling me to make a distinction between one being better than the other. Rather, I feel the Lord opening my eyes to seeing different ways of doing things, even here in America.

Before you think about your opinions on such matters, consider the following.

D.L. Moody was one of the most successful ministers of his time. Pastor, evangelist, professor, college president. But he didn’t go to seminary. He was not trained by the popular and well respected institutions of his time. In fact, many religious people viewed him as crazy. They even called him “Crazy Moody” because he reached poor, inner city children. He started the idea of Sunday School. He was reaching a group of people the respectable Christians had ignored.

Today, over a hundred years later, Moody Bible Institute, Moody Church, and Moody Theological Seminary are some of the most well respected Christian institutions in the world. Countless other ministries and churches have stemmed from there.

So how can I, a Moody graduate, look down on an untrained preacher just because I have been trained, when I know that the founder of my training institute did not have such training? While I do not believe D.L. Moody would look down on a successful yet untrained preacher, unfortunately, I feel his admirers do.

Am I writing this to condemn them? For having convictions and opinions? No. It’s ok if you have an opinion on how preaching and church should happen, so long as you realize that God has never been one to stay in a box. He will use whatever means He chooses to reach people. Different generations sometimes need different methods. I also do not encourage anyone with the gift of such training to abandon it. If God has blessed you with training in preaching, Amen! If not, do not let that stop you from preaching God’s Word. Yet if you have the opportunity to get more training, please do so.

Richmond Wandera was an extremely successful evangelist and pastor in Uganda. Yet he left his country for a few years to aquire more ministry training. People asked him if he was crazy. “Look at your ministry! You will lose this if you leave,” they said. He left. Three years later, he returned to his country. However, after being trained in ministry, he did not return to simply pastor a church and evangelize. He also started a seminary and organization discipling pastors across Eastern Africa. While doing that, he pursued a doctorate in ministry. Before ministry training, he reached others. After, he reached others who reached others. His training enabled the Gospel to not only go wide, but deep across Africa.

Jesus prayed, “that they all may be one,” referring to the church (John 17:21). In other words, Jesus wants the church to be united, not divided in their mission to reach the world for Christ. Having convictions or opinions on church and Christian things is all fine. But it is not ok to have a critical spirit or to share such opinions in a way that would cause division among believers. Share to be helpful, not to condemn. Share when asked, not to air your own knowledge or tout your superior education. That training was a gift, not a qualification for condemnation.

What about you? What phase of Christianity do you find yourself in? What could you do this week to help Christians all be one (John 17:21)? Maybe it means exploring other Christian denominations. Maybe it means simply letting go of some critiques. Maybe it means realizing that you are not comfortable with certain styles of worship and church, even though others are. Whatever it is, pray through it and let the Lord mature you through it. Amen!