One of Us

Jesus' disciples once came up to him and proudly informed him that they saw a man driving out demons in Jesus' name, but they told him to stop because "he was not one of us." It must have been quite a blow to their inflated sense of self-righteousness when Jesus didn't give them the pat on the back they felt they deserved. Instead they got rebuked.
I guess I'm of the generation that is post-denominational. I pastor a church affiliated with the local Baptist Association, we're affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas, and the Southern Baptist Convention. We affiliate with other churches for the sake of missions. I don't agree with everything that these entities do (anyone who says he agrees 100% is lying), but doctrinally I line up with them closer than I would any other faith group. I also realize that the day of large denominational structures are coming to an end. In about 15-20 years, I feel that we'll be seeing less and less of the local Baptist Association, state convention, and national convention.
There are many external factors for this. But a large internal factor is the main cause of this. There is a bad case of "One of Us" Syndrome. I see this more in the Southern Baptist Convention than anywhere else. The criteria for doing anything in the Southern Baptist Convention is unreal. You are judged according to whether you'll sign a statement agreeing to an uninspired document, your church must give so much to Cooperative Program missions, and apparently now, you have to be in the circle of people associated with the GCR task force.
I could write more about this, but just thinking about it makes me sick. The Southern Baptist Convention is bleeding and no one seems to be asking the question as to why. If your goal in life is to have an ineffective ministry, just take a lesson from the current Southern Baptist Convention. Become more inclusive and try to stop those from doing ministry that you should be partnering with.
Do I sound ornery today?