Anything wrong with church hopping?

The Christian religion is replete with denominations, each of which has different perspectives on how to achieve salvation, though all Christians worship Jesus, ‘the Son of the living God’, who determines who go to Heaven or to Hell to spend eternity.

And it is not uncommon to hear Christians from different denominations telling one another that their doctrines are wrong. In many cases, church leaders prohibit their flocks from attending other denominations because of doctrinal conflicts and differences. But, does it really matter if one person worships at different denominations from time to time? To find answers, Family and Religion reached out to Anord Sichinsambwe, Reverend Travis Drummond, and Pastor Ja’Vaughn Taylor.

Sichinsambwe is a born-and-bred Moravian who lives in Annotto Bay for work reasons. But there is no Moravian church in the seaside St Mary town. So, he regularly visits the Annotto Bay Baptist Church, where he is the assistant pastor. To him, “it doesn’t matter”. Church is church, and the redemptive story of Jesus Christ is universal. “However,” he explained, “I am not a member of the Baptist Church. Hence, I cannot participate in any voting, etc.”

“There are millions of believers across the world and God is active in all of them. Therefore, the Church, as an entity of Christ, represents the omnipresent nature of God. Corporate worship and sacraments vary among denominations. However, the string that bonds the denominations is the death and resurrection of Jesus the Christ, which is the basis of faith for all denominations,” he said.

But, there are conflicting doctrinal issues. Some denominations have perspectives that are in total contrast to others. How does one person who worships at different denominations deal with this, Family and Religion asked him.

“Baptism is perhaps the greatest symbol of belief and it highlights that one has decided to surrender his life to be used and controlled by God. Holy Communion commemorates the death and the resurrection of Christ. These doctrines point us to God who dwelled among men so that He could offer to us the gift of salvation,” Sichinsambwe replied, implying again that what is important is not the conflicting doctrines, but the opportunity to be redeemed by God Himself.

For Pastor Taylor, of the Central Gospel Chapel in Aleppo, St Mary, and who preaches sometimes at the Annotto Bay Baptist Church, “it is absolutely okay for Christians to worship at another denomination simply because knowledge is vast. What I may not learn at my home church, I may learn at another denomination. Maybe I won’t support entirely what is being said there; however, it would have still given me perspective”.

And while he maintains that the Bible doesn’t forbid anyone to attend a different church every Sunday, he, however, finds it “hard to see how a practice like that could fully benefit any believer or the local church of membership”. He believes people church hop maybe because “they can’t find one church that meets their needs or gives them everything they think they should have. So they may attend one for music, another for the word, and the other for friendship”. This he does not support.

“The problem is, people don’t understand the purpose of church attendance or membership. When you baptise in a churc, you unite with a local body of believers and you follow the model of that local church. The Bible is silent on these matters, so we cannot be dogmatic; but we have to make sure that, wherever we go, the word of God is not watered down … Pastors shouldn’t be moving from one church to the other because the sheep need to be fed and they’re not evangelists,” he reasoned.

Pastor Drummond is stationed at Annotto Bay Baptist Church in St Mary and said, “As a leader in the Christian community, I wholeheartedly support interdenominational worship. I believe it sends a message that best models the ministry exercise by Jesus. Interdenominational worship highlights the essentials of the Christian faith and tells a story that the common thing that unites us in our faith is the person and work of Jesus as revealed in Holy Scriptures.”

Though Christian worship differs from denomination to denomination, unity is embedded within the understanding that people are gathered to speak to and hear from God. Elements such as praying, Bible reading and preaching are informed by scripture. They are all done in an attempt “to provide godly instruction and inspiration for the worshippers”. While this may differ in form from denomination to denomination, the principle remains the same and ought to provide the basis for us uniting in worship as people of faith,” Reverend Drummond stated.

“It was this thinking that gave birth to the United Theological College of the West Indies where all our ministers were trained and formed for the Christian ministry. We believe that crossing denominational lines and working for the good of the Kingdom enacts Jesus’ high priestly prayer as recorded in St John 17 and evidences the power of the gospel in uniting all people to and by God,” he explained further.