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7C. Churches in the Body of Christ 
The Worldwide Body is only effective while attached to Christ as the head. Heresy or disobedience may disable or even cut a denomination off from the body. Christ hurts when this happens for he died for his Body! One denomination does not have a monopoly over all of the Christian church's functions. The three major streams of Catholic, Protestant and Pentecostal unify the Body by the various roles they play. Those in the Catholic tradition bring liturgy and worship. It was the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches that maintained worldwide Christianity from the third to the fifteenth centuries of its life. Protestants major on personal faith. It is the churches of the Reformation who rediscovered the Bible and renewed the church over four centuries. The Pentecostal strand of Christianity allows the work of the Holy Spirit to be re-established in God's church.
Strength in Diversity
Like the three strands of a rope, the Catholic, Protestant and Pentecostal movements give great strength in their diversity to the church. When one is weak, the other two take the load. In the New Testament church, the Pentecostal and Protestant strands were strong, especially in the Gentile church. In the Early Church, it was the Protestant section which brought such widespread growth, but after the third century the Catholic wing was in the ascendancy until the other two virtually faded away. At the Reformation, Protestants came to the fore. At the end of the Nineteenth Century, Pentecostal Renewal again swept through the church. A true disciple of Christ is fully Protestant, completely Pentecostal and thoroughly Catholic. Genuine Christianity holds all these truths and practices together at the same time.
Watered Down Denominations
Former differences between denominations are being whittled away by the Media who seek maximum impact all the time. At the time of the Reformation, protestants would have no decoration or symbolism in their churches and even whitewashed over medieval paintings in the name of religious purity. Today on television those same zealous evangelists surround themselves with banks of flowers and row upon row of vested choir members in gloriously colour gowns. The Media demands color, variety, and visual excitement and does not care particularly for theological differences except when it creates controversy and thus good theatre. The overall effect is to water down denominational varieties in favour of the overall production.
All Christians belong to the denominational body whether they want to or not. They are bound together, live together and sometimes die together in Christ. Colin Morris tells of the bloody counter-revolution in the Belgian Congo in 1960-61. "Over three hundred missionaries, mostly Roman Catholics and extreme fundamentalists were killed. They not only bled the same way but whether they died clutching crucifixes or Schofield Reference Bibles they died for the same reason and the same Lord."
Denominational Splits
Will the church grow by amalgamating denominations? Interestingly, research shows that when churches amalgamate the overall body generally shrinks in size. Examples in Korea according to analyst Dr Donald McGavran show that, when churches splinter on questions of practice, they generally grow! The Lord seems to want his denominational body to contain as many variations as possible. At the same time, they retain theological unity in Christ himself. He is head over all parts of this as in all other Mystical Bodies.
Questions for Discussion
1. How would Africans feel about North American missionaries coming to evangelize Africa?
2. How would North Americans feel about African missionaries coming to evangelize North America?
"We are living members of his mystical body"
