Do Denominations Save Us?: The Dangers of Finding Salvation from Church

I was praying with someone a while back who asked for prayer for a loved one who wasn’t making wise choices in his life. 

As he was asking me to pray he said, “I don’t understand why he’s living like this. He grew up in the church, and especially in the Pentecostal church.” 

It took me a while to absorb his words because I felt my stomach drop. I remember I immediately stopped praying for the “broken man” and started praying for the very person who had just asked me to pray, because there was something broken there. 

Is Church our Salvation?

The older I get and the more people I come in contact with, I realize there are many, many people who believe they are saved because they’ve just grown up in church all of their lives.

There are people trying to live off the faith of their parents or grandparents. For whoever needs to hear this today, that’s not how it works. 

YOU must choose a relationship with Jesus, and only you can choose that. No one else can do it for you.

 Showing up at church each Sunday and marking that off your weekly to-do list is not salvation. That’s religion. And if we look throughout the Scriptures we will see that Jesus hated religion. A strong word I know, but he did. He didn’t hate the religious people, but he did hate the religion they participated in. 

I’ve seen more people than I can count show up for Sunday morning church, shake hands, sit through a sermon, then leave the building and walk back into their Monday-Saturday life. 

Let me follow that up with saying I am not immune to that happening to me. None of us are. I pray for humility that I may never get too comfortable that Sunday becomes the only day I choose a relationship with Jesus. 

I fear for people I love that when they meet God face-to-face they will hear the words, “Depart from me. I never knew you.”

My friends, church is not our salvation. Jesus is our salvation. 

Joyce Meyer says it best… “Just because you go to church doesn’t mean you’re a Christian. I can go sit in the garage all day and it doesn’t make me a car.” 

Do Denominations Save Us?

When I was praying with this man, his insinuation was that his family member should have his crap together because he was Pentecostal. He was making the assumption that one denomination is better than another. 

Here’s my question to all of us… why do we choose to be defined by a denomination? 

Did Jesus tell us to do that? No. Denominations were not created by God, they were created by man.

 Now, does that mean it’s wrong to attend a denominational church? No, I’m not saying that either. I encourage you to attend where the Lord is leading you. But I’m strongly encouraging you not to put God in a box and be defined that church’s denomination. 

If you’re there right now, let me ask you this… Why? What makes you Baptist, Methodist, Lutheran, Pentecostal? This isn’t me questioning you. This is me asking you if you really know why? And if you don’t, I’m encouraging you to ask yourself, and God, more questions.

What if Denominations Went Away?

What if denominations disappeared? That’s a big question, isn’t it? I think God would smile from ear to ear.

Heaven won’t be full of Baptists, Pentecostals, Methodists, or Catholics. No, heaven will be full of people who chose to have a personal relationship with Jesus.

What if we could live on earth as God plans for us to live in heaven? 

I was saved in a non-denominational church. The only experience I’d had prior to that was the Baptist church I attended off/on as a kid. I honestly didn’t see Jesus in a whole lot of people in that little Baptist church. I saw religion.

But I look at one of the Baptist churches here in my little hometown and I can see that God is moving. He called a couple to uproot their Louisiana lives and move to the middle of nowhere to lead His people. And when I hear them talk, I see the love of Jesus, not religion, not Baptist. 

I was comfortable in my non-denominational church. But as I continued to grow in my relationship with Jesus, I realized there were some things missing. However, it’s easy to stay in our comfort zones, right? When Jesus called me back to my hometown 5 years ago, I couldn’t imagine finding another church that I would love. 

From that non-denominational church, I went to a Christian church. I built some amazing relationships and watched God do mighty things. Unfortunately, I then watched the enemy come in and have a hay day, bringing destruction. 

When the Lord released me from that church, I knew that I could no longer just “play church.” I asked him to cleanse me of anything that seemed like religion because all I wanted was relationship with Him. 

And I spent several months “church dating”, looking for the right place to be. I couldn’t just settle on a church for the sake of settling. I visited multiple churches, had some great experiences and some not-so-great experiences. I vowed to keep looking until my heart settled on exactly where I needed to be. 

By no desire of my own, the Lord landed me at a small Pentecostal church 5 miles away. It’s a long story, but I had zero plans to walk into that church. Broken relationships = fear, let’s just say that. 

And so the Lord called me into the uncomfortable, because well, He’s good like that. For the past year, I have called a Pentecostal church my home. During my time there, I’ve watched Him work, mending relationships, taking me even further out of my comfort zone, and leading me to be an intercessor for many people there.

So, What Am I?

It’s interesting when people ask me “what” I am. It happened just the other day. When I explained that I just love Jesus, they couldn’t accept that answer. I “must” be something – Pentecostal, Baptist, Bapticostal… 
But I realized in that moment that I didn’t need them to accept the answer. They were stuck in a box of labels, and only Holy Spirit could take them out of it. 

I love Jesus and I strive daily to live for Him. Sometimes I fail miserably. But I get up and keep going. I don’t need a label to love Him or serve Him. Neither do you. 

And here’s my plea to all of us… Let’s never live as though the denomination we may be a part of is better than the other. It’s dangerous territory to walk in. 

I don’t know if I will always attend a Pentecostal church. I’ve learned the Lord shakes my life up so much, I never fully know what He’s going to do. But I know my deepest desire is just to attend church, where I can fellowship with other believers, worship our amazing God with the congregation, and be taught by a teacher who loves the Lord with all of his/her heart, soul, mind, and strength.

May that be the desire of all of our hearts – to worship together in unity, despite what the church sign says.