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A couple days ago I went to a craft fair and got to chatting with a man selling various specialty teas. I learned that their product was sourced from a commune in another country and that he also was from a sister commune in Canada. Further probing revealed that they try to base their way of living on principles from the Bible.
I asked him if they were affiliated with any particular denomination and he said, “No, because denominations—they divide us.” He did give me an informational “newspaper” which I read later. The paper taught me that their group does have a name (which I think he may have mentioned) and that they believe something which conflicts with what most Bible-believing Christian denominations believe.
Something inside me instantly screamed “Ha, they're a CULT!” I ran to my Bible to go look up verses to remind me how wrong they are (I tend to get fired up when heresy comes knocking). I found some good verses and then I thought, should I go back to talk with him? Should I just blog about who this group is, and why they're wrong? But then I remembered his words about how denominations divide us. I remembered that I saw wisdom in those words.
Grouping ourselves can be a useful thing at times. However, as soon as we identify ourselves with a group, it becomes easy for those within it to just believe what “the group” believes. It also make it easy for outsiders to be dismissive of groups based on their “official doctrine” rather than engaging the individuals of the group in conversation. I've met lots of people who don't ascribe to the full doctrine of what their denomination officially teaches, and I am one of them.
I did not have the time to go back and visit further with the man I met, but that would be the ideal in my opinion. If I can convince one person of the truth in a loving way, who knows how many others in his realm of influence could be affected positively? Furthermore, perhaps I would discover error in my own ways and would be influenced for the good instead.
Evangelism isn't easy, and it's a lot harder to do properly when we look at the names instead of the people behind the names.
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