Truth Unites - Which Denomination Should You Choose?

Episode Date: March 17, 2023

If you are convinced of Protestantism, how do you go about deciding which Protestant denomination to join? Truth Unites is a mixture of apologetics and theology, with an irenic focus. Gavin Ortlund (PhD, Fuller Theological Seminary) serves as senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Ojai. SUPPORT: Become a patron: https://www.patreon.com/truthunites One time donation: https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/truthunites FOLLOW: Twitter: https://twitter.com/gavinortlund Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TruthUnitesPage/ Website: https://gavinortlund.com/

One of the questions I get very frequently is, suppose I'm convinced of Protestantism, which particular denomination should I choose? And how do I know? And which particular local church? And people can feel overwhelmed and paralyzed by that. So I thought I'd make just a very quick video giving just a few thoughts about this. This will not be exhaustive. But I'd say five things that maybe to start with in considering.

The first is to realize that the stakes are not as high in choosing between two Protestant traditions because the Protestant traditions recognize the church does not begin and end with them. We're not saying we're the one true church. So if you make the wrong decision saying, you know, let's say you become Anglican and you should have been Presbyterian or you become Presbyterian and you should have been Methodist or something like this, the difference will not be that you're not in the one true church or you're cut off from the sacraments. It certainly will not be that you're outside of Christ. And that doesn't mean the decision is unimportant, but that's just an initial framing comment to lower the pressure a little bit, because I think a lot of people out there

have a lot of anxiety about these ecclesial questions. The second thing I'd say is that you have to recognize local variation is such a huge factor. There is full-blown liberalism in every kind of church. There is harsh fundamentalism in every kind of church, in every tradition, in every denomination, in every region, you know, there's churches that have abusive and ungodly leadership that would be in all different kinds of denominations. So in other words, it's not like, well, if you just find the right denomination and you just, wherever you live in the world, irrespective of other factors, go to that denomination, you'll have a good experience.

That is really not true. You have to look at the particular local churches where you live. That's where when, or that's why, when people ask me about this, I really don't give them a definitive answer. I just try to give them some principles. The third thing I'd say is study the sacraments and study church government. These are often the issues that are ecclesially determinative. There's lots of other theological issues that are important that separate the Protestant traditions. So, you know, Lutheran versus reformed on the questions of Christology. That's all really important. But I don't think that's, there's as many of those issues that are.

determinative for like the individual Christian to figure out necessarily. You know, let's say like you're struggling with mullinism or creation issues. How do you interpret Genesis 1? You know, there's so many issues like that that aren't as determinative for whether you're going to be, like you could be a mullinist and you could be Anglican or you could be a Baptist. You know, you could be a member of my church. And those issues aren't as determinative most of the time. There are some churches that will require a view on that. I think that's unfortunate. I made a video Calvinism in doing triage on that. But the issues of the sacraments, I've often thought it's a tragedy that the very issues that we should be uniting around. The sacraments and spiritual gifts

have often been very divisive. But it makes sense. They're so important. So I would say if you're looking for areas to start making progress in coming to your own convictions before God, because of course this is not a matter of preference. It's not like, well, I just want it my way. We're trying to seek the truth and we're trying to follow that which will be most honoring to God. would say studying the sacraments especially would be a great starting point to try to sort out your own convictions. That leads to the fourth comment, and that is, I would say, focus on reading the historic confessional standards. I'm amazed at how many people who feel paralyzed and don't know which decision to make, and they feel like they need to read 30 books before they can make any progress.

And I would say, we'll start reading books, and that's great. But in the meantime, just give a careful read of the 39 articles, the Book of Concord, or even just the Augsburg Confession, and the Westminster Standards, or even just the Westminster Confession of Faith. And you will get a broad sense of some of the differences between Anglican, Lutheran, and Reformed traditions, the three main originating traditions of Protestantism. And you can start to make some progress in thinking through, at least conceptually seeing where the differences lie. So I would say, you know, I've known many people who've come to a sense of starting to feel a sense of affinity with one tradition, they're just reading through the confessional standards. And that will be helpful in terms of,

you know, those three really gets you starting to move. The Methodist tradition has historical ties and some points of affinity with Anglicanism. The Baptist tradition has a lot of ties with the reformed tradition historically. That's where it emerged. So by hitting those three, you really hit the main five, you're at least starting to conceptually see the differences between the main five Protestant denominations. And then, of course, there's the explosion of charismatic Christianity in the 20th century, which is a whole other layer that complicates our decision-making. Some people are very negative and condescending toward low church expressions of Christianity and towards non-denominational churches and charismatic churches. I'm not. I think I've just seen the

Holy Spirit works so powerfully in those contexts as well. And I just take to heart in Mark 9 when Jesus rebukes the disciples and says, when you see the demons getting cast out, whoever's not against you is for you. I just think we should be careful not to judge too much. And I've just seen the Lord at work in powerful ways in both high church expressions and low church expressions. So I think people can have a really fruitful, edifying experience in different kinds of churches. And that's not to say truth is relative. That doesn't follow. But that leads to the last point, and that's, I would say, the key really is prayer.

It's study. So you study. You come to your convictions before God about what you believe is true and honoring to the gospel and true to the scripture. But prayer is key in that process for getting you to a sense of peace. And I'll finish with this. My wife and I moved in 2017. We knew we were going to be only living in the Chicago suburbs for one year. So we thought we can't take six months to find a church.

We've got to get right in. So we took that first month. and we attended four different churches, and we just prayed along the way. And it just became clear through that process of discernment and prayer and asking questions, like where can we serve, where can we contribute, where will we, you know, fit in theologically enough? You don't want to be nitpicky, but you also want to recognize where you would be able to function and flourish in terms of your own convictions before God. And the Lord just made it clear. And after that month, there was a clear door. Now, some people live in regions of the world where there aren't

too many churches. And so it's not always going to be clear, but I think prayer will be the key part of that process that will guide you. And the fact is, a lot of the most important decisions we make, it's a process of prayerful discernment. You think about when you choose to propose to someone to get married or when you choose what kind of job you're going to take, you have to ask for the Lord's guidance. And the good news of the gospel is not only has God given us the forgiveness of sins and eternal life and fellowship with him through Christ, but he's promised to be with us and to guide us. And so we can look to him, and James I promises wisdom for us

when we ask for that from God. So that's the key is to ask the Lord to give you wisdom as you go through your process of discernment and study. So I hope that's helpful for folks out there. Let me know what you think if you'd add on anything to that list in the comments. Thanks, everybody, for watching.