Let’s Talk Religion: Church collaboration is inspiring
One of the things that I have written on in the past is that I would like to see more church collaboration to better serve the community. I felt there wasn’t a togetherness, considering all churches are here for basically the same purpose.
At first glance it didn’t seem like there was a lot going on between churches, especially ones of different denominations. But once I took a closer look, I realized there are congregations making a sincere effort to reach out to their brothers and sisters in faith.
A few months back I did an article about two churches coming together to do a joint service. I thought that idea was a great one. For two churches under the same denomination to come together to worship with one another can only help foster relationships in the future. Not only that, but it can create bonds that can positively impact the community. You never know whom you may meet that you can be a blessing to.
I feel more churches should hold more joint services. I think that people of different denominations have many misconceptions about one another. Baptists, Episcopalians and Catholics, for example, could learn a lot about how one another praises and how each congregation can help one another. A lot of ignorance takes place when people make assumptions, instead of getting to know one another.
I know I personally had my own personal assumptions about different denominations. I grew up hearing certain things about different churches and those stereotypes took deep roots as I grew older. It wasn’t until I had the opportunity to be the religion reporter for The Chronicle that I was able to eliminate many of these wrong assumptions about Christian denominations. It somewhat hurt me to see how wrong I was about the subject, to be honest. People just need to open their hearts and talk to people to build more positive bonds and eliminate assumptions.
Another way I have seen churches come together is by holding joint clothing and food drives to help the community. There are several churches in the Winston-Salem area that routinely collaborate to clothe and feed the needy in the area. There are countless people in the community that need the help that these congregations provide.
Some of these congregations don’t just hold these drives once or twice a year; some of them jointly and silently help the community with food and clothes all year round. Just looking at a church, you can’t see the ministries they provide to the community. But if you ask around, you will hear about those who are doing for the community as a church should.
It pains me to hear people in a church congregation speaking negatively about another church. We have so much separation in this world and I think the one place where that should be removed is the church. No judgment, no assumptions, and no prejudices should be present inside the house of the Lord, in my opinion. That is the place where we should all be equal, no matter what.
