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INTRODUCTION

A FAMILY REUNION

Imagine yourself walking into a big family reunion. People stand around the room in little groups, talking and laughing. Some are beginning to line up at a long table filled with an incredible array of homemade food. They fill their plates, walk to tables, and begin dining. As you look around, you see folks you simply do not recognize. There are others that you recognize but are unable to place with certainty on the family tree and still others who prompt you to think, Are you sure I'm related to them? Inevitably, some of those in attendance will be quite a bit different from you. Your natural inclination as you fill your plate might be to sit with folks you already know and see with some regularity, to avoid talking with those you seldom see.

My mother's side of the family had a reunion not long ago; and I found that when it came time to eat, I wanted to sit next to my brothers and sisters. I was finding it difficult to remember who all these other people were and what my relationship with them was—which ones were second cousins three times removed and which were third cousins only twice removed! At some point in the afternoon, though, I came to a realization. I had a great-grandmother we used to visit as kids. I have many fond memories of going to her home. And here was my realization: She was the mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, or great-great-grandmother of every single person in that room. She was how we were connected! Consequently I found myself listening more intently as I made my way around the room. I was getting to know my family; and as I listened to their stories, I was learning something about myself.

In this book we will study our family in the faith. Going through its pages will be a lot like attending a family reunion. We will be getting to know some strange cousins in whose presence we might initially feel a bit uncomfortable. We will wonder what our connection is to these folks. In the end, though, as we look at the various branches of Christianity, we will come to see that we share one Father, one Lord and Savior, and one Holy Spirit—we are family. And if we take the time to listen to our family, we will come to know God, and ourselves, a bit better.

In this book we will learn about church history, theology, and Christian spirituality, seeing what it is that makes each branch of our Christian family unique. The aim of this book is not to critique the various churches and traditions we will study. Neither is it to compare and contrast them. Instead my aim is to help you learn from your brothers and sisters of other denominations so that your faith might be enriched and that we might be more authentic and effective disciples of Jesus Christ.

Please keep in mind that this is not an academic study, and I am not a church historian. I am a pastor, seeking to introduce people to a subject about which I care passionately. As a result, my descriptions of the various Christian denominations and faith traditions may not be as accurate or complete as those you would encounter in a seminary class or textbook. Rather than comprehensiveness, my aim has been to capture something of the unique personality of each of these groups, engaging your imagination and inspiring you, I would hope, to further reading on your own. To that end, I have included a list of books you can read for follow-up study, along with a brief description of each.

You might want to know a little more about my place in this family of faith, since I will be walking with you through this reunion. I am a member of the United Methodist Church, and I will readily admit that it is the Methodists I would be most tempted to sit with in our imaginary reunion. But I am very close to the Catholics as well. My father and his family were Roman Catholic; my mother was from a conservative Protestant background. I was baptized a Catholic. My Catholic grandmother was among the most-pivotal spiritual influences of my early childhood. My first Bible was one she gave our family. She taught me to pray the Our Father and the Rosary, and she took me to Mass whenever she could. My faith was also shaped by my mother and her conservative Christian faith which shared many characteristics with the Baptist traditions. My godfather is a leader in the Greek Orthodox Church. I came to a personal faith in Christ in a Pentecostal church. And in college, after reading the stories of John Wesley, I became a United Methodist. At college my daughter occasionally worships in an Episcopal church. And I have several good friends who are Presbyterians.

My point is that each of these traditions we will study together has shaped my life and faith. I have worshiped in each of the churches described in this book and have learned and grown from my exposure to each of them. All of which is to say that I am personally indebted to several different faith traditions, and it is out of that appreciation for these other Christians that I write this book.

You will see that I have presented the various Christian traditions in roughly the order in which they developed, to help readers trace the growth of the Christian family tree. One exception is the chapter on Methodism, which, as a United Methodist pastor, I have chosen to present last, even though it is not the newest of the traditions.

Having said that, however, I want to be clear that the focus in this book is not to convince you that United Methodists are better Christians than others. I am hoping that all of us, of whatever denomination, can learn from one another and, by listening to others, can become more-faithful Christians. My aim in each of these chapters is to help us learn from the traditions we are studying and to allow each of them to deepen our own faith and our experience of God.

Walk with me, then, through this reunion of our most extraordinary and interesting family.