There has long been a (hopefully friendly) rivalry between Pentecostal/charismatic and more conservative/traditional Christian churches.
The former get accused of being too emotionally and experientially driven and not grounded in the Scriptures, while the latter get accused of being too straight-laced, dogmatic and lacking in the Spirit.
While you will always find negative extremes, both sides need to be careful that their judgment is not clouded by prejudice or ignorance of what the Bible actually says.
This really hit home to me some time back as I was listening to a song by Matt Redman, entitled Undignified (I will dance).
Some of the lyrics are as follows:
I will dance, I will sing
To be mad for my King...
…And I’ll become even more undigni-fied than this.
My natural, default bias would ordinarily have written this song off as ‘emotional “penty” hogwash,’ (I mean, undignified dancing!!) but this time was different. Only days before I heard the song, I was reading a fascinating passage of Scripture in 2 Samuel 6:16-23 in which King David was bringing the Ark into Jerusalem, so I immediately recognized the song as being directly from Scripture. (You can read the passage here)
It was a good reminder to me that before we write anything off as ‘emotional “penty” hogwash’ or ‘legalistic conservative dogma’ it would be wise to go to the Scriptures first, and, above all, to remember that Jesus greatly desires the unity of His Church.
sarsrose 
Reblogged this on afriendofJESUS2013Blog and commented:
Awesome post! God bless you!
Thank you. Very honoured
🙂
Well said !! We must be fed by the Word as often as possible (Matthew 4:4), to become mature in our walk with the Lord; and able to discern good from evil…
Hebrews 5:14… But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. (NKJV)
Blessings in Christ, bruce
Thanks Bruce, very true. Thanks so much for visiting!
Extremely well said. God Bless You!
Thank you, and thanks for visiting! 🙂
is ‘not knowing what the Bible actually means or says [evidenced by the existence of so many denominations]’ actually unity? Sure, they all may have ‘the heart of the gospel’ etc, and ‘oh technically they are going to heaven,’ but i think an honest appraisal wouldn’t call it ‘unity’. Hey, Pope Francis is your mate too. He represents your leader too. And sure, maybe a god would want different levels of truth and insight for different followers (thats not toooo wacky, e.g. more understanding as a reward for diligent searching), but i don’t think he/she would call it ‘Project Unity.’ 😀
although as a concession, you did say that Jesus ‘desires’ the unity of his church, not that it was going to happen.
Hi Chris. I think your second comment answers a lot of this. Jesus desires unity, but we are still human and still fail. It is the goal, but not always the reality. I don’t think the presence of different denominations should necessarily imply a lack of unity. You will always get groups that have strayed so far from the fundamental truths of the gospel that they are no longer united with true believers, but in regards to true believers, different denominations does not have to mean a lack of unity. We all have different gifts and abilities to use to edify the church, and I think that different denominations often fulfil different purposes within the whole body. We do, too often, fall into the trap of saying that ‘because they are not an arm’ like us, they are not as valuable, but I think the Scripture calls us to recognise and embrace difference (though not fundamental ones), while still serving in the area (and denomination) to which God has called and equipped us.
You write SO well. How concise, yet effectively relayed!
Grateful for you,
Marlene
Thank you SO much Marlene. Really so touched by your comments and your support.
Sarah x