The Body of Christ

My cousin Apryl messaged me on MSN messenger with a question a friend had asked her. It is a question I think troubles a lot of followers of Christ and even more people looking at us from the outside. Her friend asked her why there are so many denominations. This was my answer except for a few grammatical changes:

The best answer I can give you is that people who believe and follow the same God can have disagreements about things; some pretty petty and some not quite as petty and when those followers allow those disagreements to become the focus or become divisive they feel the need to have a separate denomination. However, if they believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God, that he died on behalf of us for our sins and rose from the dead then they are part of THE CHURCH. The universal body of Christ that can’t be separated by labels men create and use.
That really was the best answer I could give her in a short enough time for her to answer her friend and because the fact that this fact discourages and makes me ask some tough questions at times.

Despite the problems THE CHURCH seems to face, the more I grow in my walk with Christ the more I feel a need to be a part of it. The less I see it for denominations and sects and the more I see its unity. The more I understand Christ and his love for THE CHURCH the less evil I can speak of her. Though I am appreciative of the my heritage within the Church of the Nazarene, find myself in agreement with most of their doctrines and love and have been deeply impacted by many of those within my denomination the more I meet my brothers and sisters of other denominations the more I realize that the divisions of the BODY OF CHRIST are largely inflated and that there is a bond between us that can only be explained as the Holy Spirit. Though we often (we including me) are quite quick to bring up our differences, our failures, and how inadequate THE CHURCH is I love the BRIDE OF CHRIST and am quite proud to be part of THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST.