The MWT - Church in the Southeast

To begin, this is not an in-depth study of church in the southeast section of the U.S. It’s a top-level perception. As we drove through the north part of the south, we were impressed by the number of churches that we saw. We also noted the wide range of denominations and the comparative geographical closeness of the churches themselves. We could drive through an intersection with churches on three corners, usually a Baptist, Methodist, plus 1. Occasionally a Catholic church would be camped out on a corner, but I’d say the ratio of protestant to Catholic churches were easily 10 to 1. Even more impressive was the high number of variations of a particular protestant denomination, with 3-5 Baptist variants within a couple of miles. At first I was thinking, why do we waste all these resources for the wide range of churches within hailing distant of each other. Then I though about the history. When many, if not most, of these churches were originally started, traveling more than 3 miles was a challenge. Family/neighborhood churches were developed for convenience. When we got to New Mexico the ratio of Catholic churches to protestant churches skewed toward the Catholics. A short study of history garnered the knowledge that this area was populated early by Spanish based Catholic missions. We note that in the Sante Fe region, many Catholic churches were destroyed by the Pueblo uprising of 1860. They were reacting to the oppression and taxation by the churches in the name of the state. They also revolted against the purpose of the church, to convert the locals to the religion, and secure the locals as members of the state. The strength of the religion was that less than 50 years after the churches were wiped out, they were rebuilding on a smaller scale and disassociating from the state.

As we work as a church to educate those that don’t believe, or have fallen away from the church, what is the perception of the locals of our cause? Are we passive, aggressive, passive-aggressive? Do we sell an agenda that is not Christian based? My prayer is that we approach our ministry with open arms and open hearts. That we isolate our social agendas from our discipleship ministries. That we treat all as equals rather than subordinates.