This was one of a number of questions asked of me by a stranger who added me as a friend on Facebook. He lives in Winnipeg as I do and is apparently looking for a church to attend but found all the different denominations confusing.
This was my response:
Pleased to meet you, *****
The best way to find out about the church I attend is to read this page on our website:
http://www.riverwood.cc/page.php?page=new
It explains who we are better than I could, probably.
If you are not familiar the various denominations it can certainly be confusing. The church I attend (Riverwood) is non-denominational, meaning we are just a regular sort of community church.
Personally, I don’t believe the bible is confusing, but rather, we as imperfect people get confused and then disagree on various things and end up being different denominations and having different views on topics. Certain parts of the bible can be hard to understand or mysterious - and we might not understand those parts fully until we get to heaven.
I hope it encourages you to know that many different churches from different denominations in Winnipeg agree on the MOST important things, even if there are less important details that we may not agree on. And many of these pastors meet together and pray together and work together to bless Winnipeg. So there is a lot of unity to be thankful for.
Not all churches follow God in a biblical way, but I do think those that do are part of God’s plan to have many different “kinds” of churches, each one with different strengths and weaknesses and ways of seing things - so that He uses us all in different ways to accomplish His purposes together. Just like the bible talks about there being many different parts but one body.
Just like there are no perfect people, there are no perfect churches. Riverwood isn’t perfect. We just try our best to be faithful to what we believe to be God’s leading and direction and try to grow closer to Him.
I believe the bible is the word of God, infallible and true. I don’t look to imperfect churches or people to prove that to me… I look to Jesus to prove that to me because He said that He was “the way, the truth and the life”.
I hope you find a church that “feels like home” to you, believes the bible is true even when they don’t always understand all of it, and draws you closer to Jesus, who is the Truth.
Blessings to you,
Greg
What would you have added or left out while maintaining the “nutshell” brevity of a Facebook message?
