Should Christians Work Together to Glorify Christ Regardless of Their Faith Tradition?

“Postmodern churches are both Catholic and evangelical” (49). “[W]e welcome people from all faith backgrounds to come alongside us in Christ, whether their heritage is Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, or other” (Michael Slaughter and Warren Bird, Unlearning Church, 9).

This type of church is very appealing to a postmodern culture. It holds theology, exclusive truth claims, and individual doctrine very loosely and prefers to emphasize community and good works. But how can community and good works glorify God if they are not done in and through a right relationship with God built on the foundation of truth and grace in Jesus Christ (John 1:14, 17)? Today and throughout the 20^th century, there has been a trend toward ecumenism among various Christian faith traditions. While ecumenism (catholicity) are worthy goals, Christians should not sacrifice their primary beliefs (theological viewpoints and doctrines) to attain it. Nor should they place a thin veneer of ecumenism over their strongly held places of disagreement. We can disagree and yet still work together (as our theologies allow it) and remain separate organizations within the global Body of Christ. 

In some cases, the theological differences may be so severe that each Christian faith tradition would be best served by working separately. Here, I am thinking about the Roman Catholic Church and the Southern Baptist Convention. These two organizations have major doctrinal differences which should require them to work separately. In response, some will say that we should all work together for the glory of Jesus. Correct, but how can we work together while we have such major theological divisions surrounding our Christology. Our Christology represents our understanding of Christ and our missionary activities are to be done to bring glory to Christ. So if we have different views of Christ, our missionary activities could potentially be done to glorify one or more views of Christ (perhaps some heretical views) when we work together with certain Christian faith traditions.