Partnering Across Denominations

We can learn from one another and grow together in our love for Christ and the world.

This past summer, we hosted the Amplify North American Evangelism Conference. People from many different denominations were represented, both among the speakers and the participants. Sometimes churches do not play well with other churches from different denominations. But I believe there is value in working with people from other denominations.

We can learn from one another and grow together in our love for Christ and the world.

I’m the head of the North American Lausanne Movement. Lausanne is a global movement co-founded by Rev. Billy Graham and John Stott. I lead the North American region, so I gather people together from many denominations at the Billy Graham Center.

I am not ecumenical in the traditional sense. Such traditional ecumenism tends to find the lowest common denominatintor where people can partner together with all sectors and segments of the church for a common goal. However, I am an evangelical ecumenist, as I’ve described in an earlier article. If we have a common understanding of the gospel, there are some things we can do together, but there are also some things we cannot do together.

For example, Tim Keller is a friend and, to be honest, a role model. We can work well together on many projects. Yet, despite my appreciation for Tim, we can’t plant a church together. We have different views on baptism. We both love Jesus and love the Bible, but we have come to different conclusions about how baptism should be done.

We could plant a church together until the first baptism, and then we wouldn’t know if we needed a cup or a tub. Because that’s important to me theologically, we wouldn’t be able to start a church together.

While we can agree to disagree on issues like baptism, ...