Titus Chu Conference at "Chicago Gospel Hall" (April 9-10, 2016)

[Ohio]

This section stood out to me ...

Why Doesn’t Our Church Have a Name?

In the New Testament, the believers simply came together wherever they lived to be the church in that place, e.g., the church of God in Corinth (1 Cor. 1:2), the church in Ephesus (Rev. 2:1), or the church of the Thessalonians (1 Thess, 1:1). We do refer to ourselves as “the church in Chicago” or “the church of the Chicagoans,” but we do not take these terms as a name; we are only using them to describe who we are. We are incorporated as “The Church of the Chicagoans,” but that is only for legal purposes, or for practical matters such as designating this website. Again, we don’t take such descriptions as our actual name.

To “denominate” literally means “to give a name to; designate” (American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition). Christians today are so divided in part because they are denominated; that is, they want to be called by some name other than the name of Christ, e.g., Catholic, Baptist, Presbyterian, etc. In fact, the apostle rebuked the early believers for this very thing:

For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe’s people, that there are quarrels among you. Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, “I am of Paul,” and “I of Apollos,” and “I of Cephas,” and “I of Christ.” Has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified for you, was he? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?
– First Corinthians 1:11-13

I wish current LC members would think about what they are saying. They love to promote their "no-name" oneness, as if they are onto something special. Actually Paul never rebuked them for names per se, but that they had divided themselves from one another by selecting who they wanted to follow exclusively.

Now what in the world do they think just happened in Chicago?

Greater Chicago formerly was "of Titus," and now they are "of Lee" ... again. Are they so naive as to think this is not so? Do I really have to walk around wearing a sandwich sign reading "I am of Titus," and parroting the phrase repeatedly, for this to occur???

I went thru the recent divisions and quarantines first hand. My LC elders told us repeatedly, "we have to stand for the truth!" which really meant that we are for Titus and by Titus and of Titus. Some of the others in my LC disagreed and said the same thing, "we have to stand for the truth!" which really meant that we are for Lee and by Lee and of Lee.

Then there were a few oddballs like me who said, "we have to stand for the truth!" which really meant that we are the church, and we don't have to take sides when ministries decide to fight. Few people listened to me.