Study series · 13 of 13 published
What makes TheWay different. Where we agree with other traditions, and where we don't.
Thirteen pieces going tradition by tradition — what each one holds, where we hold the same thing, and where we part ways and why. The first piece lays out the posture we're keeping through all of them. No local church is named anywhere in the series.
- 01What Makes TheWay Different — Start HereBig Rapids is not short on churches. So why start another one? This opens a series that goes tradition by tradition, and it lays out the posture we're holding to through all of it.
- 02What Makes TheWay Different From Wesleyan-Holiness ChurchesFree Methodist, Wesleyan, Nazarene, Church of God, Salvation Army — together the largest group of churches in Mecosta County. Here's what we hold in common with them, and the handful of places we genuinely part ways.
- 03What Makes TheWay Different From Lutheran ChurchesAll three major American Lutheran bodies have a congregation in this area, and they don't agree with each other. Here's what each holds, where Lutherans are closer to us than almost anybody, and where we part ways.
- 04What Makes TheWay Different From the Catholic ChurchThe most-asked-about difference there is, and the one most often handled badly. Here's Catholic teaching stated the way a good catechist would state it, what we hold in common without qualification, and where we differ and why.
- 05TheWay and the Restoration Movement: Churches of Christ, Christian Churches, and What the Water DoesFour congregations in this county came out of the Restoration Movement, and they're the ones we get confused with most. We baptize the same way they do. Here's what we hold together, and the one place we part.
- 06TheWay and Pentecostal Churches: We Believe the Gifts Continue TooThis isn't an argument against the Holy Spirit's gifts — TheWay believes all of them continue. The differences with our Pentecostal neighbors are narrower and more specific than that, and Oneness Pentecostalism is a separate question entirely.
- 07TheWay and Methodist Churches: Wesley, the Split, and Who Holds the DeedUnited Methodist and Global Methodist congregations both meet in this county now. Here's what happened between 2019 and 2024, what Methodists actually believe, and where TheWay lands differently — including the one difference families feel.
- 08TheWay and Reformed and Presbyterian Churches: Confessions, Covenant, and Whosoever WillIn West Michigan the Reformed tradition shapes more than its congregation count suggests. TheWay owes it a real debt and lands differently on four things: confessional subscription, infant baptism, the five points, and who sits above a local church.
- 09What Makes TheWay Different from Other Baptist Churches?TheWay's practice is Baptist, so this one is mostly about agreement. Here are the Baptist distinctives we hold, and the four places where somebody who grew up Baptist would notice a difference.
- 10What Makes TheWay Different from Other Non-Denominational Churches?TheWay is non-denominational, and the label tells you almost nothing. Where these churches actually come from, the four questions worth asking any of them, and what we're doing so the usual failure mode isn't us.
- 11What Makes TheWay Different from Episcopal and Anglican Churches?The prayer book, the Thirty-Nine Articles, bishops and succession, infant baptism, and real presence — what the liturgy does better than most of us, and where TheWay lands differently and why.
- 12What Makes TheWay Different from Seventh-day Adventist Churches?The Trinity, grace, immersion, and the return of Christ are shared ground. The Sabbath, the writings of Ellen G. White, the investigative judgment, and what happens to the lost are not.
- 13What Makes TheWay Different from Mormonism and the Jehovah's Witnesses?This one is a different kind of post. Every other entry in this series has been about differences between Christians, and this one isn't — because the question here is who Jesus is.
Be here early
Work through a book with people.
These started as studies with a few people in a living room. That's still the best way to read one.