As a preacher, it’s fair to ask me why I present specific sermons. Plenty of times, there’s very particular reasons behind it, whether it be for some person’s benefit or for the benefit of the church in general.
As a preacher, I emphasize the church and baptism (as only one element of salvation) because I’m not interested in having a “Christ club”. A lot of religious groups are nothing more than “Christ clubs” because they concentrate their doctrine around the life and teachings of Christ. Now I’m not downgrading the teaching of Christ, but there’s a lot more to the New Testament. A common problem which drags people into false doctrine is not taking into account every place in Scripture where it discusses a topic. Several denominations will have a tendency to downplay doctrines on the church and baptism, while bringing to the front just the doctrines of Christ.
The reason why is simple. The more doctrine-laden teachings, the more divisions. The more divisions, the less people you have. But to what end?
Paul said in 2 Timothy 3:16-17, “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” If you want to understand the Bible, you’ve got to examine all of the doctrines and follow them — even if it risks division.
Kyle Campbell