Today, there are more than 2000 registered Christian denominations in the United States alone. Why are there so many different church groups and where did they come from? The original church was a single group consisting of local congregations in each town or city. These congregations were overseen by elders, or bishops, who pastored and instructed the members belonging to that local church.

Denominations were a later creation resulting from people's inability or unwillngness to maintain the unity of the faith over differing doctrines. Instead of working to maintain the unity of the church through mutual submission to one another and to Christ, groups of believers, motivated either by a desire to maintain doctrinal purity or for a more experiential relationship with God, broke off from established fellowships to form new ones.

Today, our towns and cities are littered with the end result of this process ... with church buildings of different denominations sitting accross the street from, or even beside, each other. All of them hold to the basic tenets of Faith, but differ in more minute doctrinal emphasis or practices.

Are Denominations in keeping with the Will of God? What do you think?