The man who is outside all organized Christianity may have, and often does have, a certain reverence for God, and a certain genuine respect for Jesus Christ (though he has probably rarely considered Him and his claims with his adult mind). But what sticks in his throat about the Christianity of the Churches is not merely their differences in denominations, but the spirit of "churchiness" which seems to pervade them all. They seem to him to have captured and tamed and trained to their own liking Something that is really far too big ever to be forced into little man-made boxes with neat labels upon them. He may never think of putting it into words, but this is what he thinks and feels.

"If," the Churches appear to be saying to him, "you will jump through our particular hoop or sign on our particular dotted line then we will introduce you to God. But if not, then there's no God for you."

This seems to him to be nonsense, and nasty arrogant nonsense at that. "If there's a God at all," he feels rather angrily, "then He's here in the home and in the street, here in the pub and in the workshop And if it's true that He's interested in me and wants me to love and serve Him, then He's available for me and every other Tom, Dick or Harry, who wants Him, without any interference from the professionals. If God is God, He's big, and generous and magnificent, and I can't see that anybody can say they've made a 'corner' in God, or shut Him up in their particular box."

Of course, it is easy to leap to the defence of the Churches, and point out that every cause must be organized if it is to be effective, that every society must have its rules, that Christ Himself founded a Church, and so on. But if the Churches give the outsider the impression that God works almost exclusively through the machinery they have erected and, what is worse, damns all other machinery which does not bear their label, then they cannot be surprised if he finds their version of God cramped and inadequate and refuses to "join their union."

There are doubtless many reasons for the degeneration of Christianity into churchiness, and the narrowing of the Gospel for all mankind into a set of approved beliefs; but the chief cause must be the worship of an inadequate god, a cramped and regulated god who is "a good churchman" according to the formulas of the worshipper. For actual behaviour infallibly betrays the real object of a man's worship.

All Christians, whatever their Church, would of course instantly repudiate the idea that their god was a super-example of their own denomination, and it is not suggested that the worship is conscious. Nevertheless, beneath the conscious critical level of the mind it is perfectly possible for the Anglo-Catholic, for example, to conceive of God as particularly pleased with Anglo-Catholicism, doubtful about Evangelicalism, and frankly displeased by all forms of Nonconformity.

The Roman Catholic who asserts positively that ordination in the Anglican Church is "invalid," and that no "grace" is receivable through the Anglican sacraments, is plainly worshipping a god who is a Roman Catholic, and who operates reluctantly, if at all, through non-Roman channels.

The ultra-low Churchman on the other hand must admit, if he is honest, that the god whom he worships disapproves most strongly of vestments, incense, and candles on the altar.

The tragedy of these examples, which could be reproduced ad nauseam any day of the week, is not difference of opinion, which will probably be with us till the Day of Judgement, but the outrageous folly and damnable sin of trying to regard God as the Party Leader of a particular point of view.

The thoughtful man outside the Churches is not offended so much by the differences of denominations. To him, in his happy ignorance, these are merely the normal psychological variations of human taste and temperament being expressed in the religious sphere. What he cannot stomach is the exclusive claim made by each to be the "right one."

His judgement is rightly empirical–did not Christ say, "By their fruits ye shall know them"? If he were to observe that the Church which makes the boldest and most exclusive claim to be constituted and maintained according to Almighty God's own ideas was obviously producing the finest Christian character, obviously wielding the highest Christian influence, and obviously most filled by the living Spirit of God–he could perhaps forgive the exclusive claim.

But he finds nothing of the kind. No denomination has a monopoly of God's grace, and none has an exclusive recipe for producing Christian character. It is quite plain to the disinterested observer that the real God takes no notice whatever of the boxes; "the Spirit bloweth where it listeth" and is subject to no regulation of man.

Moreover, our thoughtful observer who is outside the Churches has done a good deal of thinking on his own. The discoveries of modern physical and biological science, of astronomy, and of psychology have profoundly influenced his conception of the "size" of God. If there be a Mind behind the immense complexities of the phenomena that man can observe, than it is that of a Being tremendous in His power and wisdom: it is emphatically not that of a little god.

It is perfectly conceivable that such a being has a moral purpose which is being worked out on the stage of this small planet. It is even possible to believe that such a God deliberately reduced Himself to the stature of humanity in order to visit the earth in Person, as all Christians affirm. but the sort of thing which outrages reason and sets sanity rocking in her seat is to be told that such a God can only operate where there is an unbroken succession of bishops!

The "outsider" who knows nothing of the mixture of tradition, conviction, honest difference, and hidden resentment, that lies behind the division of the Christian Churches sees clearly the advantage of a united Christian front and cannot see why the Churches cannot "get together." The problem is doubtless complicated, for there are many honest difference held with equal sincerity, but it is only made insoluble because the different denominations are (possibly unconsciously) imagining God to be Roman or Anglican or Baptist or Methodist or Presbyterian or what have you.

If they could see beyond their little inadequate god, and glimpse the reality of God, they might even laugh a little and perhaps weep a little. The result would be a unity that actually does transcend differences, instead of ignoring them with public politeness and private contempt.

–J. B. Phillips, Your God is Too Small, Macmillan, 1961, pp. 37-40.