When Mark Lowry was growing up in Texas, he thought there was only one kind of Christian. His kind. The followingexcerpts are found in his book, Out of Control.

I was raised in an independent, fundamentalist, Bible-believin’, Biblebangin’, foot-stompin’, door-knockin’, soul-winnin’, devil-chasin’, sin-hatin’, pew-jumpin’, hand-raisin’, King-James-only Baptist church.

I was “born again” in that church, and I naturally assumed if you weren’t part of that church, your chances of making it to heaven were about as good as Ross Perot’s chances of finding earmuffs that fit…

When I first began my ministry (singer, comedian) I only traveled to Baptist churches. That’s who I knew, and that’s who knew me. Then I started receiving invitations from other churches. I’ve performed concerts for the Methodist, Presbyterian, Charismatic, Charismatic-Catholic, Church of God-Cleveland, Church of God-Anderson, Lutheran, Seventh-Day Adventist, Christian Church, Evangelical Free, Grace Brethren, Southern Baptist, Northern Baptist, Free-Will Baptist, Hard-Shell Baptist, General Association of Regular Baptists, General Association of Irregular Baptists, Conservative Baptist, Moderate Baptist, Liberal Baptist, and a host of other churches I can’t remember at this particular moment in time. (Whew! That gave me a headache!)

One Baptist pastor told me that if he ever heard I was singing in anything but a Baptist church, he’d never have me back.

“Well, I guess you wouldn’t have Jesus because He was never in a Baptist church,” I respectfully pointed out. I’ve never been back to that haven of hospitality.

Heaven is going to be populated with surprises. I honestly believe that. Not only are we going to see people we were absolutely sure were not going to make it, they might even have bigger mansions than ours. And, some of the ones we counted on being there for some reason are going to be “no shows.”

I believe there are true Christians in every denomination, in every city, in every state, and in every country in the world. Like Jesus put it in John 10:16, “I have sheep that are not of this fold…”

Originally, there was only one church, of course. It began at Pentecost, and from there it started splitting, reproducing, multiplying. Every time someone tried to stick God in a box to figure him out, in order to franchise the formula, he moved on. That’s how he works. Just when we think we know who he uses and who he loves, he blows our mind by using someone we wouldn’t be seen with and loving someone we can’t stand.

Even Jesus was full of surprises. He hung out with people the pious religious crowd thought were bad influences. He was friend of sinners, tax collectors, murderers, and thieves. He showed love to the cheats, the scoundrels, the drunkards, and the prostitutes.

The only people Jesus ever chewed out were the religious folk, those pious gasbags who were polished on the outside but full of dead men’s bones on the inside.

Ever notice that? Jesus never had an unkind word for sinners, but he went out of his way to put the Pharisees and Sadducees in their place.