When I tell people that I listen to country music, I often get the same question: “Do you listen to real country music?”

I usually know what they are getting at, but sometimes I play dumb and ask what they mean by “real.”

More often than not, the answer I get includes the names Johnny Cash and Hank Williams. I agree that these are about the best standard bearers for the distinctly American art form that is country music.

But when you think about it, neither Cash nor Hank sounded much like each other. So which of them was more “real?”

And on top of that, both of them caught flack for introducing things that some at the time said wasn’t “real country,” such as the use of a mariachi band in Cash’s hit song “Ring of Fire” and the electric steel guitar in many of Hank’s recordings.

Even “real” country singers couldn’t catch a break from some in their time who demanded more purity from them.

In a similar way, I often hear preachers say that our churches should be like the one found in the New Testament. When this happens, I want to raise my hand and ask, “Which one?”

Do they mean the one in Jerusalem in Acts 2 that consisted of people from at least 10 different countries, and who sold everything they had and redistributed the wealth to anyone who was in need?

I don’t see many churches these days clamoring to be like that. Or, do they mean the church in Corinth that had serious problems with people splitting up into different factions, arguing over whose leader was the best?

Maybe they mean that we should be like the churches in Revelation, the ones that were promised that persecution would come their way.

The truth is, there was no one “real” church in the New Testament, any more than there is no one “real” expression of country music.

Cash was no more or less country than Williams. They represented very different tributaries of the same stream of music. They were storytellers who knew how to sing about the broken human condition with grit and authenticity.

One used mariachi bands, the other the steel guitar. The church in Jerusalem was no more or less “biblical” than the one in Corinth.

They were made up of broken human beings with their own quirks and storms that needed to be navigated. And each of them, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, found their own particular ways to do things.

The diversity among different ways of “doing church” in our communities should be celebrated, not attacked.

Christians have a long history of not seeing eyeto eye on many things. Some insist on one definite moment of “getting saved,” while others accept that conversion may be a slower, more gradual process.

Some speak in tongues while others believe that spiritual gift ended 2,000 years ago. Very good, devoted Christians vote “no” when a referendum on alcohol sales are on the ballot, and very good, devoted Christians vote “yes.” None of these revere the Bible any less than the other, and none represent a more pure form of the faith.

This does not mean we should not have serious conversations about the issues that divide us. It simply means those issues are usually less important than things we share in common.

Johnny Cash and Hank Williams sounded vastly different yet represented unique facets of the same art form. Our churches and beliefs may look nothing like each other, but we all are united in the belief that Christ has died, Christ is risen, and Christ will come again.

Nash is community pastor at University Church and a student at Baylor’s George W. Truett Theological Seminary.