All tagged unity
We all have the capacity to make relational choices that can help mend age segregation in our churches. Specifically, I want to offer one practice for followers of Jesus that can help all of us swim upstream towards greater unity in the generational body of Christ: the practice of listening for unity.
We always have the choice as to how we see another person. We can resist evil, reject unrighteousness, and even contend for the faith without losing sight of the image and likeness of God in our conversation partner, our opponent, our enemy.
The body of Christ cannot be idle in its efforts to cultivate unity. If the body of Christ is going to function to the fullest, the body must be one.
When leadership fulfills its role, churches grow not only numerically but also in knowledge and spiritual maturity, which results in unity and peace. Otherwise, contentions and divisions take place.
Someone says a punch line, and instantly a loud, boisterous ruckus erupts. Before you know it, your side is splitting, and tears are running down your face. The sound is loud, free, and pure joy.
When we do the things expected in Eph. 4:2—practicing humility, gentleness, patience, and bearing with one another in love—we will be well on our way toward keeping the unity of the Spirit.
In order to imagine ourselves in difference-making positions, we all need models in place, models who look like we do and who don’t all look like each other.
Remember the song, “Make new friends and keep the old; one is silver and the other’s gold”? All are precious partners in God’s mission.
Liminality: it’s the ultimate “are we there yet?” And in fact, we’re not. If we’re honest, we’ll admit we don’t even know where there is, exactly, and lead with the spirit of contentment enjoying the missional pit stops with God while holding the destination loosely.
We, the people of this common space of earth, were created by a communal God. Who do we think we are, so often going it alone?
As a minister in Churches of Christ for 20 years, I often struggled with how to help the contemporary church appreciate its past.
There may be no better text for preaching in divisive cultural moments than the book of Ephesians. Here, the church sees a picture of all-encompassing unity.
What if there was an alternate path that could lead us beyond sectarianism while still allowing us to hold on to all that is valuable in our heritage?
If we are to be unified in the church, we’ve got to find something bigger to unite around, and the mission of God in the world may be the only thing that fits the bill.
We will mess up, make mistakes, and mis-handle situations. We will sin and fall short. But we will love, no matter what.
Could it be that from this point on, the Christian church should be about movement and the spreading of this tent to the ends of the earth?
Acts 15 provides a witness to the 21st century church, revealing a way forward in a religious world that doesn’t notice how big the tent actually is.
We offer three crucial commitments that are essential to any attempt to move closer toward the goal of racial reconciliation in the church.
Jesus prays for us to achieve unity in our diversity so that the world will know the unconditional love of God and believe.
