I have been thinking about this matter for a long time as a pastor who is involved a great deal on boards and committees in the larger American Baptist family as well as some ecumenical work. I realize, most certainly, that people will not always get along and there will be differences of opinion. That is the nature of the fallen world in which we live. However, I do believe that the culture of mistrust that permeates so much of our society has contributed a great deal to the ineffectiveness of the church in reaching the lost for Christ today.
Perhaps we have lost something in the past 2000 years that we would do well to recapture. The book of Acts (the story of the early church) we constantly see words like “together”, “In one accord”, “all things in common”, “fellowship” etc. And as a result of this the early church experienced explosive growth. Nowhere in the gospels do I read about particular worship styles, concerns over what is “in my best interest” or anyone being interested in strong-arming fellow believers to do things that they felt were out of sync with the will of God as revealed through the Holy Spirit. Looking at some of the groups I have been involved with in the past as well as currently, I see things coming into play that I would have to say are counter-spiritual and frankly do more harm to the cause of Christ than anything outside of the church. I have heard individual believers doing and saying things that clearly communicate “I don’t care if you are a follower of Christ, I will not trust you, therefore I will jeopardize ministry to protect my self-interests”. Or some seem to be saying “I really don’t care about you personally, I really want to just look out for number one. If that means wasted energy for you or that the Gospel is hindered by my actions, then so be it”. Do people really say those things? Yes, most certainly, by their actions, they do and the result is that we give justification to those outside the family of God to persist in their cynicism thinking that the church is no different than the world around us and in some ways is even worse, because we can’t even get along with those in our own household.
So, what is the answer? Well, I will be the first to admit that I don’t have all of the answers, but I do believe that it starts when we return to the values that were paramount to the success of the early church. When we give equal credibility to the ideas and dream of others as we do to our own, we honor the Holy Spirit and bring a smile to God’s face. Those first century followers of Christ trusted one another with their very lives, their fortunes and everything that they held dear. When we follow suit, the purposes of Christ are raised to higher levels of success. I believe when we put everything that we have and everything that we are on the line for Christ, we will find the unity that is woefully lacking in our world and we will see successes that have been previously unimagined. We need to adopt the attitude that says: “I may not even know you, but because we both bear the name of Christ, I will trust you and work with you for the sake of those outside of our family to graft them into the vine”.
Is this risky? Yes! Is this uncomfortable? Absolutely! Can we be hurt by those who abuse the family relationship? Yes, sadly, it happens all too often. But, until we can put aside pettiness and quarreling aside, we will probably continue to stagnate and as a result, those for whom we exist, will continue to drift and many will die without knowing Jesus. That fact alone, my friends makes all of these things risks that are, for me, well worth taking!
All of this being said, I want to say this: In my current church at Bethel, I have come to know a group of people who do not always agree with one another on every single issue. However, at the end of the day, the fact that we are family keeps us moving on together, side by side. As this is happening at Bethel, I believe it can happen anywhere, anywhere that people are willing to take the risk and “Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13:34-35 NIV)
