Some thoughts on Church Unity

The New Testament speaks of the need for church unity, but; how has this been translated into action of the church. As I have observed, unity today means following leadership and conforming unquestioningly to the established traditions and habits of the establishment. The establishment does not have to be the pastor it can also be deacons or other factions within the church that have the largest or at least the loudest say. Those who do raise questions or concerns are treated as if they are spiritually lesser, unchristian, miss guided, and at times even demonized. To appreciate this type of response, one must also understand that the issues typically have little if anything to do with doctrine. To question the continuation or change to a ministry, even a failed ministry, can evoke the wrath of the establishment, which always sees itself as being right and the most spiritual. Other things such as the spending of money, order of worship, the type of worship can also create factions bent on having their way. None of these having anything to do with doctrine and all should be openly and honestly discussed without creating a break in the fellowship.

There are some problems with this type of blind and mindless unity. One, it forces the masses to quit thinking and applying Scripture to their daily lives because you now have "church rules", which lose their relevancy once you leave church. Blindly following prevents them from seeing the differences between traditions, cultural influences, and real doctrinal issues. The second problem of this form of unity is that it creates an unquestionable ecclesiastical order. This can lead to corruption once leadership is incapable of making mistakes even if those mistakes are immoral and/or illegal.

Some of the root cause of this problem may be that the leadership over emphasizes or even miss use Scripture concerning unity such as, Romans 16:17-18. While the New Testament writers were concerned about unity of the church, as Wayne Grudem points out in is his Systematic Theology, “there are no direct New Testament commands to separate from Christians”. The Apostles had disagreements amongst themselves and still had unity in the mission and cause for Christ. It is absurd to believe that everyone must agree on everything to have unity within the church.

Another potential cause to the problem is the modern version of the “Pharisees syndrome”, more concerned about legal or doctrinal issues than the souls of men. This leads to the looking down on people as some how lesser than themselves. The affect is not limited to how they treat follow Christians at various maturity levels but society as a whole. Even to the audacity to tell visitors that they are not fit to come to church. This changes the song “Just as I am” to “Only as we want you”, which may be the biggest sin of the modern church since it could lead to the lose of souls and goes against Christ's commandment to reach ALL men.

So, what is the solution? First, pastors, clergy, priest, and lay leaders they must define the purpose of the church so that the member clearly understand its role in the Kingdom work. This means going beyond the standard theologically filled babble or saying something like “we are reaching the world for Christ”. This is a bit vague for the person sitting in the pew and it must be a bit more relevant and closer to home. Unity of purpose can be achieved through the use of a mission statement for the church or basically stating what ministries the church is going to engage in. This will provide a gage that can be used to evaluate the spending of money, starting and stopping of ministries, and many other activities. It will also start providing clear places for the membership to insert themselves into and make the Christian life an active life with a Kingdom focus (surly it is more than going on Sunday).

Another area is to understand change. I have been in deacon's meeting where someone wants to do something new and the first thing stated is “we are not changing any doctrine”. I have always wanted to ask if they knew the doctrine and could really identify a change if a statement like that is required. It needs to be understood that the church is in a constant state of change. If not, it is dieing. Change here is the cultural and technological change that goes on in the world as well as the transition to the next generation. We must understand that the culture will enter the church. Two key examples here are music and dress. Surly, we can see that we do not dress like they did two or three hundred years ago nor is the music the same. So, during the last two thousand years which dress is proper or which music is correct? How someone answers will depend on their age, back ground, social and economic status.

One last thought. We should not see disagreement as necessarily bad. Honest and open discussion, which also requires listening, allows everyone to have a voice in the direction that church takes in its ministry work. This satisfies a need that people have to be heard, to contribute, and to be needed. It also helps ensure that the best decision in made. The church is full of ideas, back grounds and insights it would be a shame to not hear from them. Once a direction has been decided, then the church should rally around the task or mission and move forward.

One Dollar Coin missing "In God We Trust"

The US Mint in 2008 began releasing new presidential one dollar coins. This is another attempt to get the America public to adopt the coins over the paper dollar. One of the reasons as I understand it is to reduce cost of printing money. Coins last longer than paper.

Yet, that is not why I mention it. I received another email (actually several) that could not believe that we have removed the nations motto “In God We Trust” from the coin. The email went as far as to suggest a boycott and prove that we are a Christian nation and that they cannot change it.

Now, this makes me ask a whole bunch of questions again. One, did the author of the email even verify with the US Mint that the phrase “In God We Trust” was removed? A quick jump to the US Mint’s web site and few mouse clicks you can see the new coins. They do in fact have the phrase “In God We Trust” on it. The strange thing is that they put it on the edge along with the date and the phrase “E Plurisbus Unum”. Why they put on the edge, I don’t know. The point is that the premise of the email is false.

The second item concerning the email is the boycott of US currency. How do you boycott the use of money? Do you refuse change in one dollar increments? Instead of four ones, request it in quarters.

My third point is really a series of questions with the purpose of causing some thought. Does the motto “In God We Trust” make us a Christian nation? The nation's motto was approved July 30, 1956. Were we a Christian nation before it was added? If the motto is removed from our currency what does that really mean? Leaving it on in some attempt to fool God is a bit foolish and it is self deceiving. If we have ceased being a Christian nation, I don’t think that a motto is going to offer any protection from God’s wrath. However, the Scriptures does say that if HIS PEOPLE will humble themselves, He would heal the nation. To me, it seems that we could do more good for this nation by being the people he wants.

Yet, let us consider removing the motto, if for no other reason than a thought experiment. We claim to trust in the Lord or God but so does the nation. We claim to be heaven bound. So does the “nation” by means of its trust in God. We have two different life styles being represented. If we remove the motto, then only one life style will represent trust in God, which should be those committed to living a Godly life style. Maybe we need some contrast. Again, it is just a thought experiment.

Finally, the biggest problem with the email is its fear factor. The email manages to whip the Christian community into a frenzy. We believe that we are some how protecting something sacred (I have forwarded my fair share of this stuff, so forgive me). But why is there fear? God has not given us the spirit of fear but the spirit of truth. We have nothing to fear even if most of the nation became Wiccans or Devil worshipers. These are the little things used to distract us from the church’s call.

As agents of truth and the living God, we should not forward lies and fear but hope and peace.