It don\u2019t mean a thing if it ain\u2019t got that swing.<\/i><\/p>\n
When we call for unity in the church, t\u2019s not just that we don\u2019t want dissent. It\u2019s not that we hate division, although we do that.<\/p>\n
Unity is far more than the nay-sayers being gagged or rebellion put down. The old joke goes, \u201cYou can tie two cats\u2019 tails together and throw them over the clothesline and you\u2019ll have union. But you will not have unity.\u201d<\/p>\n
Unity is a positive quality.<\/p>\n
When the oaring team refers to perfect moments in their boat, they do not mean the time they won a race. A perfect moment is when they feel all eight oars in the water together, working in perfect harmony.<\/p>\n
At such moments, we\u2019re told, the boat seems to lift right out of the water. Oarsmen call this\u00a0the moment of swing.<\/i><\/p>\n
In an old Readers Digest<\/em> article, Olympic oarsman John Biglow says what he likes most about that perfect moment is it allows one to trust the other rowers. A boat does not have \u201cswing,\u201d he says, unless everyone is exerting equal effort, and only because of that was there the possibility of true trust among oarsmen.<\/p>\n The athletes put it in the form of a formula:<\/p>\n Equal Effort + Synchronization + Lift = Trust.<\/b><\/p>\n Now, if we apply this to the body of Christ\u2013a local congregation is usually a lot more than eight people, but regardless of the number\u2013we will see what lessons of harmony and unity it yields.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/span>Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity.<\/i>\u00a0(Psalm 133:1)<\/p>\n And when the Day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place\u2026. And day by day continuing with one mind in the temple\u2026.<\/i>\u00a0(Acts 2:1,46)<\/p>\n Here are\u00a0Seven Things We Know About Unity Among the Lord\u2019s People.<\/b><\/p>\n 1. God desires unity in His people.<\/b><\/p>\n This is not an optional add-on. Unity among the people of the Lord is one of the essentials. Without it, nothing gets done. With it, anything can be achieved that God wills.<\/p>\n Paul wrote, \u201cI urge Euodia and I urge Syntyche to live in harmony in the Lord\u201d (Philippians 4:2). Earlier he had said to that church, \u201c(You will) make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose\u201d (Philippians 2:2).<\/p>\n 2. Unity is the byproduct of God\u2019s people focusing on Him.<\/b><\/p>\n I\u2019m about to say something that is not as simple as it sounds: the church that keeps its eyes on Jesus is a unified congregation.<\/p>\n What complicates it is that there is a second layer involved here. Yes, we are to stay focused on the Lord Jesus in our hearts and minds, in our worship and our service and our message. But a part of that means\u00a0obeying the leaders God has put in place within His people.<\/i><\/p>\n Anyone who reads the Bible from cover to cover comes away with many instances where God interprets resistance toward His appointed leaders as rebellion against Himself. He said to Saul of Tarsus, \u201cWhy do you persecute me?\u201d (Acts 9:4,5)\u00a0When the misguided zealot attacked God\u2019s people, Jesus took it personally.<\/i>\u00a0Likewise, throughout the Old Testament, the Lord considered how people treated Moses or Joshua or Joseph or Jeremiah as them treating Him in the same way.<\/p>\n I remind anyone who requires it that Acts 20:28 says the pastors\/elders are appointed as overseers by the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n Obey your leaders<\/i>\u00a0(Hebrews 13:17).<\/p>\n Now, to the layman who insists, \u201cWell, we too are holy. The preacher takes too much upon himself,\u201d I refer you to the times Miriam and Aaron and certain \u201cmen of renown\u201d tried that same stunt against Moses. God dealt with their rebellion in a hurry. (See Numbers chapters 12 and 16.)<\/p>\n Note: Granted, there are exceptions to “obey your leaders,” in that leaders can sometimes be wicked, self-centered, and harmful to the ministry.\u00a0 In this case, each church should have a team of lay leaders who rise up and take action.\u00a0 But the “obey your leaders” is a general rule to be obeyed with common sense and dedication to Christ.<\/p>\n 3. Unity is a living thing.<\/b><\/p>\n The eight men in a boat who are stroking their oars through the water at the same time may be experiencing that \u201cperfect moment\u201d one minute and total chaos the next. Eight people are contributing to the harmony, but any one of them can disrupt it.<\/p>\n A church can be unified today and catfighting tomorrow. Yesterday\u2019s attention to godly matters\u2013the Lord\u2019s purpose, obedience to Him, etc.\u2013will not suffice for today.<\/p>\n 4. Unity is a fragile thing.<\/b><\/p>\n So much that has to do with church relationships should be stamped \u201cfragile.\u201d The bond between the deacons and a pastor can be strong, the harmony sweet, and the effect glorious. However, let one deacon or the preacher get out of fellowship with the Lord and that bond is immediately stressed to the point of breaking.<\/p>\n Threats to unity within a congregation abound. My brother-in-law\u2019s moving company could have saved the church money had they employed him to move the new preacher to our city. Someone\u2019s child gets sent home from church camp for misbehaving, and bingo! a parent overreacts and causes trouble. The head deacon\u2019s daughter had the church scheduled for her wedding and because of a foulup in the office, someone else gets it and she has to go to the VFW hall.<\/p>\n Some unity-sabotages are major: doctrinal conflicts, moral issues, biblical questions. If the preacher has run off with the organist\u2013leaving their spouses and children\u2013even if some members want to welcome them back (\u201cwhat will we do without the organ?\u201d), leaders take their stand and hold their ground. If some members leave because they didn\u2019t get their way, it\u2019s a small price.<\/p>\n Some are minor.\u00a0\u201cBut we always have the flowers in the sanctuary the third Sunday of June. It\u2019s our anniversary. Everyone knows that.\u201d<\/i>\u00a0The new secretary had not known this history.<\/p>\n \u201cWell, it\u2019s my time to be named Senior Adult of the Year. Lord knows I deserve it.\u201d<\/i>\u00a0As a result, we cut out naming Senior Adult of the Year altogether.<\/p>\n \u201cThat child got a bigger portion of ham on his plate than I did.\u201d<\/i>\u00a0In one of his books, Kent Hughes tells of a church split traced back to the chairman of deacons being peeved when a child received a larger slice of meat at the mid-week church supper than he.<\/p>\n 5. Unity is all about love.<\/b><\/p>\n Paul writes of believers having\u00a0their hearts knit together in love<\/i>\u00a0(Colossians 2:2). That\u2019s why he calls love\u00a0the perfect bond of unity<\/i>\u00a0(Colossians 3:14).<\/p>\n Think of your home. Have you ever thought that a family member was trespassing on your rights or had slighted or offended you? And have you ever decided to \u201cbite your tongue\u201d rather than call attention to it because doing so would turn it into a major issue. You made a tiny sacrifice for the sake of unity. That\u2019s love.<\/p>\n \u201cLove covers a multitude of sins,\u201d we\u2019re told in I Peter 4:8. Whatever else that means, it surely refers to the one loving deciding to overlook (\u201cforbear\u201d) certain flaws in the behavior of another rather than call attention to them. The person who says, \u201cWell, I speak my mind! If I think it, I say it!\u201d is doing no one a favor and has installed the flesh in the driver\u2019s seat of his\/her life. Love does not do such a hostile thing.<\/p>\n A pastor friend told me that just before leaving his church\u2013out of anger that she had not gotten her way on some issue\u2013a lady said to him, \u201cI know I got in the flesh there. But tough!\u201d<\/p>\n That\u2019s what the absence of love looks like. Personally, I pity the pastor of the next church that lady lands in. She\u2019s trouble looking for a place to happen.<\/p>\n 6. Disunity is one of the enemy\u2019s chief aims.<\/b><\/p>\n God is not the author of confusion, but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.<\/i>\u00a0(I Corinthians 14:33)<\/p>\n Remember back to the last time your favorite team won a championship. In the media coverage, at some point someone credited the achievement to the unity of the team.<\/p>\n Then, think back to the most disastrous season your team experienced. Was it characterized more by unity or division?<\/p>\n I rest my case.<\/p>\n One of the numerous titles of Satan given in Scripture is\u00a0accuser of the brethren<\/i>\u00a0(Revelation 12:10). And why would he devote time and energy to accusing God\u2019s faithful? Clearly, to divide them with suspicion and anger and finger-pointing.<\/p>\n 7. Leaders must be constantly on the alert to deal with disunity whenever it begins to arise.<\/b><\/p>\n We are not talking about keeping down all dissent. Sometimes a pastor or the entire leadership team of a church can go off course and it\u2019s necessary for someone to call them down. Not all dissent is wrong; not all dissension is bad.<\/p>\n But most of the division and dissension I\u2019ve observed in churches for the sixty years I\u2019ve been a disciple of the Lord Jesus has been fleshly stuff. Someone didn\u2019t like the preacher. Someone wanted a different kind of music. Someone\u2019s child was overlooked. Someone insisted they build a new church plant and others resisted. Someone stole money or committed adultery or condoned leaders who did.<\/p>\n The matter that divided my home church, resulting in the pastor leaving and initiating the decline that eventually put that incredible congregation out of business forever, was on the surface simple: should the church cancel the Sunday night radio broadcast of their worship service. At issue was whether they could afford it.<\/p>\n As with most divisions, this started small and spread beyond control. By the time it made it onto the floor of the church business meeting, people were so entrenched in their positions, I fear if the Lord Himself had shown up to call both sides down and urge repentance upon them, He would have been hooted off the platform.<\/p>\n A longtime member of the church I grew up in once said regarding another matter, \u201cIf it\u2019s sin, we\u2019ve been sinning all these many years and I don\u2019t see no reason to stop now.\u201d That kind of carnal attitude has no place in the family of Christ.<\/p>\n Still, someone has to step up and speak out against the conflagration that threatens to destroy a church. Someone has to want to honor Jesus Christ so much that nothing else matters.<\/p>\n Someone has to exercise courage.<\/p>\n Ideally, it\u2019s the leadership who does this.<\/p>\n Protecting the unity of a congregation requires two things: the courage to confront and a willingness to yield to those who confronted.<\/b><\/p>\n The news told of a young mother who was driving her small sons somewhere. She pulled into a major highway without looking and was immediately hit by a truck. The truck careened across the highway and hit other cars, injuring several people. As I recall\u2013not sure about this\u2013no one was killed. The young mother was cited by the police, the article said, for \u201cfailure to yield.\u201d<\/p>\n Failure to yield. It sounds ominous.<\/p>\n It is that.<\/p>\n Half the divisions that occur within the body of the Lord\u2019s people could be stopped in their tracks if believers would faithfully yield\u2013to their leadership, to one another, to the Lord Himself. These, let it be emphasized, are all one and the same.<\/p>\n Submit to one another in the fear of the Lord.\u00a0 <\/em>(Ephesians 5:21) That’s how it’s done.<\/p>\n How sweet and pleasant indeed it is when God\u2019s people dwell together in unity.<\/p>\n Once experienced, no relationship ever feels the same without it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It don\u2019t mean a thing if it ain\u2019t got that swing. When we call for unity in the church, t\u2019s not just that we don\u2019t want dissent. It\u2019s not that we hate division, although we do that. Unity is far … Continue reading