Clergyman Charlie: On Church Unity
July 8th, 2007 by Charles Lamb
The divisions of the Church are a scandal. We are so used to them that they don’t alarm us, but they should. We pray to God and hope our prayers are answered, but we fail to answer the request that Jesus made of us.
According to John 17, Jesus prayed for the unity of the church. In verse 21 he asks for unity so that the world may believe. Some say he prayed for “spiritual unity,” but the unity must be so visible that the world sees it and believes. This requires bodily as well as spiritual unity
. A body without a spirit is a corpse; a spirit without a body is a ghost.
But we are so used to our hundreds of denominations that this doesn’t seem alarming to us. We don’t stop to think how this undermines our message of unity and peace and reconciliation. If we can’t reconcile with one another, how will those outside the church believe we have anything new to offer?
There are churches that call themselves “Bible Churches” and “Bible believing churches.” I don’t know of any other kind. Are they implying that other churches don’t believe the Bible? Sometimes these churches read one short Scripture before a long sermon, while other churches that don’t call themselves that read a lot of Scriptures every Sunday.
Some call themselves “non-denominational churches.” There is no such thing. A denomination is an identifiable group within the whole.” Even if one solitary church doesn’t affiliate with any other group, it is a denomination itself. And such churches rarely have structures to hold leaders accountable for misconduct.
Some refuse to associate with other Christians. If there is a group of pastors, or a council of churches, and they don’t come, what does that imply? That they are the only true church? What a presumption to make! What does that do to Jesus’ plea that all his followers be one?
We can have unity and still allow a great deal of diversity. In Luke 10:25-28 , Jesus was asked what one must do to inherit eternal life. He said to love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, and your neighbor as yourself. I don’t hear any long creed there!
It should be possible for all followers of Christ to recognize each other even though they disagree on rituals, ceremonies, and creeds. They should unite in love and action.
Some churches refuse to get involved in “politics.” By saying that, they refuse to get involved in working for justice in the world. That is the opposite of what the prophets proclaimed, and different from the Apostle Paul’s urging that we be ambassadors for Christ. (II Corinthians 5:20)
Some churches are so uncommitted that they don’t get involved just because they are too busy with less important things, or because they fear controversy. That is unacceptable also.
Our world needs for Christians to unite and stand up boldly for justice and peace in our world. As some have said, the church is a “sleeping giant.” If it were to awake and arouse itself, it could shake the powers that be and make a witness for Christ in the world.
We Christians should call on our local church leaders to work with denominational leaders for visible unity. Let’s call on churches that are not involved with other churches in the community to reach out and join hands with all the other churches in the town. Let’s start acting ourselves as though our divisions are totally unacceptable to us, and that we are part of a larger whole.
Then we’ll be doing our best to answer Jesus’ prayer that his followers may be one so that the world may believe.
Thanks to this churchgoer for the picture
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