Behold, how good and how pleasant it is
For brothers to dwell together in unity!
Psalm 133:1
In case you didn’t know, let me give you a little background on myself…
I grew up in the south. Which means I grew up knowing to go to church. My great grandparents went, my grandparents went, my parents went, my friends went, and their parents and grandparents went… my first memories of church are going with my Papaw Harris and Mamaw Lola. Then I remember going with my parents, then I remember we quite going. After that I remember going occasionally, popping in and out, and attending different churches with friends.
I say all this, to say, I never was in a church long enough to get a church mentality or learn the church lingo…
I remember when I wholly surrendered my life to Christ almost twelve years ago at the age of 24, that when I looked in the church bulletin I didn’t know that I could come to church on Sunday nights. The bulletin said “Discipleship Training” and I thought that was for the Pastors and Sunday School teachers only.
I don’t think I knew that I could come to “discipleship training” until someone specifically invited me to come. I was extremely intimidated by the “church” stuff.
I just this past Tuesday found out what an “RA” is, still don’t know what “GA” stands for, and really have no clue what a “WMU” is…
The December that I surrendered my life to Christ, I was invited to participate in a Precept study. I was already reading through the whole Bible… it was in this commitment to read the whole thing that I realized that I had no clue who God really was and that I didn’t have a relationship with Him, but I wanted to… and after committing my life to Him and then digging into His Word through Precept Upon Precept studies, I just became so stinkin’ excited about Him and over Him and for Him that I just could not contain myself.
So I just jumped right into all things of the church… anything anyone would allow me to participate in… any thing that allowed me to talk to people about God and His Word, because I was, and still am, so excited over Him. I looked for any opportunity to tell people about Him and still do.
My husband and I were attending a Baptist church, and we still attend that same church, but I was not in “the church” long enough before then to get a “Baptist” mindset, or a “Charismatic” mindset, or a “church of where-ever” mindset. I was just now getting a “crazy in love with Jesus” mindset. I loved Jesus and His Word and His church and wanted everyone else too.
So to this very day I don’t get the “church wars”
I don’t.
I never will.
As far as I can tell in the Word of God… we are supposed to be on the same team… a part of the same kingdom… reaching people for the same Jesus with the same gospel.
Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.
Philippians 2:1-3
As a matter of fact, what I read in the Scriptures is that we are commanded to be united…
The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.
John 17:22-23
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Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.
Ephesians 4:1-6
So forgive me if I look at you in disbelief and mouth opened dumbfoundedness when I hear that you think another church is competition… forgive me if I get angry with you when you have to put down another body of believers in order to promote yours… because I think its sad and childish and in absolute rebellion to the Word of God… and I in no way see how God could bless that attitude.
We are in the last days and souls around us are being devoured by the spiritual forces of darkness and the powers of hell… our nation is falling deeper and deeper under the authority of this darkness and I can’t help but find it sad that so many of the churches in it are so busy hiding their “light” from other churches that they can’t join them to fight the darkness together.
I am just foolish enough to believe that I can actually learn from other believers who might see things a little differently than me… I am just foolish enough to believe that God is sovereign and I don’t have to recruit church members from other churches, if God wants them to come to my church He will send them… much like He sent me. Besides, if they are not coming because God sent them, then they are not going to be a benefit to the body anyway.
How much more could the church, the true church, accomplish in our communities if we pooled our resources together to reach the lost and strengthen the saved? If we met together as a team instead of competitors? How much brighter would the light be to our community if we all pointed it in the same place at the same time?