So you’re sitting there in the vast auditorium leafing through your seminar program as the keynote speaker thunders, “The Church of God is divided. What a shame that His bride is fighting among herself! I tell you that Jesus is coming back for ONE bride.” With this buzzing in your ears, you return to your church and begin to notice that your church is not getting together with other churches, how your pastor is hesitant to bring in other ministers, how there is a feeling of detachment from the community at large. It’s easy to be disappointed with the Church and give up on the idea of unity. Before you do, though, I would like to offer some legitimate reasons why this unity has not been realized in the Body of Christ and my opinion on how these challenges can be worked through.
- Inward Focus — Every church has it’s own programs and event schedules that constantly cycle through the year. Pastors and leaders are often victim to their own calendars. Who cares what others are doing in the community when we have so much to attend to here? It takes a huge amount of effort and planning to keep the programs and events running smoothly. After such concentrated work, most leaders do not have anything left to give to the rest of the community. Without willing and vigorous laborers in the community at large, unity in the Church will not be realized.
- Remedy: Fully delegating responsibilities for the programs and events to others would free up pastors and leaders to turn their attention to collaborative projects with other ministries and community organizations. The leaders have to give up control of some of the inward functions in order to be involved in outside happenings.
- Bad History — Everyone has a past and a reputation, and every community has a rumor mill churning out the good, the bad and the ugly to any willing ear. Pastors and ministry leaders hear these stories of other leaders in the community–whether true or untrue–and who wants to waste their time and their organization’s resources in projects with people of questionable pasts? This is not just an issue of mere gossip; it is a matter of good stewardship. Without trust in one another’s integrity and experience as leaders, we will not see unity in the Body of Christ.
- Remedy: Holding corporate activities that have small risk of doctrinal or leadership conflict would allow ministers and leaders to know one another in a low pressure environment. For instance, I would rather meet a minister in an inter-denominational prayer meeting than in on a committee deciding how to hold a city-wide evangelism crusade. The prayer meeting is low risk and pressure because no one has to make decisions or give opinions concerning the implementation of plans. This allows the leaders to relax and be themselves–fun-loving individuals who want to see revival in their communities.
- Personal Insecurity — Every leader has their own set of insecurities and fears concerning their performance, experience and personality. Who wants to be in a room full of leaders who have bigger churches, bigger budgets, bigger leadership teams, larger resumes and greater charisma? When we doubt ourselves and our contribution to the group, we refuse to participate fully. Without whole-hearted investment from each member, unity in the Body of Christ is not possible.
- Remedy: When together, it is healthier for leaders to focus on what they are doing now as a corporate group, rather than what they have done individually. Here is a good example: If ministers are collaborating on a community project and they need a large auditorium, most of the churches represented would not be able to meet the need, but there would be at least one that could. It does no one any good to speak at length why or how that church came to have such a large auditorium, it is only important that the resource is available TO ACCOMPLISH WHAT THE GROUP IS DOING NOW.
- Hidden Agendas — Everyone has heard the horror story of the super-charasmatic leader who stole good people from the unsuspecting, small-time pastor. In fact, this almost happened to me. I was involved in helping another church with the blessing of my church’s pastor while living in Dallas. It was long until the leader of the church I was helping invited me to his home where he asked me to take an official leadership role in his church. No one wants to get involved with other leaders who have a hidden agenda to steal the ones who help them the most. Without transparency about each participant’s intentions, unity in the Body of Christ is a pipe dream.
- Remedy: Uriah served David with devotion, yet David stole his wife, Bathsheeba. This poignant story of betrayal is a classic example of hidden agendas. The part of the story we seem to miss is that Bethsheeba had a choice in the matter. She chose to commit adultery and keep it hidden from her husband. In the same way, each one of our followers has a choice of whom to follow. As leaders, we must continue to serve one another without fear of losing followers. They will follow whom they will, regardless of the amount of control we believe that we have.
As you can see, the issue of churches and ministries working together in brotherly love and trust is both woefully complicated and joyfully possible. While we should never give up on the vision of unity in the Body of Christ, we must remember that the Body belongs to Christ alone. You or I cannot force his Church to unify; we can only be an example of love and acceptance towards others.
Have you ever felt frustrated with the lack of collaboration in the Church? How do you feel it can be fixed?
An economist speaking on National Public Radio about three months ago said that the problem with the economy today is lack of trust, that people are afraid to invest or spend their money. People hold on to their money due to anxiety over a failing market. It didn’t seem that the economist believed these fears to be substantial because nothing significant had changed in the way of things in the market, but this general feeling of wariness was killing the life blood of the world–cash flow. Fear caused the world of commerce to almost stop. When asked for a solution to the problem, the economist could offer no reply. How could he? He’s just an economist, trained in numbers and charts. It would take another professional to approach the situation with an answer, and I believe that Max Lucado has done so beautifully in his book Fearless.
