I woke up this morning with a dream where I was responsible for a gathering of Christians. The event became disorganized because the group unexpectedly had grown from 8-10 people who met regularly to nearing a hundred attendees.
Most of the additional attendees were people who knew me and others in our group, though they did not have much relationship with any of us.
As our group gathered for our scheduled program, many others were in our meeting space. It was not obvious they were “crashing” our meeting. We were in a room able to accommodate 50-100 people. There were glass windows on the walls all around, where additional people could look in and see who was inside.
Several in our group were interacting with friends outside the glass windows of our room. It was time to start our program, so we needed to pivot to accommodate the additional people. I appointed someone in our group to lead the programming with those inside the room then went outside to invite those outside to come join us.
Once outside the room, I was immediately engaged in deep conversation with one individual who would not participate in our programming because he disagreed with Christians being involved in areas of life outside a local church (like education, entertainment, news media, and politics in particular). His personal convictions would not permit him to participate in our program where we were encouraging the body of Christ to be “salt and light” for Christ in our community. We were meeting in a state capital building.
This led us having an in-depth discussion about what it means for us to be United in Christ.
Jesus prayed in John 17:21, “that they all may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me,” (emphasis mine).
Unity does not require us to agree on everything, though it requires us to come together for a common purpose.
This is a real challenge.
In the world we live in, there is far more focus on items which cause division, instead of what brings us together.
And there is a legitimate concern to protect Truth (as we understand Truth), especially as it pertains to principles of faith and how we live on earth as we prepare for eternity in heaven.
Plus, we have limited time on earth, so we often draw conclusions based on what others tell us instead of personal conversations to learn what one person really believes.
This is not new. In 1 Corinthians 1:12 Paul wrote: “Now I say this, that each of you says, ‘I am of Paul,’ or ‘I am of Apollos,’ or ‘I am of Cephas,’ or ‘I am of Christ.’”
Perhaps this is exaggerated today by there being approximately 45,000 different Christian denominations worldwide as of 2024 according to the Center for the Study of Global Christianity and many others who collect and report information on this topic.
So, how should the body of Christ demonstrate Unity to the world today to align with Christ’s prayer in John 17?
I readily acknowledge I have many very strong beliefs of how one should live in obedience to God’s commands, and what it takes to live with God for the rest of eternity in heaven.
More important than my personal beliefs is, “How do I live in the Unity Christ prayed for before He ascended into heaven?”
Perhaps we can begin a dialog in the comments on what is the common ground we need to agree on to be United in Christ.
