So, You Want Unity?

In Ephesians 4, Paul states that we should walk worthy, keep the unity of the Spirit, and then later adds that eventually we are to all come into a unity of the faith, and knowledge, of the son of God. If you wish, please look up and read all of Ephesians 4 for yourself to get the complete context so that I don't give you the wrong impression. Unity in our church is good, a division in our church is bad, we seem to all agree, but, who is being divisive here? To parse that out, let's examine the history of the church a little, shall we? 

Church Period 1: 

Jesus has ascended. The disciples receive the Holy Spirit and morph into hardcore radical apostles, spreading the gospel of the Kingdom in its totality throughout the empire. This teaching involves the concept of 2-Kingdoms. God's Kingdom is a spiritual reality with the church being a physical representation of it. The world's Kingdom is ordained by God to keep the peace in a world where most people don't act like they belong to God's Kingdom. The church has huge problems these days, but, there is 1 church, a church that believes they are separated unto God. A church that believes all of the apostles' teachings, and Jesus' teachings are to be taken seriously. 

Church Period 2:

This one church loses something, perhaps from being persecution weary, or something else, and probably a combination of things, but it becomes susceptible. Constantine offers the church religious freedom and professes to be a Christian himself. The church loses its 2 Kingdom message, and morphs into partnership with the world, the crusades happen, abuses, and corruptions begin to abound. Doctrinally speaking, the church gradually morphs into what we recognize today as the catholic church. Towards the end of this time, a young German priest is struggling with the assurance of salvation. He had an abusive father growing up, a man who whipped him till he bled. He thought God was like this, a harsh being, who would whip him till he bled if he didn't repent. Yet, he couldn't control his sin, and couldn't even remember all the sins he needed to repent of. In his prayers and studies, he found that he was justified by the grace of God. (Romans 3:24) He felt tremendous relief at this and began to teach this to those around him, but he didn't have a quarrel with the church...yet. Martin Luther was his name and he was ok with just teaching this thing of grace to those around him and doing his duties as a priest... For now. 

Church Period 3: 

Now we enter the period of denominations, in which we still live in my opinion. Martin Luther has had it up to his snout with the church's ****, ****, ****, and so on. He was rather uncouth at times you see. He wasn't the only one. There was also Zwingli, the Anabaptists, like George Blaurock, and his friends. Later on, names like Calvin, Simons, Fox, and others emerged. For simplicity's sake, we can separate the church into 3 different categories now with several denominations each. 

1. The "original" church, which we call Catholic, left many of the teachings of the early church and has adopted practices like having a pope, praying to Mary, penance, etc. I don't know much about it, for I'm not catholic. 

2. The saved by faith through grace group, led by men like Luther, Zwingli, and so on. Taught us the notion that we are only saved by faith, works don't matter for we cannot stop sinning or do enough good to be saved. 

3. The radicals, led by men like Blaurock, Fox, and Simons, agreed with being saved by faith but also believe in a lifestyle that is separate from the world. An indwelling presence, the Spirit of God, that changes you and makes you a different person. 

Faults can be found in all 3 streams of thought. I believe the 1st group is wrong. The 2nd group is not teaching a complete gospel, and the 3rd group has created a religion they practice instead of simply following the gospel. I have drastically oversimplified this, but, how long do you want this blog to actually be? The hairs keep getting split finer, finer, and still finer, for now, we have Mormons, Jehovah's Witness, and 7th-day Adventists yet. I confess I don't know where to place them, but I think you get the idea. There are lots and lots of heresy to choose from today. From word faith to religious cults and any flavor in between. 

Ok, now for the point. When there is a schism in the church. A call for unity comes forth. 

Dale says, "Let's focus on Jesus, on His love for all of us. Let's focus on our agreements and not our differences. We shouldn't discuss the separation of the sheep from the goats, for since we all love Jesus, we are all sheep, and no concern needs to be given to fruit. Come as you are"  

Mark says, "There is more out there, there is a Kingdom, we should look at ALL of scripture, not just what we like. So no Dale, I can't merely go along with your favorite new theology you picked up from fill-in-the-blank heretic. I'm not looking to be religious, I merely want to believe all of scripture."  

Dale wants unity and peace in his church. He wants Mark to get along, plug in, and be happy within the bounds of whatever of the many million denominations and types of the gospel he finds himself in. Dale says he is against all the splits and denominations and wants all believers to get along like one big happy family, but interestingly Dale does not follow his own teaching to its logical conclusion, he does not return to the original denomination. Dale is not catholic. Dale believes in a unity that involves his specific situation, comfort, and place in history. If you are not agreed with him, you are probably a controlling legalist. Dale does not really believe in convictions that have to do with lifestyle. Dale believes in salvation. 

Mark wants unity and peace in his church. He wants to return to the gospel of the first period. That original gospel was taught by Jesus and His disciples. That's what Mark wants. Mark weeps for, longs for such a church, that will simply be disciples, and live the Kingdom lifestyle. It feels lonely to push for it alone. He loves Dale and wants Dale to take the journey with him, but Dale gets mad and calls him a legalist. Mark isn't sure what to do anymore...stay in the church as she is or go alone?  Mark believes in a unity that involves actually embracing, believing, and claiming the totality of Christ, His salvation, His Kingdom, and His Spirit. Mark has convictions, based on Jesus' teachings that he is not prepared to lay down. Lines exist, that Mark simply cannot cross. Mark struggles with his attitude, he finds himself getting bitter, stressed, and unhappy, and he is not really living the very life he believes in anymore. He has to repent again. By the power of the Holy Spirit, Mark resets and lives the lifestyle of the Kingdom again. 

So now, here is the question. Who is on the correct path to unity? Dale? or Mark? I could easily have portrayed Dale as a legalist instead of a hyper-grace type person, but the legalists aren't the ones pushing for unity as much. They seem quite happy to have their own little religious cliques. Dale and Mark are fictional characters, they are exaggerated to show texture, and make a point, please don't take them personally. Is unity found in the art of getting along on the things we can and ignoring the rest? Or is unity found in the simple return to the original gospel taught in the first period? I am willing to stick my neck out and admit that I agree with Mark. I believe that anyone who simply agrees and condones one of the many modern incomplete gospels, whether it be a works-based religion, or grace-based lawlessness is merely adding to the division. I believe that those who embrace the totality of the Gospel, are striving to return to unity. I repent for all the times I have caused division by just getting along and condoning. The good news is, that the original gospel is all within the New Testament, we all have it. We just don't seem to want to live it or even believe it. 

God help us...

Why Church?

Why church? Well, I think as people we have to admit we are social creatures. We love other people, even when we can't stand other people. In God's Kingdom, we have the church. It is such a beautiful, and precious gift for His disciples. Oh, how I love the church! Yet, she is pretty wobbly and dysfunctional at times. I don't know what to do about it, but I want to keep swinging at the problem where I can. So, if you'll humor me a bit, here is another opinion piece regarding the church. 

I want to examine the reasons motivating our church activities. I think if we are truly honest, we will have to conclude that most of our churching has been for the first 2 reasons. Yet I believe there is a better way; a 3rd way. 

1. My Kingdom. 

There is an attraction to the idea of having a church that is something. It's your club, your way. You get the feeling of being part of something special, something bigger than yourself. I feel it. I get it. There is also an attraction to being important, needed, and powerful within this system. I believe that this motivates us more than we realize with all the different styles, types, denominations, etc of churches we have started and participated in. It also leads to this only right church doctrine that you see in some circles. It forms a club, it's your kingdom inside God's Kingdom. 

2. What about me? 

What if you have been rubbed wrong or sorely mistreated by someone else's kingdom that they call a church? There is a big desire to just fellowship in a way that you like. You eschew the accountability, authority, etc, and just live life on your own, fellowshipping with others on a "what do we feel like doing now?" basis.  So, this kind of churching has its advantages over the 1st kind in my view. Depending on how cruel or abusive the first kind is, this is an upgrade. Yet, you would have to be pretty dishonest or uninformed to claim that this is the complete enchilada of church experience as lived in the New Testament or by the early church. 

3. Making God's Kingdom visible. 

Here's a novel concept: What about we try to make God's church, Christ's bride about Him? Let's take the notion of God's Kingdom. If one is to take the teachings of Jesus seriously, one would have to conclude that Jesus spent most of His teaching energy on preaching a gospel of the Kingdom with a capital K. It's an invisible Kingdom that asks for our loyalties over the demands of this world. With that in mind, the whole paradigm of church changes now doesn't it? The first 2 were ultimately, at the end of the day, selfish. This take is about God. So, we start with God's Kingdom. This is our foundation. This is what Jesus taught as recorded by the 4 gospels. Then we turn the page to Acts, and his disciples, now apostles filled with the Holy Spirit made disciples and churches started. So, the Kingdom of God became visible in the form of the church. How does this look if we do it again now? I don't know. I think it depends on the area. With the first 2 types of churches, the question is easily answered with a follow-up question, "What do you want?" However, if it is in fact about God, which this 3rd option is now we must ask, "God, what do YOU want?" I am asking that for west TN because that's the part of the world I live in. 

A note about copying the apostles' church planting efforts: Marc Carrier went to Africa and planted wonderful churches that very much resembled what we can understand the early church to be, I commend him for that, and will be interested in seeing what he does here. Others have done this as well I'm sure. Yet, one key thing that seems to be common here, they found unsaved people and led them from an unsaved state straight into discipleship with Christ.  I believe that there is much to learn from the apostles when one seeks to be a missionary to the lost. I believe that is the New Testament way, but, here I sit in the Bible belt, we have more churches than I can count all full of Christians who profess Christ. How in the world do we do this here without just starting another denomination of Christians and ending up back where we started again? 

Here is a diagnosis on west TN based on what I know so far as of 06/2022, but this is subject to change based on further understanding/wisdom which I always need more of. We don't need more churches. We need the people in the churches we have already, myself included making these trades. 

1. Trade in our complex theologies that explain away hard-hitting verses from Jesus' teachings for the bare unvarnished power of the Kingdom message. Did you know that just war is not something the early apostles knew anything about? When there was a war that needed fighting, they thought that was a dispute between world Kingdoms and had nothing to do with them. Are we absolutely sure that the government-sanctioned killing of bad people is ok for members of God's Kingdom? If so, can it be supported with a simple reading of the New Testament or does it call for a cobbling together of Old and New Testament concepts, personal theories, and cherry-picked verses into a complex theology for it to work? In short, we at times tend to embrace the art of theology so that we don't have to look at a principle we don't like. This should be repented of. 

2. Trade in the things we deem most important like good music, and entertaining lectures for the things that Jesus deemed important like authentic worship in the presence of God, communion, and bold, honest teaching of truth. Nothing is wrong with good music and entertaining speakers. However, the emphasis should be on authentic worship, fellowship with God, and teaching of the truth. If the music is good, and the speaker is entertaining after the authentic worship and truth have been discovered, that is awesome! 

3. Trade in our religious traditions and do's and don't lists for the Kingdom Lifestyle. Some of our churches have do's and don't that we don't understand. Those should be scrutinized against the New Testament, and we should pursue a Kingdom Lifestyle. The kind that comes from abiding in Christ and producing His fruits for Him with the power of the Spirit He put there. There very well could be do's and don't that a body should agree to on some level, but they should be intentional, Spirit-led, Kingdom motivated. In short, we at times tend to take certain of Jesus' teachings extremely literally and ignore others to fashion a religion of our own making, which should be repented of. Embracing the gospel of the Kingdom and all its principles is good enough, and far better than any religion. 

4. Trade in our religious rituals for spiritual disciplines. While it is a little hard to explain, there is a difference between regularly going to church, praying, and reading your Bible because you "have to" as opposed to doing it because it's something you desire to do, to improve your relationship with God. To learn more from Him. To receive more of His Spirit etc. This is what spiritual discipline is about, it is exercising ourselves spiritually to become the kind of person who naturally acts like God would act if He were living our life in our body. Religious rituals are all about superficially doing boring things to check off the "good Christian" box. I hope the difference is being conveyed here...it is a  little hard to explain for me. 

5. Trade in our shame-based culture of looking right and making sure others do too for genuine loving co-submission to one another as brothers and sisters. Man sees the outside, but God sees the heart. (See Samuel 16:7) Shame-based culture teaches us to hide the problems and look good on the outside. We wear a smile to church when we are dying inside. Shame culture accepts those who look right and rebukes those who don't. Co-submission culture isn't as interested in the "look" of a person, or even the fruit as much as the direction of the journey. It accepts those who repent and rebukes those who don't. Study carefully the steps laid out by Christ in Matthew 18:15-18. Do you see how the person who is rebuked by the church has been given 4 opportunities to repent? 1. At the Holy Spirit's convicting. 2. At the time of confrontation by the person who was wronged. 3. At the time of confrontation by several. 4. At the time of public rebuke in the church. If a person still does not wish to repent, then, they are marked as a heathen, or this is my opinion but to put a finer point on it, someone who cannot be trusted due to a lack of repentance. Heathens, (non-believers) don't repent either you see. Now, in written text, it's easy to make such a thing sound brutal and procedural, but that's not my intent, it must be done out of a heart of love for Christ and our siblings in His family. 

6. Personally and corporately, trade-in our constant need for noise and activity for times of nothingness, silence, solitude, waiting on the presence of God, for revelation. Left to our own devices, we seem to want to solve our own problems, talk, or be talked to. We keep looking for soul food, things to do with our will, things to study with our mind, and experiences to feel with our emotions. Yet, we so often give up on the simple things, turning off the noises, being quiet, and seeing what God might want to say for different problems we face. What if, instead of having meetings and debates, followed by meetings about our meetings; we would come together corporately in quiet meditation and prayer before God? What if the reason many of us think God is silent is simply that He is a gentleman who lets us do all the talking when we pray?  So, when we pray and decide not to do all the talking, we might find that God does still communicate, through the power of the Holy Spirit. 

Back to the top, we really should be interested in church on God's terms, the 3rd reason for church. If we aren't willing to church for the right reason, I am prepared to admit that I personally don't think we should really bother with churching anymore. If we are interested in doing things God's way, then, the next 6 points probably do matter to some extent. I know and believe that there is much more to Kingdom living than those 6 points, but, if those of us who both go to church and care about it would seek after God with these 6 things corporately, I can't help but think it would help. At least, it would be a start.