This past Sunday at New Life Fellowship, we were blessed by the presence of a small group from the Church at Brook Hills. I know a couple that is in this small group. It's amazing how this meeting came about, but that is a topic for a whole other post. The bottom line of this group being in worship with us this past Sunday was to meet our fellowship and meet afterwards with me about the possibility of teaming together to do ministry in our local area.
One comment that I made during the service was that it is a beautiful thing to see the Body of Christ coming together and working together to carry out the Great Commission. I'm not sure where it all started, but it makes me sick when I see "churches" at war with one another instead of working together. I have had the dreadful experience before in watching churches in a community fight over the same couple of hundred people, while many more hundreds in the area were not being reached with the Gospel at all. I believe that I read somewhere that if one has trusted Christ as Savior and Lord, then they will spend eternity together with others who have worshipping the Lord. If we are going to be a team then, why not start now?
Why is it that churches who practice the same faith fight and "compete" with one another instead of joining hands and helping bring about what Jesus prayed for in John 17? I see it happen most when a congregation loses its focus on the task at hand (the Great Commission) and focuses more on building a kingdom for themselves.
I pray that we might hear the words that Jesus prayed so many years ago on our behalf...
May they all be one,
as You, Father, are in Me and I am in You.
May they also be one in Us,
so the world may believe You sent Me.
I have given them the glory You have given Me.
May they be one as We are one.
I am in them and You are in Me.
May they be made completely one,
so the world may know You have sent Me
and have loved them as You have loved Me. (John 17:21-23 HCSB)
If we do this, then maybe... just maybe we might see the Lord move in even more amazing ways than we are currently seeing. Do we all have to look the same and use the same approach? Of course not! If we share a common belief though, then we should be building one another up and so showing the world around us a clear picture of Jesus Christ.
In what ways do you see the Body of Christ (the church) working together in unity?
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