Unity

Being a child of the 70s, I grew up hearing the cultural cries, “Do your own thing”, “If it feels good, do it,” and, “Don’t conform to the establishment.” Individualism became a cherished value. Pop culture absolutely loved eating the meat of slaughtered sacred cows. I must admit, when I hear “that’s-the-way-we’ve-always-done-it” I become like a shark smelling blood in the water.

Our individualistic spirits morphed into entrepreneurial-pioneer spirits and we re-shaped the “establishment” to become more responsive to needed change. The journey from 70s child to being a leader looking to the mid-21st century, I realize the “establishment” is now the “establishment” that I helped establish. I also realize our methods can’t be static and we need an entrepreneurial-pioneer spirit active within us to embrace our contextual challenges effectively. So, how do we manage the contrasts between individualism and unity in a God-honoring way?

We must unify around the same core mission. Jesus prayed to Father-God, “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me” (John 17:22,23, NIV). Methods vary but THE mission does not.

We must unify around the same core beliefs. I Corinthians 1:10 says, “I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought (NIV).”

We mustn’t move the ancient boundary stones. Proverbs 22:28 says, “Do not move an ancient boundary stone set up by your forefathers.” While this refers to property lines and inheritance, it communicates a principle of the danger of moving hard parameters established and followed by hundreds of generations based upon truths in the Word of God.”

We must seek a current vision. When a group of people come together to seek the voice and revelation of God as revealed in scripture and in the activity of the Holy Spirit, they should come to a unified vision. Obviously, when we battle over how to catalyze transformation because of diversely opposed directions, somebody’s filter is clogged up with foreign matter.

We are individuals, but we ought to be observing the same challenges, reading the same Word, and hearing the voice of the same Spirit. We will always express ourselves in different ways, and that is good, but we must also find those common threads that connect us and identify us with the same core mission.

Let us be one.