Churchworld Behind the Scenes - Unity

For twenty years of my very young (cough cough) life, I got my paycheck from one church or another.  I was, what we refer to as, "in the ministry" which basically means one thing - I am accountable before God for my work and leadership in the church more than the average attender.  Not necessarily a perk of the job, but it keeps you honest.  In those years, I learned a lot about people, leadership and churchworld.  Nothing groundbreaking, mind you - no one's gathering their staff around waiting for these posts with bated breath.  But, as one of my more redneckier friends once told me, "I don't know everything, but I don't know nothing."  A few of these things I think could be helpful to you regardless of where you get your paycheck.  If  you love people, lead people or engage in church on any level, you'll get at least something from this series of posts even if all you get is mad at me.  (Which, let's face it, IS possible - I was in ministry.)  And yes, we're making "redneckier" a word.

BTS - Unity

Unity is everyone's job.  
Psalm 133:1-2 tells us that when God's people live with one another in unity, it is like anointing oil on the head of the priest Aaron, flowing down his head onto the collar of his priestly robes.  I often find it painfully amusing when people complain about their pastor's preaching or his seeming lack of Holy Spirit power - it's a self-fulfilling prophecy.  If you are talking negatively about your pastor, you're harming the unity of your church and robbing him of the anointing he needs to be the priest of his people.  Unity is everyone's responsibility, and scripture takes it seriously.  In Titus 3:10 Paul instructed Titus to warn a divisive person once, and again a second time and after that to have nothing to do with him.

Division flows out of pride and a lack of faith in God.  Either the divisive person thinks they know so much better than everyone else or they believe they are the only one to step in and correct a situation that God is apparently overlooking.  Division usually flows out the mouth too.  How's your conversation about your church?  Unifying or dividing.  Building up or tearing down.  Believing God is in control or God needs your help to fix things.  Unity is too important to lose and it's everyone's job in the church.  If you can't go along, move along.

"Submission is only submission when you don't agree." - Joyce Meyer
Oh how I wish that quote were mine, but I swear it to be powerfully true even if it's not.  There is so much to be said about this, but I'll simply say submission isn't the easy way out by any means.  Do you remember that scene in Saving Private Ryan when they're walking through France looking for Ryan, and the guys are all questioning the mission and complaining about how unfair it is?  When asked why he never gripes, the captain (Hanks) tells them there's a chain of command.  "I gripe up the chain, I don't gripe to you. I don't even gripe around you, you ought to know that."

I know there's a time and a place to disagree - in moments of humility and behind closed doors.  In 20 years I've never worked in a church where I agreed with every decision, every plan and every method.  It's never happened.  I've disagreed with a lot of things, and most people never knew that.  If they knew, they were on an extremely inside, inside circle or lived miles away from where I was.

Maybe it's because I've seen the weight that leaders carry.  I've watched their personal sacrifices from the front lines.  I can recall the dissension and turmoil of my Dad's first full-time pastorate and how he carried that pain & disappointment for years after.  Division is so ugly.

I've been told I'm too loyal, and my respect for the office of the Pastor is too authoritarian and old fashioned.  Maybe all that's true.  I just don't think you ever lose by choosing humility before God and submission to someone who bears the weight of being more accountable to God for the church than I am.  I have my own wood, hay and stubble to account for - I'm not accounting for someone else's too.  I believe that I'm responsible for how I follow, not for how someone else leads.  Agree when you can agree.  Submit when you can't.  Move along if you can do neither.


Here's the good news (after all that painful rebuke)... there are a lot of good churches to choose from.  There are a lot of ministries doing wonderful things in the Kingdom of God, ministries that have a unifying spirit of mission about them that genuinely need good people.  There's no reason to stay unhappy anywhere in our church-saturated first world.