Come...together Series

“Do your best…”

In other words, we are called to give an all out effort when it comes to unity.

So why is this so important?

It is important because God uses unity to enable us to achieve kingdom purposes.

Unity is the vehicle the church rides to fulfill its mission.

And what is our mission?

We are called on to multiply, by making disciples of Jesus, intentionally reaching the spiritually lost of our community.

This brings us, then, to our third challenge which is to…

3. Control any attitude and/or action which prevents us from experiencing unity.

In one of my old nursery rhyme books, there is this limerick:

ILL Unity (H)

There once were two cats of Killkenny.

Each thought there was one cat too many.

They fought and they spit,

They clawed and they bit,

Till instead of two cats there weren’t any!

We know that is not what we want to experience.

But the truth we must face is that a divided church is a dying church.

This means, then, we have to be deliberate about putting away the attitudes and actions that are hurting us…

…pride

…a “my way is best” type of thinking

…critical spirits

…gossip.

Let me stop here for a moment and answer briefly this question, what is gossip?

Gossip is when you’re sharing a problem or criticism with someone who is neither part of the problem or part of the solution.

If they are not participating in the problem or in the solution, we don’t talk about it with them.

God wants us to discipline our tongues.

It is a mark of real maturity.

Gossip, on the other hand, is immature.

Control every attitude and action…

We must guard every thought, control every word, and discipline every action to be sure that we are sowing unity, and not discord.

The final challenge, admittedly, might sound self-serving, but I want to assure you, it is biblical…that is…

4. Support God-given leadership.

Leadership is to be a joy, not a burden.

It can be difficult, though, to be a leader if there are too many chiefs and not enough Indians.

There are times in the church, we are called on to support and follow those who are given elder responsibility in the church.

As you know, we have been working with a consultant to help us increase the effectiveness of our church family.

You have participated already in filling out a survey that is helping us evaluate the state of our church.

Since then, the surveys have been collated and the data is in our hands.

Please understand this…

Regardless of how we got to the point that we are now as a church family, we need to be supporting the leadership team – specifically the pastoral staff and the deacons – as they have been given the responsibility, at this very point in time, to help us move forward as a church.

They have already been putting in hours way beyond the normal expectations, praying, thinking, talking, and pouring through the information and materials.

So what can you be doing to support them?

Pray for them…

Love them…

Trust them…

Respect them…and,

Follow them.

ILL Unity (S)

In April of 1940, German tanks rumbled across the borders of yet another peaceful European country — Denmark. Already possessing control of Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Poland, the powerful Nazi invaders encountered little resistance from the small northern nation.