Should We Change Church to be Relevant? Part 4: What of Unity?

            What of unity?  Does it matter?  Is it a concern to us when we ask the question “How should the church change to reach the lost?”  Have we stopped to consider it?  Few things cause division in the church like an attempt to change it.  Now there is no question that some things are more important than unity.  We could name several doctrinal statements that are essential, things which to deny would forfeit the right to call a group by the name “church.”  We definitely should not sacrifice these crucial doctrines for the sake of unity.  There are standards of holiness which we are commanded to enforce as well.  We are explicitly commanded in scripture to remove people from our churches who persist in unrepentant sin despite the warnings of the church.  Obeying this command very well could cause a drop in unity as some of the church dislike the decision.  So we have no trouble affirming that there are some things more important than unity.  But is our hymn book one of them?  What of having a guitar in the service?  Is that more important than unity?  Is your pastor wearing a tie worth more?  Is your pastor not wearing a tie worth more?  What about the color of the carpet?  We affirm that some things are more important than unity, but is everything?  Scripture places a high importance on unity.

Php 2:1,2  Therefore if there is any encouragement in Christ, if there is any consolation of love, if there is any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and compassion, make my joy complete by being of the same mind, maintaining the same love, united in spirit, intent on one purpose.

Eph 4:3  being diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Scripture tells us to be diligent to preserve unity.  It is something we are to value, and strive for.  We are to make sacrifices to our own personal preferences for it.  Before we set about changing the church, we ought to think long and hard about how that change is going to impact the unity within our church.  Perhaps there is a better manner of making the change.  Perhaps there is a slower path to making the change which would preserve unity.  Very often double harm is caused to a church when a change is made because the leadership very blatantly showed that they weren’t concerned how people would feel about the change.  They transparently didn’t care about unity.  The suggestion that we care so deeply about souls that we must change, rings very hollow in the ears of those very souls which you are showing a plain disregard for in the midst of your congregation.  We absolutely must have a high and sincere value upon unity within the church.  And we must, because God does.

            But many would object that it is the immature Christians who don’t see the need for change who are causing the problems in the church and leading to the unity being disrupted.  In one sense it is sometimes even fair to say so.  But in another sense it is quite blatantly the fault of the “mature” ones.  I have a nineteen year old nephew and a four year old daughter.  Suppose I found the two of them screaming at one another and calling each other names.  Whose fault is it?  On one level I can almost assure you that the problem began with my daughter.  I would have no doubt that she is the one who first began to be unreasonable.  But on another level it just doesn’t matter.  Why?  Because it’s the 19 year old whom I expect to act right even when wronged.  He’s the one who should have never let it devolve to the point of yelling and name calling.  If the harmony between the two of them is ultimately going to depend on my four year old daughter being reasonable, then we are in very big trouble.  It is the same way in the church.  Talking about these very things, the scripture says,

Rom 15:1  Now we who are strong ought to bear the weaknesses of those without strength and not just please ourselves.

The burden of unity is upon the mature, not the immature.  We may consider this unfair, but it is reality and it is scripture.  This means we may very well have to slow down and make changes much more slowly, or even give up some ideas for the sake of unity in God’s church.

            Second, have you considered the cost of sacrificing unity for the sake of changing the church?  Have you considered that you are most likely sacrificing love?

Col 3:14  Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity.

Now I do not mean to suggest that love is impossible without a unity on all subjects.  However, they are very intimately related.  And it would take a remarkably mature church to have their unity destroyed and yet their love for each other remain intact.  The truth is, usually when you throw out unity you also throw out love between the parties and replace it with bitterness and mistrust.  You may not want to throw out love.  You may have not intended to throw it under the buss along with unity, but all the same there it goes.  And with the loss of a vibrant and dramatic love among the church members you have thrown out the single most powerful witness which we have control over in this world.  Jesus said,

Joh 13:35  "By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another."

What will we do when those we have sacrificed so much to bring into our church finds a place full of hurt feelings, bitterness, maliciousness,  and gossip rather than an atmosphere of palpable love?  What will we do to make up for this lack?  Is there anything that can make up for it?  We have not yet found a substitute.

            Are there things worth fighting for in the church?  Yes.  Are there things we can change to better reach the lost?  Yes.  But the man who wishes to change the church must have a very sincere and high value placed on the church’s unity.  It is only the man who truly hates war and passionately loves peace that I would be confident to follow to battle.  Because only then do I know the battle is necessary.  In the same way only the man who passionately loves and values the unity of the church will be the man who knows when it is truly necessary to disturb it and when it is more fitting to bear with the faults of the weak.  See to it that you are such a man before you start changing things.