The world continues to change — but it didn’t used to seem like it did. Back “in the day,” it seemed to me that there was a great deal of consistency in the life of the church.
Growing up in Baptist church life, I never considered the differences between followers of Jesus who attended other churches. I recognized that there were other Christian denominations, sure. But, while I reckoned there were reasons for the variations, I wasn’t concerned about the reasons because I could hear Jesus in their experiences — Lord, Savior, Friend, Lover of sinners — and that was enough to make me believe we were all on the same page, the same journey of faith, as naive as that may sound.
For many a growing-up-year, that world did not change. So much so that when it was time for college, my goal was to study at a “Christian” school, and there was one not far away, with a fine reputation for scholarship in an idyllic location. While it was a great big plus that the girl who had my eye was already a student there, the “Christian” environment made a difference for me. The school’s motto resonated with me: “Christian education, the hope of the world.”
Tony Tench
What I had not realized, though, was that “Christian” for them also meant denomination — the Christian Churches/Churches of Christ. I was among a group of Baptists there, and we were well received and greatly encouraged by the faculty who were faithfully devoted to the Lord. Milligan College became for me a place that further underlined the unity of the church. Theirs was a different denominational context than my own, but Jesus was still “the same, yesterday, today and forever” as we studied and lived together and gathered weekly around the Lord’s table.
In my senior year, the time when Bible majors go off to write papers about their denominational history, my professor allowed me to write about Baptist life. It was 1980, one year after strategies were set in place that began the “conservative resurgence” in the Southern Baptist Convention. My research helped me to understand my Baptist roots, and it also introduced me to the struggle that was soon to envelop ministry in the church. Seemingly overnight, the world of “church” began to change.
The next forty years of ministry were lived within the ups and downs of life among those who are definitely “not a silent people,” to remember Walter Shurden’s book title. These past decades have found us all struggling to find common ground in response to Jesus’ prayer that we be “one,” while witnessing greater degrees of distance between brothers and sisters in Christ.
And that’s the change we have had to accept in the church — greater and greater distance between and within Christian groups for whom Jesus prayed for “complete unity” for the sake of his message of love. Accepting this change must be hard on Jesus. Theological, ecclesiological and even political yardsticks shove us to new degrees of separation.
Theological, ecclesiological and even political yardsticks shove us to new degrees of separation.
Reflecting on these realities always sends me back to those days at Milligan and reading the vision of Thomas and Alexander Campbell, who lived in the 19th century and inspired the beginning of the movement that would become the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). They tried to encourage the church in America to refrain from focusing upon “non-essentials” that cause division, but rather to focus together upon the restoration of New Testament Christianity.
In their book Journey in Faith: A History of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), William E. Tucker and Lester G. McAllister write that these Christ followers “prized freedom and were not of a mind to feel guilty about their diversity. But their companionship with Christ constrained them to be companions with one another.” These folks believed that the church of Christ on earth is “essentially, intentionally and constitutionally one” — that the essence of the church is one body, the intention of Jesus is that we be one together, and that the church is constituted with one head, one message, one constitution and one purpose.
My heart was impressed with their well-placed emphasis on “one.”
One.
Sometimes it feels out of our reach. There is so much that can divide us, so much we let divide us, so much with which we can’t help but take issue, debate, reject, turn from. And yet, Jesus prayed we’d be one. If he prayed it, he must have believed it was not out of our reach! But, how in the world is “one” possible?
One way is to affirm the conclusion of 16th-century theologian Rupertus Meldenius, embraced famously by the “restoration movement,” wherein he called for the church to live “in essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; in all things, charity.” A well-reasoned call for unity in his day, but we can already hear the remonstrance developing — what is nonessential to some is extremely essential to others! So, how else might we live toward “one”?
Colossians 4:6 reads, “Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone.” Our word choice and the tone of those words make a difference in our relationships with one another. It is easy to hear disdain and the concretization of opinion in the tone of our statements. Instead of dumping our points of view on others, perhaps we can concentrate on the well-being of the people we are talking to and talking about.
Micah 6:8 reads, “To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” The powerful part of these summary words from the prophet is their response to the question, “With what shall I come before the Lord?” The answer challenges us to come before the Lord with other people at our side because we have been acting justly and loving mercy. An oft-overlooked element of justice in the Bible is how God looks at the most oppressed people in the picture. When God sees mistreatment, he calls on his people to address it. Surely, this is a rallying point for all believers in Jesus.
When God sees mistreatment, he calls on his people to address it. Surely, this is a rallying point for all believers in Jesus.
1 Corinthians 12:26 reads, “If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.” As Philippians 1:6 puts it, the church is not perfect yet. There are always behaviors that must be called out for redemption to be realized. Even so, when we see brothers and sisters in pain, in shame or in blame, if our first response is to suffer with them, pray for them, remember our common humanity, perhaps there is a oneness that develops. And, when we see the kingdom of God so obviously at work in churches not our own, our voices lifted to honor and rejoice with them will also echo the sound of “one.”
1 Corinthians 3:9 reads, “For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.” Paul’s language means more than each of us working together with God. His words, “fellow-workers of God,” in context, require us to seek ways we can put our hands together with other “fellow-workers of God.” In that there are so many needs in every community for which the strength and compassion of the body of Christ can make a difference, the one-ness of that body is pronounced when we cooperate in ministry.
Mark 12:17 reads, “Give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s.” I have no doubt that Jesus’ words were meant to juxtapose the authorities of his day, and of ours. Which authority carries the most authority? While Caesar should have his day, that day, and every other, belongs to God! That being so, the one-ness of the church comes into fruition when political parties are sidelined in our attempts to determine our next steps. Following Jesus means he orders our steps.
Remember the “outsiders.” Jesus prayed in John 17:23, we would be one so that “the world will know that [the Father] sent me and has loved them even as [He] has loved me.” Our lives as disciples of Jesus, then, are not just about us, our preferences, our convictions, our sympathies and especially not about our positions on “issues.” Our lives are about the “outsiders” — the ones who have yet to know this love that Jesus came to be.
Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, encouraged the church to love one another in 1 Thessalonians 4:12, writing, “so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders.” He went on to write in Colossians 4:5, “Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity.” The testimony of the church impacts the world best by our loving moves toward “outsiders” as opposed to positions we take within our fellowships.
I have often thought that these verses could be the basis for the fraternity/sorority that is the church. Just as many such organizations have three (sometimes two) Greek letters to identify their group, the word “outsider” in these verses is a simple three-letter word in Greek — ΕΞΩ — “outsider.” Yes, the church is the fraternity of the “outsider” because we are the folks through whom Jesus is trying to share his love with the rest of the world. When we figure out how to do this together, we’ll be taking new steps toward that “complete unity” Jesus had in mind.
Yes, the world continues to change. At least we hope it does.
— Tony Tench works with the Lakelands Region YMCA of South Carolina and is former Pastor of First Baptist Church of Shelby, North Carolina, and Interim Pastor of Poplar Springs Baptist Church in Shelby. He and his wife, Janet, enjoy living near their daughter’s family and serving with them at NewSpring Church in Greenwood, South Carolina.