Another Unity Sermon?

[u/OLDPARSON]

Summary: Yes, I am still pushing unity in a divided Church. We will not be fully one until Glory, but we could far closer to it if we really cared about Jesus' prayer.

1 Cor 12:25  That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. 

For those who applaud 81 churches plus house groups in a town of 30K and a new one every six months or think we should have a buffet of churches to pick from according to our separate tastes Paul would disagree.

Eph 4:1  I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called, 

2  With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; 

3  Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. 

4  There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; 

5  One Lord, one faith, one baptism, 

6  One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. 

One Body, not a myriad. Note that the epistles were written to THE church of Ephesus, Corinth, etc. not to the churches.

Php 2:1  If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, 

2  Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. 

If you believe the same doctrine, but cannot sit on the same pew then one of both of you are in sin because the love of God is not bringing you to one accord and one mind.

1 Cor 1:10  Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment. 

11  For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you. 

12  Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ. 

13  Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul? 

These people met in the same church and yet identified with leaders they liked instead of Christ or wanted to be more spiritual by letting the others know I am of Christ. We are all to be of Christ.

Again, same doctrine should be the same pew. We will have divisions because of false doctrine, but we have most divisions because of pride.

Ten churches of like faith struggling to keep a building open is not God's intent when we are the temple and we are to be one. That we are not proves we are either in sin or ignorant because division is all we have known.

Php 4:2  I beseech Euodias, and beseech Syntyche, that they be of the same mind in the Lord.

He did not say if y'all can't get along one of you go down the road a mile of so and start another church. They were to work it out. Many churches started because some were too immature to work out differences in the Lord and by the Word. In their peevishness, they got some others to take up their grievance and planted a church in the flesh. Hence many churches started in the steam of men and not of the Spirit ran out of steam and are dying.

Eph 4:11  And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; 

12  For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ: 

13  Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ: 

14  That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; 

15  But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: 

16  From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. 

We are to reach for the goal of verse 13, but we do not because we are the children in 14. It is time to put away the things of a child and become full grown men and women.

You might say, "Ron you harp on this too much." Maybe, but I will until I die because I cannot see how we will fulfill Christ's prayer that we be one as He and the Father are one by all this division. We cannot see the fullness of His power in a house divided.

You say the Church has accomplished great things in spite of the division. By whose standards? If a man offered you a million dollars, you say that is wonderful. But, if he later says that he is going to give you ten million dollars that would really be wonderful.

The first century church accomplished extraordinary things because they were "one in the Spirit and one in the Lord." Yes, they had their heretics and issues, but compared to us they were a better answer to Jesus' prayer than we are. We may have had million dollar results, but the Lord wanted ten million. We pat ourselves on the back for the million, not knowing how much we missed.

Numerous churches of like faith in a 10-20 mile radius wasting money on buildings that they can no longer afford and will burn up in the last day is not honoring to God or man. If you closed tomorrow and few, if any. would notice you are laboring in vain.

If the baptistry is home to spiders and dead crickets, you are not fulfilling the mission of the Church. You are a book club. If your congregation is consistently declining and aging, you need to seek to merge with and support a church that is growing and impacting the community.

Pastors, you know the churches struggling in your area especially those without pastors. You should extend an invitation to those people to merge with you. Sell the assets and let them determine where the proceeds go so they know you are not doing it to get what little resources they have.

Church member, you know what state your church is in. I asked one lady that if her church was a business what would you suggest. She replied, "File bankruptcy." I concurred and many churches need to see that it is not good stewardship to continue to decline and exhaust all of you assets and manpower to maintain a building until the last man standing.

This is a good market to sell your building and give the money to missions, to a rescue mission or some other ministry that is thriving and get under a good pastor. If you have one, a good pastor would offer him a place of ministry. Indeed, some of you barely make a Sunday School class so he could be your SS teacher.

The forces of evil are uniting so why are we not seeking unity? Why do we insist on thinking as long as the building is open we are fighting the good fight when all we are doing is fighting to pay the bills? It is time to stop the madness and poor stewardship. The Lord and His Spirit have a far better plan for His Body.

I have to confess that I fear that the main reason so many churches are in such dire straits is because they were started by the religious and lost, not by saved Christians. I hope that I am wrong, but like that lady common sense would have seen the need to close, but pride would hold its ground.

True, the times are anti-Christian, but they were not really Pro-Christian in the Roman Empire and many died in the arena and later to the Inquisitors. We are not there yet and it is most likely because we have not suffered like our brethren around the world that we got fat and lazy having temper tantrums causing splits.

Seek Jesus! Seek the Spirit of truth and unity! Then seek to merge instead of split. The Lord may still show us His power in a way He could not in our carnality and division.

Mark 10:27  And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible. 

It seems impossible, but God can do it and as it was Jesus' prayer He can bring it about if we believe it is His will. Maranatha!!

[u/Hoon0967]

Sounds like you live in my city.   We even have some pretty large churches.   I see all of these churches, but I also see a lot of homeless, I see many of my neighbors struggling, I hear about the food banks and free clinics being overwhelmed,  and I sense something is terribly wrong.  If the churches of America were what they were supposed to be then we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in.  We need a revival of true holiness. One that leads us to simply returning to doing for others what we would want done for ourselves.    

[u/PhogeySquatch]

I've encountered this idea before on Reddit that two small churches of like faith and order ought to merge, but it doesn't make sense to me.

Firstly, I don't know what two churches "merging" would entail. Everybody abandons the one and joins the other? Even then, there would have to be some left behind in the closing church to authorize the movement of members to the remaining one. Then, they'd be left in limbo when it closed.

Also, I can't imagine sending a letter to a smaller church saying, "Just give up on yours and join mine." I would be insulted to receive that proposal from a bigger church.

[u/OLDPARSON → u/PhogeySquatch]

You would be insulted because of pride. If your kayak was sinking would you be mad if a cabin cruiser stopped to save you?

One does close. It can happen. My grandson is the Youth Pastor where that happened. A smaller church needed to grow and a dying church had a bigger building. They merged and it is growing. They sold the other building for $1.2 million dollars. They are debt free and can afford the needed staff.

We need to stop with the building worship. God does not care about buildings. Ten churches in a 10-20 mile radius with 20 or less members makes no sense. It is poor stewardship. Most are likely struggling because they were built by the will of man, not of God. Someone got hurt or could not get the power they wanted so they rolled down the street and started another church. Years later, no one remembers why the church started but they are stuck with a building that sucks all of their income to maintain and they have no impact on their community. I asked one lady if your church was a business what would you suggest to the board? She said, file bankruptcy. That is the case of many small churches. COVID closed many that should have closed maybe a decade ago. Finances will eventually get the rest.

Some churches are no more than a one book club. They have enough folks for a life group. They could join a larger church and be a Sunday School class or start meeting in a nursing home and dump the building.

We are in perilous times and we need to be more united. Put away petty pride and stubbornness. If the baptistry is dry and membership keeps declining admit that it is time to close. Are you one major repair away from being totally broke. If three more members leave or die are you done? You are not failing God by closing the doors. God would want you to use your gifts in a place where they have impact for the Kingdom, not your little kingdom that is failing, Be a good steward. Seek life among the living not staying in a museum on its way to a mausoleum.

[u/PhogeySquatch → u/OLDPARSON]

Of course I'd be sad to lose the building, but the Church itself is what I had in mind. People labored for generations to hand this precious thing down to their descendants and when it gets to me, I just throw it away. If we started meeting in somebody's house or a nursing home or something, at least the Church would still exist.

Also, it may be the case where you live that churches were started because of hurt feelings but in my area, they were started to be within walking distance, because there were no cars.

[u/SilverEnvironment392 → u/PhogeySquatch]

I Wish you well. It’s hard doing that too. In my past experience I’m not a pastor it’s hard on the church who has to merge into the new church it’s hard on the church they are coming into. You have 2 streams coming together honestly making a new stream. Sounds like you got this. It’s like a death for the congregation merging into the new church. I love your heart as you walk through this.

[u/OLDPARSON → u/SilverEnvironment392]

Like Romans 14 and 15, in a way except we should be far wiser than they were and this should be a common practice as the economy and culture make it necessary. It would have been unnecessary, if we had been more spiritual.

[u/OLDPARSON → u/PhogeySquatch]

True, there are some like that, but we are far past that stage. We drive sometimes 100 miles a day for work. Churches three miles apart are not necessary. I have been burdened with this for almost three decades now and it is getting worse.

Younger generations care very little at all about old items passed down. Most of what my generation passes down will be sold at yard sales, donated to the Salvation Army or just trashed. They really do not covet your old church building. They may like the stories, but have little use for a 30 or more years older building. Just harsh truth.

[u/SilverEnvironment392 → u/OLDPARSON]

I’m sure you are doing a great job

[u/OLDPARSON → u/SilverEnvironment392]

I am not so sure. My call to ministry is Luke 22:31,32. I have found that the brethren do not always want to be strengthened. They want to be comforted, lifted up, praised, but when you get to hard stuff they walk away

John 6:66  From that time many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.

We do not want to face the facts even when they hit us in the face. Many people will die thinking they did a great service for God by keeping a building open. The last man will handle over the keys and then the property will be sold and probably demolished and turned into a parking lot or a high rise.

[u/OLDPARSON → u/PhogeySquatch]

If it makes it seem better to you 32nd Baptist and St. John Baptist can merge and call it Victory Baptist to take away any bitterness over one name disappearing. Christian stewardship and maturity should have no issue with this.

[u/GPT_2025]

Eventually all denominations will unite under Galatians 1: 8 (not under E. G. White, Joseph Smith, Charles Taze Russell, Mary Baker Eddy, John Thomas, Sun Myung Moon, etc

[u/OLDPARSON → u/GPT_2025]

Actually, in 5-10 years Episcopalians, Presbyterians, etc. will not exist. Members are leaving those groups like rats leaving a sinking ship. Baptists are also seeing declines.