We all want unity. Some are trying to hard to get it.
Unity at all costs. Don’t rock the boat. Don’t change a thing.
The idea is, if we can just keep from upsetting anyone, everyone will be okay. The problem is, it works exactly the opposite than that.
The harder you try to keep the peace, the less unity you will find. People aren’t united by nothing happening – they aren’t united by a lack of direction or progress. They are united by mission and purpose. Take that away and you will never actually have unity.
Unity is something you have to fight for, not something you do nothing to achieve. And the worst thing you can do is try to keep everyone happy. Trying to keep everyone happy is like highlighting every line in a book – you basically didn’t actually highlight anything.
So let’s put our brave face on and get ready to tell people things they don’t like. Unity costs, but not in the way it is costing so many churches today. Unity costs time, commitment, study, prayers, involvement in people’s lives. For many churches today, the cost of unity is lost members, misunderstanding, lack of clarity, confusion in the pews, etc.
I have more thoughts on this if you have a couple of minutes to spare…peacemongering is a certain way to upset your hardest working people.
