I was in Santa Fe NM the other day sitting on a chair lift about to take Josh and Matthew down a run called : " easy street." They were learning to ski and I was learning to be patient. When it started snowing, I saw something in the snow that I had never seen before. Each individual flake was really fragile and could easily be crushed or wiped away with my glove, but I thought how powerful could these flakes be if they were all together. I pictured the destruction and awesome sight of an avalanche coming down a mountain. An individual flake just falls and dissipates when it hits something like a pole or the street, but a collection of them on a mountain can form an avalanche.
I just wondered about the local church. What if we actually did something together and were unified... could we have that kind of avalanche power ?
What would it mean for us to be unified ? Jesus prayed for that unity in John 17 and Ephesians says that we are part of one Spirit ( Ephesians 4:4). I realize that when you start talking about unity... resistance can go up immediately. I am not advocating that we drop all of our doctrinal distinctives. I am not one to do away with doctrine. I'm all about it and I think we need to hold standards high and maintain some doctrinal "divides" as it were. I suppose my problem is me...I'm too individualistic. I like doing things by myself and I'm unwilling to be unified with other people alot of the time. I want to make a commitment to unity and see what would happen if I actually obeyed Jesus and Paul's exhortations to be unified with other Christians. It probably just looks like serving others, being humble and looking after the interests of others. Someone once said: " If you want to be a leader, you will be frustrated... because very few people want to be led. However, if you want to serve, you will find plenty of opportunities."
I just wondered about the local church. What if we actually did something together and were unified... could we have that kind of avalanche power ?
What would it mean for us to be unified ? Jesus prayed for that unity in John 17 and Ephesians says that we are part of one Spirit ( Ephesians 4:4). I realize that when you start talking about unity... resistance can go up immediately. I am not advocating that we drop all of our doctrinal distinctives. I am not one to do away with doctrine. I'm all about it and I think we need to hold standards high and maintain some doctrinal "divides" as it were. I suppose my problem is me...I'm too individualistic. I like doing things by myself and I'm unwilling to be unified with other people alot of the time. I want to make a commitment to unity and see what would happen if I actually obeyed Jesus and Paul's exhortations to be unified with other Christians. It probably just looks like serving others, being humble and looking after the interests of others. Someone once said: " If you want to be a leader, you will be frustrated... because very few people want to be led. However, if you want to serve, you will find plenty of opportunities."
