At LCM's divisional day on Wednesday, John Nicholls spoke about unity in the church. He said when you look at the New Testament, there's very little instruction focused on the individual. Almost everything addresses the church as a community, giving instruction on life together. The splintering of the church in Western world is one of the great impediments to its having a significant impact on society.
John lamented the fact that every Sunday, there are many churches that meet withing blocks of each other (for example, in Ilford, a Baptist, a Catholic, and an Anglican church are all right next to each other on the main road). Other times, churches with only a handful of people continue to meet separately, meaning that several pastors are spending most of their time planning Sunday services, when all the people could easily fit into one Sunday service, freeing up the other pastors to pursue evangelism. He challenged us to think about ways we can be agents of unity - how we can begin to get churches to work together in our communities.
One of my initial thoughts is that maybe the problem of disunity runs even deeper than redundant Sunday services. Sitting together in a building and falling asleep together during a sermon doesn't make for much unity. Having a common vision, a common purpose in the community, and common passion for God and love for one another - these are the things that unite the church. I suggested it at New Life last year, and I'll say it again now: Maybe one of the healthiest things a church can do is call off its Sunday morning services for a month and provide other ways for people to stay connected to each other and pursue worship and evangelism together, so that people learn to focus their lives on worship of God and service to one another, rather than focussing on Sunday.
2 comments:
have i talked to you about my idea for a year of jubilee? (i have a feeling i have, but i'm going to go through it again anyway.) there's this old testament concept of resting on the 7th--taking one out of seven days to rest and enjoy God; taking one out of every 7 years to celebrate and restore and rest. in new life churches the pastors take a sabbatical every 7 years, which is a great idea. i just think we should extend it to the congregation--take a year off of all 'extra-curricular' activities. not have sunday school or after school programs or youth group... and just get together to spend time in God's presence. i'm not sure you could convince any church to knock off sermons for an entire year, but at the very least it could become more of a short devotional/testimonial.
i guess that has less to do with unity than with rest... though i think it could really foster unity as the entire church comes together with the sole purpose of worship and communion.
-mm
michelle
you've mentioned the jubilee before, but i'd forgotten about it. i absolutely think it would foster unity. i don't think you foster unity by deciding to unite the church. i think unity comes as people's lives are woven together and the Spirit brings them on board with where he's taking his church.
anyone know if this has ever been done before?
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