Unity and Love

One of the most frustrating things to this pastor is the growing sense of clustering among many of our brothers in the Southern Baptist Convention.

The "Conservative Resurgence" is complete. The past (nearly) three decades has brought about a sea change in our Convention's life. God's mighty hand has been evident in the changes that have come about. All of the SBC entities are now led and staffed by dedicated individuals who wholeheartedly believe in the inspiration and inerrancy of Scripture. The Trustees of each convention entity are men and women who fully support the "Baptist Faith and Message 2000", not as a creed, but as a consensus statement of faith on the PRIMARY doctrines of the Bible. Our six seminaries are sending out ministers and missionary candidates who are fully grounded in their faith and equipped to fulfil the Great Commission and to "earnestly contend for the faith." Cooperative Program giving is at an all time high as we seek to carry out His Mission.

With all of the good things that have happened, it seems that we can't stand the success. I fear that the Enemy is making inroads where we least expect it. The "Battle for the Bible" has been won, but we see our army beginning to cluster in small groups, more and more at odds with ourselves. We see emerging and growing battles over such things as Calvinism/Arminianism, private prayer languages, and even the meaning of baptism. Those things that some have called secondary and tertiary issues are becoming great issues of division among our people. Yet Baptists have historically been a people with differing viewpoints on numerous issues. Why must we now draw up new battle lines?

The "labels" abound. Reformed, cessationist, continualist, fundamentalist, missional, cooperating conservative, crusading conservative, charismatic, landmark, traditonal, contemporary, emerging, emergent, etc. The list grows longer each day and it seems we are beginning to identify more with our "camp" than with our Christ.

The night before Jesus died on Calvary he prayed that powerful "High Priestly" prayer in the Garden. He prayed for us. Consider this portion of that prayer:

"I pray for these followers, but I am also praying for all those who will believe in me because of their teaching. Father, I pray that they can be one. As you are in me and I am in you, I pray that they can also be one in us. Then the world will believe that you sent me." (John 17:20)

We are all different and unique. We have different gifts, talents, skin tones, accents, cultures, likes, dislikes, strengths, weaknesses, and opinions. We will disagree on the interpretations of some non essentials, but we must be united on what matters most. Diversity is OK, but there is one thing that must unify us in spite of all of our differences.

In Max Lucado's wonderful book, "In The Grip Of Grace" he deals with this subject in the chapter entitled "Life Aboard The Fellow-Ship". Here is an excerpt:

"Of all the lessons we can draw from this verse, (John 17:20) don't miss the most important: Unity matters to God. The Father does not want his kids to squabble. Disunity disturbs him. Why? Because "all people will know that you are my followers if you love each other" (John 13"35). Unity creates belief. How will the world believe that Jesus was sent by God? Not if we agree with each other. Not if we are unanimous on each vote. not if we never make a doctrinal error. But if we love one another.
Unity creates belief. Disunity fosters disbelief. Who wants to board a ship of bickering sailors? Life on the ocean may be rough, but at least the waves don't call us names...
'All people will know that you are my followers if you love each other.' Stop and think about this verse for a minute. Could it be that unity is the key to reaching the world for Christ?"

In our Convention meetings we lament the dwindling number of baptisms, and even question the actual regeneration of some of our 16 million church members. Could disunity and infighting be the key to these alarming statistics?

Diversity is OK as long as we don't break fellowship with others who disagree. Dialog is good as long as it isn't our focus. No one should expect all of us to march in lockstep with the opinions of any denominational "pope", but the vitriol I see in some blogs today is just as alarming. It's time for us all to check our motives and agendas. It's time to stop focusing on secondary and tertiary issues that divide us and concentrate on the Great Commission that unites us.

The enemy seeks to stop us. I recently heard an illustration about the different ways in which two equine species deal with danger and attack from a predator. Wnen attacked, thorobred horses will face each other and kick the enemy. On the other hand, when facing attack, donkeys will face the enemy, and kick each other. I think there is a valuable lesson here for Southern Baptists.

In the words of that "great theologian" Rodney King, "Can't we all just get along?"

We'd better - for Christ's sake!