Another Vision

So, this is something that's been on my heart for a while, but it's been brought to the forefront of my thoughts today. I see divisions in the Body of Christ everywhere, and it sickens me. We proclaim unity in Christ, and yet we're all constantly fighting about one thing or another. God has been convicting me to heal the relationships in my own life for a while now, and working toward this has become a big passion of mine over the past few months.

In Lansing, there are a lot of churches, but few of them have anything to do with each other. Some churches have broken relationships with each other to the point of practically refusing to have anything to do with each other. This pains me. I want to see different church congregations and denominations start worshiping and working together. We may support the same para-church ministries, but that doesn't mean we will go out of our way to support those other churches themselves.

My least favorite part of it all, actually, is not the fact that few congregations have strong relationships with other congregations. The part that bugs me the most is that so few Christian leaders see it as something worth pursuing! It smacks of arrogance, really, to think that we don't need to support other members of the Body, even though their ministry focuses and theology are different. If one church could be supported by another church that had different (and maybe even disagreeing!) theology than them, what an example that would be, and how might that affect those people being supported by the other group!

I know Lansing isn't the only place that struggles with this issue. Any reader probably already has some examples in mind. Can we as a whole work toward reconciliation? God went out of His way, even sacrificing Himself on a cross, to reconcile our relationship with Him. Maybe as Christians we should start putting a higher priority on this.

Please, if you have relationships which need mending, work on them. We justify why we let this kind of thing happen, and thus allow Satan to widen the gap and tear the Body apart. Don't let these divisions continue. Seek God, seek forgiveness, and love others even through hard, awkward, unpleasant, and inconvenient circumstances.

Peace.