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Unity, Diversity, and Evangelism
"Diversity within unity seriously challenges those prevailing models of church growth that stress homogeneous grouping principles. Perhaps at certain foundational levels, outreach and fellowship occur best among those most like ourselves. But the most dynamic evangelistic power of the gospel comes when the world is forced to sit up and take notice that people are loving each other in ways it cannot account for with humanistic presuppositions. In America, this is especially true when blacks and whites worship and work together for the Lord. Yet, what Martin Luther King, Jr., often observed still proves true—11:00 on Sunday morning remains the most segregated hour of American life. Here is one of the most tragic indictments against contemporary Christendom within almost every ethnic group.
Indeed, lack of powerful evangelism more generally afflicts much of current Western Christianity. When Paul encourages believers eagerly to desire the greater gifts, we recognize that he means those that are not being given enough attention in Corinth. Many gatherings of suburban American Christians today disclose few, if any, who rank high in evangelism on spiritual gifts inventories. Surely we too then need to seek to fill this gap by praying that God would give some of us this gift and bring others into our fellowships who already have it." [1]
The message of this passage is simple: we need each other. We can't say that we're a Christian and walk away from the church. We can't say that we don't need others to help us. We can't say that we're better than another person or that our ministry is more important.
Churches often fall into the trap of becoming homogenous - everyone looks the same or makes the same amount of money or whatever. When this happens, we're missing out. One of the most powerful tools for evangelism is a church full of people that shouldn't be able to get along but somehow do. On the other hand, nothing drives people away more than people who have every reason to get along, but insist on dwelling on bitterness and arguments.
We are like a body. Paul's illustrating hear borders on ridiculous when you really think about it - does your body ever argue with itself? Of course not! Yet that is what we often experience in churches throughout the US. Unity is one of our greatest evangelistic tools - may we continually pray that God grant it to us.
Unity, Diversity, and Evangelism
"Diversity within unity seriously challenges those prevailing models of church growth that stress homogeneous grouping principles. Perhaps at certain foundational levels, outreach and fellowship occur best among those most like ourselves. But the most dynamic evangelistic power of the gospel comes when the world is forced to sit up and take notice that people are loving each other in ways it cannot account for with humanistic presuppositions. In America, this is especially true when blacks and whites worship and work together for the Lord. Yet, what Martin Luther King, Jr., often observed still proves true—11:00 on Sunday morning remains the most segregated hour of American life. Here is one of the most tragic indictments against contemporary Christendom within almost every ethnic group.
Indeed, lack of powerful evangelism more generally afflicts much of current Western Christianity. When Paul encourages believers eagerly to desire the greater gifts, we recognize that he means those that are not being given enough attention in Corinth. Many gatherings of suburban American Christians today disclose few, if any, who rank high in evangelism on spiritual gifts inventories. Surely we too then need to seek to fill this gap by praying that God would give some of us this gift and bring others into our fellowships who already have it." [1]
The message of this passage is simple: we need each other. We can't say that we're a Christian and walk away from the church. We can't say that we don't need others to help us. We can't say that we're better than another person or that our ministry is more important.
Churches often fall into the trap of becoming homogenous - everyone looks the same or makes the same amount of money or whatever. When this happens, we're missing out. One of the most powerful tools for evangelism is a church full of people that shouldn't be able to get along but somehow do. On the other hand, nothing drives people away more than people who have every reason to get along, but insist on dwelling on bitterness and arguments.
We are like a body. Paul's illustrating hear borders on ridiculous when you really think about it - does your body ever argue with itself? Of course not! Yet that is what we often experience in churches throughout the US. Unity is one of our greatest evangelistic tools - may we continually pray that God grant it to us.
[1] Craig Blomberg, 1 Corinthians, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1994), 255-56.
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