Unity

Chapter 3 of Ross Douthat's book "Bad Religion" starts the discussion of how we became a country full of various denominations. According to some sources, there are about 38,000 denominations worldwide. Even though that number double counts for churches that exist in many countries, the number of denominations is mind-boggling. We talked a little in our small group about how this diversity is a good thing, because it allows for everyone to find a place that fits their personality. While this is true to some extent, I'm hesitant to fully agree with that statement.

The culture of the day worships personalization. This is not news. But to the degree that the Church copies culture, this can begin to become a problem. Church becomes not so much a place of community where you are challenged and can grow, but rather a place where everyone else is similar to me, allowing us all to dwell in our collective blind spot(s).

The call of Christianity is convergence on Christ. So the measure of our success, I would say, is how much our churches converging on this goal? See John 17. So if unity is how others see through us Christ, then this needs some serious effort. This is not a call to squash out our uniqueness, of course, but rather one of allowing ourselves to be challenged so that we can be transformed.