The time is right for the Church to get back to the
basics; those essential truths including the one gospel and saving faith in
Christ. Once we master these essentials and live them we will begin to
experience true unity in the church. A good definition of unity would be to have everything in common and
at the same time embrace the diversity of gifts and callings and languages and
styles that make up the Church.
Jesus prayed that we would be 'one' in John 17:21 but for
almost 2,000 years the Christian Church has experienced divisions, splits,
dissension and even heresy.
How can we possibly be 'one Church' when there is so much
division? Some churches have only male ministers while some allow females. Some have clergy with special vestments and some are in t-shirts and jeans. You
may be used to services that last over two hours or perhaps your local church has
you out in less than an hour.
While we could go on and list pages of differences there
is still the prayer of Jesus that we would be 'one'. Deciding that we are ONE
CHURCH is still a choice despite what appears to be stark differences. The
choice is to look at our differences as interesting diversity within ONE CHURCH
rather than examples of different churches. We can do this when we focus on the
essentials.
