Let’s Become Unified

Let’s Become Unified

Luke 8:19-21

Rabbi Rev. Dr. Michael H. Koplitz

Luke 8:19 Now His mother and brothers came to Him, and they were unable to get to Him because of the crowd. 20 And it was reported to Him, “Your mother and Your brothers are standing outside, wishing to see You.” 21 But He answered and said to them, “My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it.”

Jesus represents the love and grace of the LORD, and this was something I truly wanted. So, you might be able to see why it is difficult to comprehend why people say they love Yeshua but do not follow His words. All faithful disciples of Yeshua are a part of the Kingdom of Heaven. This kingdom is spiritual, and the link between people is Jesus. Why cannot the people of the church become one family?

Unfortunately, we are human beings and we each have free will and free choice. Each person at times wants to express their approval or rejection of what the church leadership is trying to do. We have to accept that that is something that exists, and it’s something that we have to deal with. People on the outside of the church will see this disunity and will use it to justify why the church is not following the ways of Jesus.

I was quite fortunate at one of the churches I was appointed to, where we had one individual who objected to several items that the administrative board of the church wanted to have done. I was waiting for him to sabotage the effort, and I was so happy when he turned around and helped us get the project done. Furthermore, I asked him about it, and he said that he had the opportunity to offer his opinion, however the majority rules and Jesus told him you do what the majority says. I was so happy when I heard him say this because that’s not the normal experience you see in the church.

This man demonstrated to me how the power of God’s love through Jesus can work and can bring together unity. I wish that his attitude toward doing the good of the church over his objections could be put into some kind of vaccine and given to everyone in the church. Imagine what our churches could do if we all could realize that it is important to express our opinions and have discussions on direction. Then when the majority opinion is expressed that we all come together, whether we agree or not, for the common good.

I found that the ministry was exciting when this happened. I so much wanted everyone in the church to believe the same way this man did. Unfortunately, that does not also happen, but we should all strive for it. We are certainly not going to agree with each other on every point. God gave us different talents and different opinions so that we could determine what’s best for the ministry of Jesus’ church.

The bottom line is that unity must exist for the future of the church. Jesus wanted unity as one of the main criteria of the church that he was building. Look at how many denominations exist in Christianity because we refuse to be unified. It makes us weak, and the churches in North America and Western Europe are failing because we can’t work together.

If you want to save your church from extinction, you have got to get unity among the people. Always ask for opinions and ideas. Eventually, it's unity that counts.

Let me give you a way of trying to obtain unity that I learned many years ago from a book titled, ”What a great idea!” Whatever ministry you want to start, the first thing you do is define it. Then you bring your administrative board, or whatever your church calls it, together, and you give each person a pen and a pack of large sticky notes. Then you ask the people to write down one thought per sticky note. Those thoughts could be for the idea, and those thoughts could be against the idea. They could write down the challenges of the idea and the objections to the idea.

Then on a wall or a large board, have all the sticky notes placed on it. Then together look at each sticky note individually and let the people decide one at a time whether the sticky notes should stay on the board or should be removed. In this way, every person gets an opportunity to say what they think about the idea. Hopefully, when you get to the end, everyone agrees that the sticky notes that stayed on the board are what the definition of the ministry will be. Remember, not everyone’s going to agree with every sticky note that’s left on that board. However, they should have something on the board that they like. Hopefully, this will create a consensus and allow the ministry to be created with unity.