Maintain Harmony Series

If the person stubbornly chooses to continue in their disruptive behavior after two warnings from the leadership, they should be told by the elders that they are no longer a member of the congregation. This means that they are no longer eligible to serve in leadership positions or recruited for service opportunities. You just don’t treat them as a member of your fellowship. That doesn’t mean that you don’t speak to that person or treat them with unkindness. Some instances will require the elders to insist that the divisive person leave the congregation altogether.

Church leaders get nervous about administering discipline. It’s not an easy job. However, I agree with Stuart Briscoe’s warning: “If proper discipline is not applied where appropriate, the result will be a marked decline in the spiritual nature of the church.”

Practice Servanthood at Every Opportunity

Titus 3:12-14 – As soon as I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, because I have decided to winter there. 13 Do everything you can to help Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way and see that they have everything they need. 14 Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order to provide for urgent needs and not live unproductive lives.

We have to realize that most of our divisions are personality-driven, not issues-driven. We often convince ourselves that we are fighting over the principle when we’re just defending our own egos. When we take our eyes off of ourselves and begin to serve others, harmony develops.

This is a great lesson and a great way to close out the book of Titus. The best way to maintain the harmony of the church is for the leaders and members to get the focus off of themselves and put it into serving others. If we are focusing on loving God and loving people, then our minds won't be concentrating on nit-picking and fighting with each other.

The example of Jesus is servanthood. On the night of the Last Supper, the disciples were arguing about who was the greatest. They were worried about determining who was the most important, and Jesus is just a few hours away from his crucifixion. But as those disciples argue, Jesus gets up from the table, wraps a towel around His waist and washes their feet.

In Matt. 23:11 Jesus said, “The greatest among you will be your servant.” When we can get our minds around this principle, it will do incredible things in helping us to keep the harmony.

There is something about harmony that leads to synergy. Synergy is when two or more people, work together and the result is more than their individual efforts put together.

At the Calgary Stampede a few years back, the champion draft horse pulled just over 9,000 pounds. The second place draft horse pulled just under 9,000 pounds. They decided to hitch them together to see what the horses could pull. Mathematically, the horses should have been able to pull 18,000 pounds. But together, the horses pulled over 27,000 pounds!