Dear Small Church Pastor,
Unity is an elusive characteristic that we are told to strive to achieve. We are told it is good when brothers can dwell in unity. We should pray for unity. We should seek it diligently. We should encourage it. But just how can we do this?
How can we develop unity within our congregation when there are personality clashes? How do we achieve unity when the children of our leaders argue while in Children’s Church? How do we unite if there are differences of opinion about how to move out of our four walls and into our community?
To be honest, as far as I can determine, there are no “one size fits all” solutions to this challenge of creating unity. There are some actions we can take, though, which will aid in the development of unity among our members. Allow me to address one of these actions in this letter.
A congregation that has agreed on a common goal and a plan to achieve that goal will usually develop a spirit of unity as the members do their part in working the plan. In order to create that goal and its plan, there must be open and honest communication about the various possible goals and ways to achieve those goals. All ideas presented must be accepted at face value and given the opportunity to be discussed and evaluated. (Run it up the pole, brainstorm, dump the can and see what falls out, etc.) Again, open communication and consideration is a must at this point.
If you can get your congregation/leaders/committee to participate in that first phase of creating a common goal and a plan to achieve that goal, the hardest hurdle to unity is being overcome, and you will begin to see progress in creating the unity needed to achieve that common goal.
But what do you do if you can’t get them to agree on a common goal and action plan? If that’s the case, experience says you have a spiritual problem that is going to have to be faced and defeated before unity will arise in your people. If you realize a small faction, a larger group, or even all the people are refusing to cooperate with others, there is some deception from the devil that has taken hold of minds and has convinced them they should not or cannot cooperate with each other.
If this occurs, you will have to deal with the situation spiritually first before anything physical can be accomplished. You will have to fast, pray, teach Biblical doctrine, counsel, encourage, face and conquer spiritual opposition, seek the Holy Spirit’s anointing and guidance and demonstrate love to your people every chance you get as you focus their attention on Jesus. Then do that again. And again. And again.
Dale Carnegie in the 20th century and Samuel Butler much earlier in the 17th century stated that a man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still. In order to change a person’s opinion, the heart (the will) must change first. If you can do your part as pastor to open truth to the people so the Holy Spirit can change hearts that are determined not to cooperate, that is all you can do. It is the influence of the Holy Spirit spreading the love of God into hearts that can change them. You can’t do that.
You can’t force the changes needed for unity to exist. You can provide the opportunity for the changes to occur, but you cannot decide for someone else that they will change. You face this every time you give an altar call for people to respond to the good news about Jesus. You can tell them about Jesus and forgiveness, but you can’t make them choose to repent and seek forgiveness. The same thing holds true for creating unity. You can create opportunities for unity to be developed, but you cannot develop it in a heart. God has to do that.
If you will persist in doing your part and rely on God to do His, then you should be able to see unity begin to develop in your congregation. When you begin to see the cooperation and mutual love that can exist in a congregation that is unified, all those prayers and seeking God will be rewarded as God’s presence envelopes all your people do together.
I’ve already written enough for you to pray about for now. Remember lasting changes will occur slowly or quickly depending on the Holy Spirit’s presence and the people’s willingness to yield to that Spirit. (I speak from experience here.) We’ll cover more about unity in the next letter.
Sincerely,
A Small Church Pastor