Dear Small Church Pastor,
The following is a list of various scriptures that deal with the topic of unity. I encourage you to read them, including the contextual verses around them. Unity—Ps 133:1, John 17:23, Ephesians 4:3 & 13 (NLT); Unified—Ezra 3:1, Nehemiah 8:1 (NLT); In One Accord–Acts 1:14; 2:1; 2:46; 4:24; 5:12 (NLT); (According to my concordance, there are 34 verses I did not list that come from the KJSV and the NLT that list the word unite/united.)
In this third letter concerning unity, allow me to give you a “case study” of what can happen when unity exists from my experience as a small church pastor. Our congregation had mentioned we should work on something to connect with the young people in our community who were related to our attenders or lived in our general area. As we prayed and sought guidance from God on how to go about doing this, the idea of creating a safe place for young people to gather on a regular basis was brought up and discussed.
The discussions led to a major project that we decided to call The Landing. The project was the creation of a large youth shelter with a platform on one end for various events, supplemented by a fire pit and sports areas. The congregation began working on the project “in one accord.” Through their enthusiasm, dedication and hard work that was covered in prayer, what we refer to as miracles began to occur.
We had to clear over an acre of thick woods to create the building site. One of our members worked for an underground utilities company. The company donated the use of the equipment we needed to clear the woods and prepare the ground.
The poles for the structure were donated by an individual. We purchased the trusses, and when it came time for them to be set in place, a commercial contractor brought his crew two consecutive weekends to set them without cost to us. (Four-man crew for 20 hours of labor)
The lathing for the trusses was donated by way of a developer who gave us over 120–2”x12”x14’ planks that were considered scrap concrete form boards. A local man who owned a sawmill cut enough of the lumber to make the lathing (at no cost).
The structure was ready for roofing. A large congregation in our area heard what we were doing and bought the metal for the roof. A local resident who installs roofing came to direct and work with us to install the metal.
It was time to build the platform. We had enough planks left to create a 13’x40’ platform, but we needed to raise it off the ground. I got word that a mason I know was cleaning around a house he used to store various building materials and I contacted him. He donated 150 lightweight 8”x8”x24” blocks, which were more than enough to build the foundation for the platform.
Some of the leftover blocks became the walls for the fire pit.
We hired a local electrical contractor to install power so we could put up lights and outlets for night-time activities. The power pole was donated by the same person who donated the shelter poles.
Poles for creating a volleyball court were donated. A moveable standard basketball goal was donated. A set of small goals for children was donated. A ski-ball table was donated. A foosball table was donated. A child sized billiard table was donated. We bought an air-hockey table and built a sturdy ping pong table.
This whole process took a little over 2 years of prayer, discussions, phone calls, decisions, work, scraped knuckles, sweat, hope and dependence on God to move for us, to provide for us, to keep us on track and to anoint our efforts. God did His part for that small congregation that had to rely on Him to achieve what we were doing together, what we were united about, what we prayed about in one accord.
Take another look at those scriptures in the beginning of this letter, especially the ones in the book of Acts. Unity creates miracles.
Sincerely,
A Small Church Pastor