This Kills the Unity in Your Church

This podcast is a repost, orginally published on March 17, 2018.

Pastor Priji and Pastor Jojo discuss some of the reasons of lack of unity in the church and how to overcome it.

Transcript:

Welcome to this morning’s episode of ChurchTalk with Pastor Jojo and Pastor Priji.

Pastor Jojo: The topic for the day is unity. I believe this is one such area which gets neglected over a period of time because as church grows, there is the culture which is developed but then there is a bit of aspect of unity sometimes overlooked? What’s your take on that?
Pastor Priji: I think it is because when the church grows we tend to focus on church growth in numbers and that’s where we don’t focus on quality of the church, it doesn’t matter how big the church is, what matters is how united the church is. Because Jesus did not say if two or three thousand gather in My name, He said even two or three people gather in My name, but they have to be united. It doesn’t make sense if one person wants India to be saved and another person wants Africa to be saved and the third person wants Europe to be saved, that’s not one church but three different leaders from three different churches talking three different languages. It’s going nowhere and sometimes I think the problem is because we are not really focused on the quality of the church. That’s one of the great reason why we don’t focus on the unity.
Pastor Jojo: So it’s not just one person’s responsibility?
Pastor Priji: Absolutely not!
Pastor Jojo: So we are going to look into few points as to why there is lack of unity in today’s churches and discuss what are the best ways to overcome it?
Pastor Priji: This is just not for leaders, even if you are a church member listening and thinking – have you been one of the reason for disunity in your church? Do you do these things? Do you have this attitude that can bring disunity in your church? The pointers that we are going to discuss can help. This is not just for pastors or church planters, this is even for ordinary believers who have a desire to see unity in your church and so we are going to look at some reasons that contribute into lack of unity.
Pastor Jojo: The first point which we will be discussing is on the topic of gossip. So how does the whole concept of gossip destroy the unity of the church which is already there?
Pastor Priji: I think it’s because, gossip is not always truth, sometimes it may or may not be true, sometimes it’s exaggerate truth, falsified and half the truth. Gossip is when you don’t confront the person on the face. We add our own versions to it. And what happens is everybody begins to look at it from your eyes or someone else’s perspective and that is where the unity suffers.
Pastor Jojo: So what is the best way to overcome it? To stop doing it?
Pastor Priji: Yes, if you see gossip, expose it immediately, because in the initial stage it doesn’t look dangerous it just looks like the exchange or sharing of information. There are times when I’m talking about people and immediately they come and ask me is that about me or somebody else? When we are trying to say or share something and we direct to a person then that’s gossip. If somebody is making a mistake don’t go and talk to another person but go and talk to that person. If you don’t have guts to talk to that person than speak to your pastor and tell your pastor to speak to that person. Don’t go around and talk to everybody else trying to get everybody on board with your opinion.
Pastor Jojo: As it is said at times it is better to be quite where you don’t have the whole information and better to speak less.
Pastor Priji: Jesus said it like this, ‘he who has no sin let him cast the first stone’ and also ‘why are you trying to take out the speck from your neighbours eyes when you have a plank of wood in your own eye’. Sometimes small unwanted and unreal gossips can destroy anointed ministries and brings the entire move of God to a standstill, because God cannot and will not move when the church is not united.
Pastor Jojo: As a body of Christ it’s our responsibility to be mature what we say and what we take up as a point.
Pastor Jojo:Next point that we will look into is lack of prayer, something that which will drastically impact the whole unity of church because the foundation of the church is prayer. If we don’t really put a lot of emphasis on it then we will not see a big result coming out on unity.
Pastor Priji: That’s true, I agree to that, I think the “church that prays together stays together“. The church that is slack in prayer, intercession and spiritual warfare, it is open to disunity. To stay on the fire of the Holy Spirit is to be in the atmosphere of prayer. Leaders of the church should be united to see the unity in the church.
Pastor Jojo: What about lack of church discipline?
Pastor Priji: When we come to church, we look for all those people who think, behave, work, dress, look and speak same language like us. As leaders it’s our duty to teach and discipline the church.
Pastor Jojo: As leaders how can we bring back the unity in the church?
Pastor Priji: God wants us to function as the unity of Trinity and be united with each other and serve and love one another.
Pastor Jojo: How important is this aspect of being united from the leadership point of view?
Pastor Priji:Leaders exemplifying unity in their marriages, families and homes is important. That will overflow into the church.
Pastor Jojo: How do you learn more from Jesus about unity?
Pastor Priji: If you go through the teachings of Jesus, He has many times emphasised on unity in prayer, fellowship, agreement, goals, visions and ambitions and in every areas of our lives. Jesus is the best example who taught and practiced unity. In unity there is victory. God bless you!