Hope everyone's having a good Wednesday and looking forward to a short work week! Since last Sunday night I've thought a lot about unity and our biggest challenges to obtaining and maintaining it. I've also thought a lot about what unity may look like in 21st century America. Too often (and unfortunately more common) political or social groups have this uncanny ability to rally behind a cause and commit to it's success. Groups like the NRA, MoveOn.org, NOW, Right to Life, etc. do a remarkable job of showing unity and consistency. The linchpin of their success is directly related to how important their mission is to supporters. The Church (as a whole) in the U.S. has a less than glowing track record.

Before unity becomes an issue, several other factors must be present: There has to be a purpose that interests or pertains to a group of people and there has to be some level of individual commitment to that purpose. Relationships must also be present. Commitment to a purpose may be intrinsic, or based on relationships with other committed persons. Unity doesn't necessarily involve feeling the warm fuzzies about others before joining with them in a common cause, but it means that the cause itself is so important that personal differences can be set aside. For example, in American politics the environmentalists may have little to do with abortion rights activists, yet both factions frequently fall heavily to the left because the left has pandered to both causes in the past. Soldiers in our military may have serious personal opposition to the Iraq war, but they still go to Iraq and fight. When they signed up for service they agreed that the interests of the country were more important than their personal interests. (whether or not they realized that at the time of signing is another issue!) See where I'm going with this? It's the commitment to the Purpose that leads to unity. Unity happens when there's a purpose of such great importance that I'm willing to set aside my own wants, will, feelings, and interests for the good of that purpose.

A lack of unity should be considered symptomatic of a greater problem - a lagging individual commitment to purpose. Other purposes may be of greater importance to us. Prosperity, choice, and individual comfort are all three major purposes for almost every human being - but in America our commitment to these three states of being is obvious. And I believe it's hurting us in many ways: in our commitment to building and maintaining relationships, our commitment to our work (we're increasingly doing jobs we hate and are not geared for to earn a higher standard of living), and our commitment to our faith in God. As Christians, we shouldn't be surprised that when our priorities are out of line, unity within the church suffers. Selfishness is ultimately at the heart of disunity.

There are many other variables that contribute to how we shape our priorities.
But, I have truly come to believe that the "me" mentality with an uncontrolled focused on wealth, comfort, and choice has caused many divisions, sank so many projects, and has hurt so many people - and it continues to do so. I see it in myself and I see it in those around me. I also firmly believe that in a congregation where our collective prosperity is obvious, it may also be one of our greatest obstacles to unity.

Thanks Gabe for the great classes and the discussions on this topic.