Unity Around the Word

[The following was originally written for Titus Project's newsletter "Titus Times"]

Calvinism or Arminianism? Pre or Post Tribulation? Sprinkling or Immersion? Women in Ministry? Rapture? Tongues? These are only a few of the many divisive, controversial, and contentious debates that have without fail split church after church throughout the centuries. The Word of God has been, and continues to be viewed by many as a great cause of disunity and dissension. Particularly as Christians worldwide insist on ‘majoring on the minors’ and dying on every lump of dirt they claim to be a hill worth contending for. In some cases the fine print of our church billboards should more aptly read “Visitors Welcome (Except Catholics, Baptists, Pentecostals, Lutherans, Anglicans, and all other Christians not enlisted as members of our church)” We, like the Church of Ephesus (Rev. 2), have very successfully become so opinionated and effective at rejecting false teachers and those outside our interpretive preferences that perhaps we too have confused our priorities and allowed secondary issues to take the place of what is essential.

Yet this isolation and division is not always the case, which brings us to Lugansk, an average-sized Ukrainian city on the Russian border. Our Titus Project Teaching Team had been four weeks on the road, traveling and touring throughout western Ukraine and following a grueling thirty-hour train ride found ourselves in this old, grey, post-soviet mining town. Our contacts had arranged for us to teach a number of Inductive Bible Study seminar’s in the local churches over a two week period and we started without delay. During our stay we had the incredible privilege of teaching scores of Christians from varying theological and denominational backgrounds to study the bible, often in the same seminar. Contrary to my earlier statements, we witnessed the Word of God unify and draw together believers from all backgrounds and secondary convictions during or time there. Of my many fond memories, one illustrates the point best.

I can still remember the classroom vividly. A small green chalkboard at the front, three rows of large desks each three deep, a small table with tea and biscuits at the back left-hand side of the classroom, windows with the blinds drawn, two coat-hangers and many eager, excited, faces scrutinizing the colorful note-ridden copies of Titus on the desks in front of them. The classroom in my memory is quite average, quite boring, and nothing special. The desks are wooden but obviously cheap and flimsy. What makes the scene memorable is the people sitting around those desks in excited, passionate discussion.

In this particular seminar we noted students from at least four different Churches with varying denominational backgrounds passionately studying God’s word and absolutely ecstatic at their discoveries. In this moment denominational differences meant nothing – there was only God’s Word and the joy of discovering its truth and living it out together.

Please focus on the right column of desks, two desks deep. There you will find group 3, and sitting around the desk are three women and one man. Each are in their mid-twenties and each are from one of the four churches represented. Somewhat coincidentally they had become ‘group 3’ two sessions earlier. Throughout the seminar I watched as they worked together, studied together, congratulated each other over questions well answered, chatted and joked through the breaks, passionately shared their discoveries, and even exchanged phone numbers. The cherry on the top of the cake appeared right after we had dismissed the students at our last session. As everyone rose to leave, I looked over and to my amazement group 3 remained seated, hands clasped tightly in a circle around their desks, bible’s in the middle, heads bowed in prayer. Thanking God for the seminar, His word, and their time together. Four churches, one Chief-Shepherd. What a profound and beautiful glimpse of the unifying power of God’s word, one I will not quickly forget. Are some hills worth dying on? Absolutely. Can exploring God’s word draw His people together? Undoubtedly.

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35 ESV)