The Purpose Driven Life by Rick Warren—A Synopsis (continued). Chapter 21—Protecting Your Church (pages 160-167) Summary Every believer has the responsibility to protect the unity of his local church, because unity is the “soul of fellowship.” The Bible provides the following practical advice as to how a believer may do this: · Focus on commonality, not differences. Christians have many truths in common, e.g., one Lord, one Body, one purpose, one Father, one Spirit, one hope, one faith, one baptism, one love and one future together. The focus should be on these realities. God made each believer different in personality and background, not to be tolerated, but so that each could enjoy and value the variety each one brings to the whole. God would have unity, not uniformity. · Be realistic in expectations. All Christians are sinners, and every Christian sinner will at times disappoint other Christian sinners. And this is the composition of every local church. No church is perfect, and a Christian only wastes his and God’s time expecting perfection of and within any local church. Maturity is the realization that everyone and every local church are imperfect, and all need forgiveness and grace. To “run away” from an imperfect church is never the answer. The answer lies in reconciliation. · Encourage instead of criticize. Even though another Christian may disagree, he is never “the enemy.” Instead of doing Satan’s job of “accusing the brethren,” always reserve judgment for God and focus on resolving conflict. An ounce of encouragement far exceeds a pound of criticism. · Flee from gossip. Gossip is like cancer; it is totally destructive and spreads swiftly when unchecked by biblical action. It must be avoided at all costs, both the spreading of and the listening to it. Remember, those who gossip to you will also gossip about you. · Practice God’s method for conflict resolution. This formula would have one who is offended by another [and this refers to an egregious sin, not a mere disagreement over non-doctrinal matters] to go privately to the offender and attempt resolution as soon as possible. If this doesn’t work, then the offended should request assistance from one or two other believers in a second approach to the offender, so that they might witness the actions and attitudes of both the offended and the offender and personally attempt resolution. If this doesn’t work, then the matter may be surfaced before the entire church for assistance. Finally, if the offence is judged valid by the church and the offender continues in his obstinacy, fellowship may be broken off from the offender. · Support church leaders. Church leaders, although imperfect, are charged with the responsibility to oversee and advise all members of a church in respect to Bible doctrine. They will be held particularly responsible for how they administer this responsibility before God. Because of this, God expects all church members to treat them and their advice with the utmost respect. Their assistance and advice is to be followed when it conforms to Bible doctrine—the ultimate authority. It would be well that every church member sign a “covenant of fellowship,” stating that they promise to protect the unity of their fellowship (church). Quotes “It is your job to protect the unity of your church.” (pg. 160) “It is easy to become discouraged by the gap between the ideal and the real in your church.” (pg. 162) “Longing for the ideal while criticizing the real is evidence of immaturity. On the other hand, settling for the real without striving for the ideal is complacency. Maturity is living with the tension.” (pg. 162) “We must remember that the church is made up of real sinners, including ourselves.” (pg. 162) “Reconciliation, not running away, is the road to stronger character and deeper fellowship.” (pg. 163) “Disillusionment with our local church is a good thing because it destroys our false expectations of perfection. . . . This is the beginning of real community.” (pg. 163) “Gossip is passing on information when you are neither part of the problem nor part of the solution.” (pg. 164) “If you listen to gossip, God says you are a troublemaker.” (pg. 165) “Pastors will one day stand before God and give and account of how well they watched over you. . . . But you are accountable, too. You will give an account to God of how well you followed your leaders.” (pg. 166) “The truth is, everyone needs and wants to be loved, and when people find a church where members genuinely love and care for each other, you would have to lock the doors to keep them away.” (pg. 167) Scriptures Ephesians 4:3; Colossians 3:14; John 17:20-23; Romans 14:19; 10:12; 12:4, 5; 1 Corinthians 1:10; 8:6; 12:13; Ephesians 4:4; 5:5; Philippians 2:2; Romans 14:1; 2 Timothy 2:23; 1 Corinthians 1:10; Ephesians 4:2; Romans 14:13; James 4:11; Ephesians 4:29; Matthew 5:9; James 5:9; Romans 14:4, 10; Revelations 12:10; Romans 14:19; Proverbs 17:4; 16:28; 26:20; 25:9: 20:19; Proverbs 17:4; Jude 1:19; Galatians 5:15; Proverbs 20:19; 26:20; Matthew 18:15-17a; Matthew 18:17; 1 Corinthians 5:5; Hebrews 13:17; 2 Timothy 2:14, 23-26; Philippians 4:2; Titus 2:15—3:2, 10, 11; 1 Thessalonians 5:12, 13a; 1 Corinthians 10:24. Conclusion/Comments Maintaining unity among all members within a local church is the direct responsibility of every member of the local church. No one is excused from this. It is assigned a high priority by God in His list of responsibilities for His children. To effectively address conflict within a local church it is necessary that Christians emphasize those items that are common instead of different between them, understand what is real while striving for the ideal, accepting and admitting to their own frailties (sinning nature), focus on encouragement rather than criticism, flee from all gossip, follow God’s method of conflict resolution and support their church leaders.