The Unity of the Church in St Andrews
Similar to that strong urge I often feel to rekindle my love affair with Football Manager, or that desire I get to binge-watch The Office, I have felt strongly for a couple of weeks now that I should write something about church unity. Particularly, I’ve wanted to write something to my fellow Christian students in St Andrews. Simply put, I feel like God has recently been teaching me some pretty humbling things about my attitude towards His Church, particularly towards His Church in St Andrews. And I feel a need to share some of this. Not as a way of saying, “look at how God has been teaching me. Isn’t that great? Lucky me.” Not at all. What God has been teaching me has been uncomfortable and has brought me to repentance, and so sharing it shouldn’t make me look good. I share this because if I have to repent over this issue, then I expect other people need to as well. So, I’m going to briefly share about what God has been teaching me and then a few things about our role as students in St Andrews. Some of this might be a bit dull, but please stick with it. Hopefully by the end there may be something to chew on.
As some may know, I’ve had the opportunity this summer, as part of a university internship, to research the role of women in the church. Having never really looked into the issue very much, I thought it would simply be an interesting academic exercise. It has been anything but.
I thought I would come out at the end of the nine weeks and say something like “here’s why women should or shouldn’t preach, and here’s a list of reasons why or why not.” Though I am now more equipped to argue about this issue, my research has gone in a different direction. I have become more interested in the conversation: how do we, as a Church, talk about this issue when it can be so divisive? Yes, truth and right-living is obviously incredibly important, but I didn’t really want to add another rather-uninformed voice to a huge debate. Instead, I felt challenged to think and pray about how we treat each other as fellow Christians whilst still trying to be faithful to God’s will for His people.
As I’ve started to do this, I have become more aware than ever of my often terrible, unholy attitude towards other Christians. I interviewed 26 church leaders this summer. The first interview was with Hamish Sneddon, associate pastor of the St Andrews Free Church. I’ve met Hamish before, and got on well, but I realised as I prepared for the interview that I had a lot of baggage going into it. I was aware of some of the differences that we had, and these led me to viewing him negatively, before even chatting to him! As we chatted, I was so humbled by our conversation. Yes, as expected, he argued for a certain view of the role of women in the church with which I don’t completely agree. But he presented his views in such a clear, humble, self-aware, God-fearing way. I felt so convicted. I remember going into the bathroom afterwards and praying, “Oh, God, I’ve judged him. I’m sorry.”
See, my impression of this wonderful man had been primarily predetermined by my assumptions about his views on some doctrinal issues, not on his identity as a brother in Christ, dearly beloved by God. More on that later.
Throughout the rest of the summer, God has made me more and more aware of other ways that I have judged, and currently judge, my brothers and sisters in Christ. This culminated in a genuine moment of repentance at a Christian conference a few weeks ago (won’t chat about that here, but happy to if anyone wants to know more). Since then, a friend and I decided to read through Ephesians with a particular focus on what God wants to say to us about our attitude towards His Church in St Andrews.
The author of Ephesians describes the Church as Christ’s “body, the fullness of him who fills all in all” (1:22-23).
I recently read a book titled Disunity in Christ: Uncovering the Hidden Forces that Keep us Apart by American social psychologist Christena Cleveland. In this book, she applies group behaviour studies to the Church. What we do in the Church, she argues, is that we often view other churches as them. We view Christians who have different doctrines/theologies/politics as them.
And when we do this, as all these group behaviour studies show, we tend to view these people and these churches more negatively than if we see these people and churches as part of us. We see them generically. We ascribe negative values to them without knowing them. We talk badly about them.
In those verses from Ephesians above, the Church is described as Christ’s body. This has made me realise something. When I gossip about and slander another Christian, I am gossiping about or slandering a member of the body of Christ. And I’m part of that body. So, in some sense, I’m hurting myself. That’s ridiculous.
So I think it’s about time we start seeing each other as us. When I think about someone from another church with a different view on the-role-of-women/Calvinism/evangelism/gifts-of-the-spirit/justice, do I see them primarily as a brother or sister in Christ, a child of the one true living God? Too often, the answer is no. I primarily see them as someone who thinks something differently to me. That’s got to stop.
As so many people say, what unites us is greater than what divides us.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that right theology and practice isn’t important. It’s vitally important. But let’s chat about these important issues as if we really are brothers and sisters in Christ, earnestly seeking the good of the other and longing for their best as a fellow follower of Christ.
Two more verses that really get to the heart of this:
“Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear” (Eph 4:29).
“Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” (Eph 4:31-32).
The author of the Ephesians is writing this to the Church. Let’s think about this in terms of our local Church, the Church in St Andrews. I think we need to repent of the times when we let corrupting talk come out of our mouths. When we gossip or joke about this church or that church, or this Christian group or that Christian group.
Do we earnestly want to build up the Church in St Andrews? It’s so easy to disassociate ourselves from other Christians, saying “yeah that’s not my form of Christianity.” I’ve done this loads. But the fact is, I believe, if we take the Bible seriously then we have to associate with one another. We just have to.
Because we’re Christians. Fellow members of the Body of Christ.
Elsewhere in Ephesians we are instructed to bear with one another in love (4:1-3). It’s as if the author knows that we’re going to find each other irritating. Nevertheless, we are called to be “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
How do do this? Here’s three things I’ve been thinking about. Hopefully they may be of some use.
1) Let’s repent. Let’s ask God to humble us in our attitudes towards other Christians. Let’s admit that sometimes we do things to hurt the body of Christ. Let’s acknowledge this. If you genuinely never gossip or slander or judge other Christians or churches, then props to you. But I know I’m not that person, so I know others of us also need to repent.
2) Let’s learn to see other Christians as God sees them. Here’s a practical way I’ve found of doing this. Read Ephesians 1:3-14 in light of another Christian who you find difficult to love. It’s a wonderful passage about what God, in Christ, has done for us. So let’s say I struggle to love someone called Barry. I read the passage and when I read “us” I think of Barry and me. That is one way I can start to see Barry not as part of them but as someone for whom God sent Christ to this earth to live, die and be raised again.
3) Let’s think and pray about our spheres of influence. We all have influence on other people. How can we be promoting unity in these places, not disunity? For my part, being involved with leading Just Love is a sphere of influence I have. Being friends with people in my local church, Kingdom Vineyard, is another. How can I be promoting unity in these environments? So I encourage you to think and pray about where and how you can be part of the solution to church disunity, and not part of the problem.
Wouldn’t it be amazing if freshers coming into the Church in St Andrews this year see Christians from different churches, who have very different opinions on a whole host of important things, tender-heartedly seeking the good of one another.
Because we’re brothers and sisters.
