Section 3
I will seek to support all colleagues in ministry by building constructive relationships wherever I serve, both with the staff where I work and with colleagues in neighboring churches.
The unity of the church, its leaders and the laity is central to the carrying out of God’s will. The monotheism that Jesus Christ taught was revolutionary in the Greco-Roman world. In the same manner that Christ taught that God was one, he also indicates that the Church is one.
The idea of one unified Church serving one unified God is defended by the Apostle Paul to the Church of Corinth. In I Corinthians 1:13 (“Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?”) Paul is speaking to a Church that has taken various stances on various teachings and has divided itself accordingly. This is causing great weakness within the Church. It is hindering the Church’s function and work for Christ.
Paul speaks of the source of the church’s unity to the same group of believers when he says, “I planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the growth. So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. Now the one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose, and each will receive wages according to the labor of each. For we are God’s servants, working together; you are God’s field, God’s building.” (I Corinthians 3:6-9). Here scripture tells us plainly that we have been called to work together to build up God’s Church, and that God in turn will use our collective efforts to build the Church.
Based on these scriptures, which proclaim that God is one and therefore, we, too, must be one, we must work to build up positive relationships that unite the Church. These efforts must lie within the Church of which I am a part and touch every other extension of the Church in the community and in the world.
Questions for Consideration: