Is Unity a mark or a myth of the church?

Is Unity the mark or the myth of the Church?

There are just endless list of reasons why people want to break away from the church. Here are the Top 10 most popular reasons (that I can think of):

1. We prefer to have our own worship style
2. We just can’t agree with each other about what we (would like to) believe
3. The Church is not Spirit-filled
4. The leaders are too rigid and old-fashion
5. Pastor is leaving, so are we
6. Some people are just a sore in the eye
7. The preacher is boring
8. We have a better structure
9. We want something new and not traditions
10. We don’t speak the same language

It is indeed a great challenge to stay united in diversity. It is so much easier to take the easy way out. Walk out! But Love never fails. Hence, it is no wonder that Jesus asks us to love one another just as he had unconditionally loved us. Then all man, knowing how hard it is to stay together against the test of time, will know that we are His followers. We are the message. We have to continue to strive to resolve differences and to learn by the grace of God to live up with each other. Then truly, the power of the Gospel will be lived out and not just preached. Then unity becomes the mark of His Church and not a myth.

What will he see?

Today when a stranger walks into our church, what shall describe his experience?

What will he see? Will he see a bunch of dull worshippers? Will he see cold wars breaking out between individuals? Will he see some searching within their wallet for the smallest denomination to put into the offering bag? Will he see how he is out of place as all the rest are of a higher class than him?

What will he hear? Will he hear juicy gossips about the latest marriage breakdown? Will he hear the leader back stabbing each other? Will he hear the silence of bored young people?
What will he feel? Will he feel the emptiness of the people’s worship? Will he feel the superficial relationship between people with each other? Will he feel the arrogance of the people of their status and wealth? Will he feel that this is just not the place for a person like him?

The Church is to be the reflection of heaven on earth. She is the reality of God’s presence with among His people. And most of all, she is the reflection of His divine nature, Love! May God grant us, in our own community of faith to BE all the Church is supposed to be!

The Church My Home

What is the church? Being a PK (Pastor's Kid) the church is home. I am not trying to be spiritual here. But church is literally home! My family and I lived in a parsonage which was next to the church building within the church compound. But is Church just a building, a location or a physical structure that is visible? How a person should define the Church? What does it means to be a Church?

This is going to be a journey of discovery for me this semester. In the first class of my Ecclesiology and Eschatology class I am faced with a question of true unity between the Protestant, Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches. Coming from a protestant tradition I realised that our tradition and understanding of the Church has its limitations and shortcomings. We are far from being the only True Church tradition. The fact that the Protestant churches are divided to consist of more than 50,000 denomination speaks louder than words about the depth of our understanding about what the Church is.

Perhaps it is time to look at our brethren from the Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic for a different and perhaps more authentic understanding? Perhaps there is something that we can learn about their understanding of their church that amazingly unifies them as one within millions of their members. Perhaps we need to seriously re-examine our ecclesiology when we cannot even embrace our brethren from the different traditions because of our own presuppositions.

My first posting!

Here I am! The dinosour of this age has finally woken up and decided to have a try at this hippest communication medium of our time.

Welcome leeyng to the world of Blogging!