So many Christians, so little time

I write a lot about unity and we try to be proactive about seeking unity. Being active in seeking out unity is an important distinction. Being willing to be unified is not really unity at all because it implies unity on my terms, on my time and on my turf. Unity in the church in any context but especially in America requires that we take tangible steps toward unity even when others don’t see the need or particularly seem interested in actual unity. It shouldn’t surprise me but it still saddens me to run into people that seem more interested in walling themselves off, not from the world but from other people they would recognize as believers.

We are taking some steps to meet with other believers. I am trying to organize a Bible study. I minister alongside other believers at the pregnancy resource center. Our older kids are part of an informal, cross church lines youth group. There is a group of men from disparate church groups and traditions that I have started to meet with. There is still so much more. We live in a church saturated area and there must be a way to meet more people.

So here is what I am thinking. This Sunday we can go to the same Mennonite church we went to last week in the evening for their 9:00 meeting. Then at 10:00 we can run to our normal simple church gathering. In the evening I would like to find a local church that has Sunday evening services and pick one to go to. I am not sure we will do this every week but if I make a concerted effort to go somewhere to meet a new group of Christians at least once a month I hope to really start to bridge the gap between all of our church groups.

I can certainly control what we as a family do. We can make it a priority to seek out those that Jesus sought out and try to make connections. What I can’t do is make other people respond. All we can do is try.