The Spirit of Co-operation in Operation (17th in Church Series)

I have learned that even when one does find Christians that truly rely on the Lord and have God at the center of their lives that they still can ' t unite in mind and purpose. After pondering the matter, I think I have some understanding of it. Of course the missing ingredient is the Spirit of harmony. To me, this does not mean we have to give up our own visions to go along with the leader ' s visions.

The problem appears to be that each one of us has grown close to God through our own experiences with Him and our beliefs and goals have emerged from those experiences. Therefore we are single-minded on those goals and beliefs, thinking that they have to be the most important ones.

What can we do? What must we do?

We must be made aware of and understand the problem. Then we must work hard to communicate and understand where each one who has an obvious relationship with the Lord and has a vision is coming from and then we must work hard to find common ground (negotiate), seeking to implement each person ' s godly vision, training and knowledge into the end overall plan. This mindset would be key to success in this endeavor. It would take time, patience, love, and many serious meetings covered by prayer. Some would be strongly tempted to think that their vision and goal were still the most important and the group would have to work hard not to think that way.

If this is the answer, it seems impossible because almost everyone who has visions for church work thinks that they should do the leading. That’s where the praying come in. Through sincere prayer as a group, God will enhance Christ’s Spirit within each of us, empowering us with a spirit of co-operation!

It is well to remember that this problem could have been avoided if the church had been built together as God designed. The church works best when it is “built together” as each member of the body exercises the Spirit of Christ within them and cooperates with the rest of the body precisely as the human body works. No wonder God calls us the body of Christ. But that is not the case now, so we use plan B above.

To implement plan B one of the group must be the leader--one who understands that a good leader often follows, a good leader is a good listener, a good leader is the servant of all and a good leader respects and honors each person ' s point of view. (I have not forgotten that the pastor is the leader in church, but in implementing this plan to work together to birth our godly visions, the pastor would have to be part of the above mentioned group. If he is a part of the group then he must recognize that he may not be the right one to lead the group, if you follow my thinking.)

Following God’s blueprint, there would have to be two or three others with authority to back up the leader or back down the leader--counsel with the leader--the balance and check operation.

Then the above round table discussion can begin and we would surely succeed in working together in Jesus to do the greater works.

(c) Sylvia Huffnagle

Article Source: http://christian-topics.info

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