By Tim Harlow
I”m sure you”ve heard the joke in a sermon somewhere. It”s versatile””you can target any denomination.
Peter is showing someone around Heaven. As he walks down the hallway, he says, “Here is the Lutheran room, here is the Methodist room, here is the Presbyterian room,” and then he starts whispering. “Shhh, we have to be quiet walking by this one. It”s the (fill in the blank) room, and they think they are the only ones here.”
I grew up in the independent Christian churches, where it was my experience “independents” were the fill in the blank. I went to a Southern Baptist university to get my master”s degree, and I remember thinking to myself, I don”t agree with everything, but they are a lot like us! Why didn”t I know that?
But it”s a new day, and one of the great by-products of the post-Christian era is that Christians are forced to shed their labels and work together.
Powerful Synergy
I witnessed that synergy in a powerful way in Africa a few months ago. Christian unity is in action in Rwanda, giving rebirth to a country torn apart by genocide less than two decades ago. The poverty rate is down, lower than all of Rwanda”s neighbors. It will soon be the first orphanage-free country in the world. I was at the dedication of a hospital on the very site where 10,000 Tutsis were killed by their neighbors; it was built in joint partnership between churches, the private sector, and the government. What?
Rick Warren greets Kibuye-area children in the stadium where 10,000 Rwandans were murdered during the 1994 genocide. A new hospital has been built on the site as part of Saddleback Church”s PEACE initiative. (Photo by Whitney Kelley / ALRC)
How has a country that was down so low come back so strong?
Well, admittedly, the president and government were open to help from the church, and that is certainly a huge plus. But what impressed me most was that when President Paul Kagame called up Rick Warren to ask for help, the Saddleback Church team decided that the only way to help Rwanda was to get ALL of the churches working together.
We know what I like to call the “First World rescue syndrome” is not working. It”s only through the training of local people that real and lasting change can happen.
But we also know that Jesus set up the church to be the change agent for rescuing the world. So the answer always rests with the local church””but it”s just so hard for local churches to work together.
In Rwanda, however, I witnessed the heads of the Catholic, Anglican, Baptist, Episcopal, and many independent churches working together to make change happen. I witnessed the prime minister speaking at a national Thanksgiving service, quoting Scripture””to the cheers of the crowd.
I probably would disagree doctrinally with most of the people who shared the platform that day. I wouldn”t say I”m happy about how some of them run their churches, or even how they handled the horrible conflict 19 years ago.
Answered Prayers
But I saw two biblical prayers answered:
“¢ “How good and pleasant it is when God”s people live together in unity!” (Psalm 133:1).
“¢ “I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one””I in them and you in me””so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me” (John 17:20-23).
When the movement I”m a part of got started, as I”ve heard the story, it was because a father and son team named Campbell and a guy named Bart decided there weren”t enough people in the U.S. at that time from their former denominations in Europe, so they decided to just gather with Christians. Not “only” Christians””just Christians . . . only.
I”m starting to see a lot of cooperation again in the U.S., and it makes me happy. For one thing, this next generation thinks nondenominational is sexy. That works in our favor. Gone are the days when a denomination had to have the glory. But as we plod forward in this post-Christian era, what would it look like if we worked together like they do in Rwanda?
Can you imagine what would happen if God”s children started acting as though we loved our siblings?
I think it would fulfill the next verse of Jesus” prayer:
“Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world” (John 17:24).
I”ve seen it happen.
Tim Harlow serves as senior pastor with Parkview Christian Church, Orland Park, Illinois, and as president of the 2014 North American Christian Convention.
Outstanding – thanks! Would love to have you visit Point University sometime along the way.
Wye Huxford