Sooner or later, these issues must be faced if John 17-type unity is to be realized.

I have had the pleasure of being in a city where REAL unity is happening—churches across denominational and doctrinal (including Catholic to Protestant and vice versa) lines giving MONEY to each other . . . lots of it: hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, and millions of dollars—with no strings attached. Churches that offer volunteer resources to OTHER churches to help them succeed—no strings attached. Churches that give away assets/buildings, etc., to OTHER churches to help them succeed—no strings attached. It is a city where a few leaders are waking up to the fact that it doesn’t matter who gets the glory, the credit, the fame, the reputation–leaders who recognize that it is not about “local church growth,” or “the success of my ministry,” but rather, what is the BEST FOR THE COMMON GOOD, at a city-wide level. It is happening—without:

• hierarchal organization
• high-profile senior leadership
• celebrity leadership
• “apostolic” headship, or any other kind for that matter
• city-wide unity events, etc.
• city-wide “administration” of a new “unity group” to which we all must belong

It is happening organically as the overflow of love and a VALUES TRANSFORMATION between people who care for each other on an individual level, but large scale.

Until leaders and believers come to grips with the issues above, all attempts at unity, as sincere as they might be, will be like putting water in a bucket with a hole in the bottom.

I am not going to name the city. Why? Because doing so plays into our need to run some place and try to find a “pattern to copy,” or a “celebrity leader to follow,” or “to take some training to see how it is done,” or try to package the “latest unity model.”

We have already been given everything necessary for life and godliness—every one of us. We just need to get on with it—free of the corrupt values that put a hole in the bottom of the Jesus unity bucket.

Imagine if when “church leaders,” church “boards,” etc., got together they asked one simple question when facing decisions: What is best for our city? rather than “What is the best for this church?” My, what a transformative revolution we would see! We are as revived as we want to be.

For more regarding the cost of pursuing genuine unity, click here.

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