Strength In Unity

Recently, I spoke with a pastor who was moving his existing smaller church to the building of a larger church. When asked if they were merging, he replied that it was a “partnership.” They would still be two separate churches with two different congregations and worship styles, however, they would share the same building and the same children’s ministry. The smaller church needed a better facility to conduct services and the host church needed a more effective children’s ministry. Where each was weak, the other was stronger. Both leaders of both churches were able to exchange their strengths and weaknesses to become a better whole. The smaller ministry with its more contemporary style was also able to reach a different demographic of the community than the larger church with its more traditional services. Both ministries understood their weaknesses and was able to compromise to become stronger.

This is how the local church should be. Far too often, churches would rather over saturate a neighborhood and compete for the same people than discover what they could do together to make their community stronger. Acts 2:44 (NLT) states “And all the believers met together in one place and shared everything they had.” Sharing in the first century church was vital to the growth and expansion of the Gospel. Without this brotherly love, Christianity wouldn’t have grown as rapidly as it did. I would encourage all church leaders to take on the same mindset. Instead of trying to compete with ministries, worship styles and events, why not coordinate things that would benefit the community as well as the other churches that neighbor you. If ministries would be more willing to lay aside differences and focus more on community, allot more could be accomplished.

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