Unity

Act 15:7  And when there had been much disputing, Peter rose up, and said unto them, Men and brethren, ye know how that a good while ago God made choice among us, that the Gentiles by my mouth should hear the word of the gospel, and believe. 

Act 15:8  And God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; 

Act 15:9  And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith. 

Act 15:10  Now therefore why tempt ye God, to put a yoke upon the neck of the disciples, which neither our fathers nor we were able to bear? 

Act 15:11  But we believe that through the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ we shall be saved, even as they. 

Act 15:12  Then all the multitude kept silence, and gave audience to Barnabas and Paul, declaring what miracles and wonders God had wrought among the Gentiles by them. 

Act 15:13  And after they had held their peace, James answered, saying, Men and brethren, hearken unto me: 

Here in Acts we have a council meeting, James Peter and Paul are there. They are are all talking about the ministry and the Grace of God. They are testifying of the things God had done. They worked together to further the Word with letters sent by certain men to let the churches know that the way of the Jews did not apply to the Gentiles.

So 3 of the greatest Apostles saw a problem and ,together, came to a solution that none of them could do alone.

And this was the last time Baptists worked together to further the Word. I know that is harsh and will turn some off but truth is truth.

I think the reason we are losing the battle, even though we will win the war, is because no man is willing to admit he can not do it alone.

Each and every church should stand alone. Each and every pastor should answer to God. Each and every man of God should do as God convicts and leads, but as long as we are disorganized, divided and prideful we will fail too.

No man in the Faith is greater than another, just different callings. No man in the Faith is above or below the other.

However, each and every man who leads a church under the Authority of Christ should consider that they are not an Island. Once a year there is a conference, there are emails, there is a call to battle when there is a problem.

But what about the in-between times?

Right now in this pandemic, we are seeing christians and pastors cited, or arrested for services that are against the lockdown.

We are righteously indignant, But is there a plan? Is there a course of action? No, we are being reactionary, talking big to each other in the comfort of our homes, but there is no concerted response for the most part.

I am not militant by any stretch of the imagination. Yet divided we fall.

The one biggest point I have always made in business and now in the church is that no man is an island.

There is no pooling of information, there is no central information point to support the brethren, there is no communication, no fellowship to discuss issues and problems over coffee.. 

We struggle alone even though there are those who have gone through what we are facing and can offer comfort and advice.

You say " we are independent baptist and we are under no man". I agree.

You say " I as the pastor lead my people as I am led by God". As well you should.

But what about all the wisdom that has gone before, where is it?

If I sit at home and decide my church isn't having services tonight but I need revival is there one near by? How do I know? Is there a service livestreaming, how can I find it?

If I am a lost man searching but the Pastor of the local church is on vacation or at conference then where do we send them? We don't know the next church for we are an island or we do not want to lose another number on the roll so we wait for the pastor and lose a soul.

I remember the day that sister churches had picnics together. When churches got together despite differences for outreach.When we acted as if we liked each other.

I remember when The Brethren worked together for the Gospel.

Nowadays everyone is so busy doing it their own way, we are a concerted effort of nothing. The local church has a reach of a 10 mile radius.

We have so many ways to get the Word out, but so many conflicting places for people to go that we are overlapping and achieving nothing.

If I want to find a certain church I must go to google and type specific words, hope I get a church that believes as I do, that preaches The KJV Gospel or just skip church because I don't know where to go.

We do not work together. 

Christ did not have one Apostle, He had twelve and He told  all 12 to go out into the World and preach the Gospel. 

They did, and they got together to talk of their work, what they had done, what they were going to do, the problems they had encountered, solutions to those problems, and they prayed together, ate together, fasted together and went back to work.

They did not ask who was in charge they met to strengthen each other.

They did not fight over who led, they just got together and did it.

They had no pride, they worried about the Word of God.

They had no agenda other than the Gospel.

When the local church met in Jerusalem they went from house to house meeting together daily, they sold all their possessions and gave to the poor.

They were not commanded to do this they did it for the Love of the brethren.

We today are ruled by numbers and pride.

We are so worried we might be placed at the back of the room, or not get our turn to preach instead of being part of the Body, we prefer to be the Head. We are usurping Christ's place. We make such a big deal of the church being the body of Christ but our church is the heart! we are hypocrites.

It is time to start collaborating. It is time to organize and start turning the tide of the battle.

I am not suggesting a convention or cabal or council to oversee all, I am suggesting communication. we have email, we have facebook, we have more ways of sharing than ever before but we communicate less than ever before.

We are sharing so much but it is getting to few people. The reach of each church is small because the church in the next county won't acknowledge the other for fear of poaching.

The church is disorganized, fragmented, proudful, and unwilling to talk to each other.

IFB churches should be the megachurches of today, we preach Christ and Him crucified. That is truth, the only Truth. 

Yet IFB is failing, why?

Ask yourself that question, and when you answer it do it honestly. The biggest lie we tell to ourselves is that we can do it alone, we do not need help or advice, or examples.

The biggest harm you can do is to think you are alone as Elijah did. For if you think you are alone, then you will act alone, and lonely leaders get desperate.

There are men out there who have faced what you face. there are men willing to listen and advise, to pray with you, share with you.

Elijah wasn't alone, 7000 had not bowed to baal.

1Ki 19:18  Yet I have left me seven thousand in Israel, all the knees which have not bowed unto Baal, and every mouth which hath not kissed him. 

You are not alone, you are not fighting the war alone.

It is time we stopped thinking that we are alone, we must fight alone.

It is time to pray together, share together, fast together, and start turning the tide of this war.