Spiritual Life: Fostering Unity

by Bob Dennison, Campus Pastor

If the school year was a race, we certainly would be rounding the final curve and heading for home. As we finish the third quarter, we have begun examining the virtue of "unity" in our Focus times and in our classrooms. Quite fittingly, CCA's third core value I want to highlight is "fostering unity". We believe the Bible calls the followers of Jesus to strive for unity. Fostering unity means that we want to practice and celebrate those things which bring us together. Unity does not mean we want everyone to be the same—that's uniformity. Quite the opposite, Christ has made each of us unique and uses our uniqueness to bring glory to himself. For believers, unity means having the same attitude, practicing love toward one another, and pursuing the same purpose.

In Paul's instructions to the Philippians believers, we find some things we can do to foster unity within the CCA family and within the body of Christ as a whole. We can practice humility and watch out for the interest of others. We can show sacrificial love-the same kind of love God extends to each of us- toward others. We can pursue the common goal of "stewarding and cultivating hearts, minds, and souls to know Christ and to become world- changers for His kingdom." Ultimately, however, our ability to practice these virtues toward others can only be fueled by surrendering daily to the control of the Holy Spirit in our lives. The book of Ephesians reminds us that our unity is a unity "of the Spirit." The first church I pastored had an old piano that was getting out of tune. One of the elder gentlemen in the church knew just whom to call. An elderly gentleman met me at the church one day and began to tune the piano. I do not know everything he did, but I was in the sanctuary long enough to see him use a tuning fork. As we discussed it, he made a comment to the effect that every piano he tuned with that fork would play in tune with one another. The same is true for us. When we repent of our sins a

If you are interested in discovering more about unity, check out Francis Chan's Until Unity or Irwyn Ince's The Beautiful Community. Thanks for partnering with us on this journey to be biblically centered, to love truth, and to foster unity.