Affinity or Unity

I was so inspired today as I read through another chapter of the Bible study I have been going through with Pastor Paul.

Rick McKinley is the pastor of Imago Dei Community Church in Portland, Or, and he was the contributor of today's section. He talks about the differences in culture and sub-cultures in our churches.

Might sound boring to you, but to me as I read, I had an 'aha' moment.

To take a look at a cross-cut of churches even in our own little city of Twin Falls, ID, we would see that people have a tendency to go where there are people just like them. We look for churches with people with the same interests, the same status in life, similar goals, loves, hobbies, concerns, and the list goes on.

We might call this 'fellowship' or 'community', but what we really should call it is 'Affinity'.
"Birds of a Feather".

This is a result of our culture - or what the world would say is just another sub-culture called "Christianity".

But here is the real difference: Culture gives us Affinity ~ Christ gives us Unity.

The exciting thing about being in a Church that is loaded with followers of Christ is that it has something called the "Holy Spirit Factor".

Fellowship can take place with people of huge cultural differences and there can be unity in the name of Jesus. You can take a person who is just out of rehab from drug addiction and a CEO of a multi-million dollar company and when they come before the throne of God in humble worship, Jesus sees them both as needing His grace whom He died to redeem.

Both of these people are deserving of the surpassing love and devotion from other believers in the congregation too. McKinney says "They need you, you need them, they even need each other."

The fact is that behind the outer layer that identify their sub-culture to you and me and everyone else, is the same broken life like your s and mine that Jesus died for.

So, Community and fellowship and more than affinity can ever allow us to be, In Christ we can find true Unity.

John