Sunday morning I witnessed a miracle. The morning after the George Zimmerman verdict, I watched the members of our multi-racial church worshipping God together in an unearthly unity. They were singing, crying and praying together. They worshipped side-by-side while demonstrating a deep, genuine love for one another.
That level of unity would be rare even in a church made up of people who are all alike. But what is more noteworthy is that Faith Apostolic Church is made up of over 15 nationalities from every conceivable background. Blacks and whites, Republicans and Democrats, Hispanics and Africans, the homeless and the homeowners, Europeans and Asians, those with a GED and those with a PhD, fifth generation Apostolics and those new to the faith all call FAC home.
If the Zimmerman verdict would have happened 15 years ago it would not have even been mentioned in our church. We were a white, Republican, suburban church with a glaring sameness about us. But God spoke prophetically to us that we would become an “Antioch” church. And God said that we would not “look elsewhere for the model, but that we would be the model.” God began to miraculously add a broad diversity of people to our church. That diversity has brought many challenges. No longer do we all think alike. No longer do we all align ourselves on the same side of political issues. No longer do we all feel the same way about things that are happening in our world. Even in the context of our Apostolic faith, our cultural differences are stark.
The challenges we’ve faced in becoming a multicultural church over the last 15 years have seemed to intensify lately. It’s felt like the division in our country has been trying to creep into the church. The spirits of division and racism that are rampant around us have been knocking on our door, wanting to come in and magnify our differences and provoke the ugliness of our fleshly natures.
All of our differences have created a situation ripe for division in our church. How can so many people who are so different ever love one another and live out their faith together? Look at our divided society. The division in our country has escalated to frightening levels. Racial tension is at a boiling point. The political division in Washington is so bad that many have lost faith in government. Hopes that the election of a black president would ease racial tensions are waning. Trayvon Martin’s death has further exacerbated the problem. Society says unity is impossible. Society shouts at a multicultural church and says, “You’ll never have unity!”
But we do. And it’s amazing.
What we’re experiencing at FAC is truly miraculous. But I can’t take credit for the unity we enjoy in our church. It wasn’t any profound leadership skill on my part that created it. It wasn’t that I wisely handled the culturally divisive issues in the church. The challenges we’ve faced have often left me perplexed and struggling to find solutions. When God asked Ezekiel, “Can these bones live?” Ezekiel basically responded, “I really don’t know!” I’ve felt the same way. I’ve often wondered if it’s possible for us to really be joined together. The realization that I am powerless to make it happen has been humbling.
Just like in Ezekiel’s story – it is the Spirit of God that has brought our church unity. It was the moving of the Spirit in Ezekiel 37 that joined together the fragmented bones and made them a body. Paul said to the Corinthian church, “For by one Spirit are you baptized into one body.” On Sunday I shared with the congregation that we must have a move of the Holy Ghost because it is only the Spirit that can make a multicultural church one body. This is especially true on the heels of a controversial verdict.
The solution to division is the Spirit of God. The enemy seeks to divide and fragment, but the Spirit of God brings broken pieces together. The Spirit joins us as one. Hatred, discord, jealousy, envy and rage are works of the flesh. But the Fruit of the Spirit is love, peace, longsuffering and gentleness. The reason there is so much division in our society is because society has largely forsaken the very thing that produces unity – God’s Spirit.
The church should be a “city on a hill.” The church should be a model to the world of how we can be diverse yet joined in love and unity. The miracle that God has done at Faith Apostolic is not that He’s made us all alike – it’s that, in spite of our differences, He’s made us one. At FAC, recognizing and celebrating our differences does not undermine our unity but rather epitomizes what the Spirit of God has done among us. A racially divided country should be able to look at a multicultural, Apostolic church and see that there is hope.
The answer to our country’s division is the Spirit of God.
Pastor Matthew Ball
Check out Sunday’s Message on this subject entitled, “The Moving of the Spirit Creates Unity” in our sermon archives
1 Comment
Very good message…by One Blood are we all baptized into Christ…we are created to be in HIS image and HIS likeness, which is the Fruit of the Spirit. GOD is LOVE! Heaven will consist of every kindred, tongue, nation and people who obeyed and loved GOD their Maker in their dispensation and generation. The Tower of Babel we know where there was only one people and one language in the earth, and they disobeyed GOD, and HE confounded their language and then they had to disperse into the earth as HE original told them to….disobedience to GOD divided tongues, nations and people….yet the Day of Pentecost fully coming united tongues, nations, kindred and people…by One Blood and One Spirit…we are born again of water & Spirit into the eternal Kingdom of God, and the Spirit will fill us up….amazing…GOD chose diver tongues, or diver language, that we speak each other language when we are united into One Body by One Spirit! Jesus is coming for those saved from the north, south, east and west…we will all sing and praise together as the saints of the ages…Heaven is made up of Old & New Testament people out of every kindred, tongue, nation and people! We are a united people that worship now together and then for eternity!