THE ART OF UNITY
amazing to me the number of pastors that wouldn’t even give me an email back, or a call from their assistant, or even an inkling they had seen my name cross their desk. It was convicting because I know in the past when I pastored a church that I prioritized my time with family first, then the relationships in the church. Any relationships outside the church came last.
I’m sure I have blown off a few people in my past as well. However, as I have moved forward in ministry, I know that even just responding and letting someone know you saw them, heard them, and validated their existence can go a long way. I didn’t need to meet with everyone, but I did need to acknowledge those who approached me. It was a simple matter of “Do to others whatever you would like them to do to you” (Matt. 7:12).
One pastor who accepted my invitation to meet was Joe Taybron. He had recently taken over a church in the area and was working toward his credentials in ministry. Admittedly, he was hesitant when he first took my appointment because his first thought was, “What does this guy want from me?” However, he took a step toward me, and because he values relationship, gave me an opportu- nity to sit down with him and exchange faith journeys. Over the last few years, we have developed a friendship where candidness, openness, dignity, integrity, honesty, and trust have bound us together.
We were at lunch one day, and he asked me a question. It was a question no one had ever really asked me before. He asked, “Why do you do this? ” He was referring to building relationships with someone who looks different than me, was raised differently than me, and, by all appearances, was different than me.
I truly believe at that moment that my response was supernatural because in my own words I found the reason why I love building relationship with others, “Because the differences that we have are not as important as the relationship that we can enjoy.”
My calling in life was confirmed once again. I was born to build relation- ships.
Jesus said, “Love your neighbor as yourself,” (Mark12:31), and “so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me,” (John 17:23, NIV). Since he uttered these words, the enemy has been hard at work to separate us by any means necessary. In reality, Satan has been trying to separate us from God and each other since the creation of the world.
The level of distrust and competition between churches in the same city is beyond comprehension. It becomes so comfortable to avoid the confrontation of interpreting Scripture. We retreat into a cocoon of a denomination (or church,