Harmony In The Church
A preacher went to his high school reunion.
One of his friends asked, “How many active members do you have in your church?”
The preacher said, “They’re
all active. Half of them are working with me and the other half are working
against me.”
In the late 1800’s there were just two deacons in a small Baptist church in Mayfield, KY.
These two deacons hated each other and always opposed one another.
On one particular Sunday, one deacon put up a small wooden peg in the back wall,
so the minister could hang up his hat.
When the other deacon discovered the peg, he was outraged that he had not been consulted.
The church took sides and the church eventually split.
To this day, they say you can find in Mayfield, KY, the
Anti-peg Baptist Church.
During
the American Revolution, Benjamin
Franklin said…
“We must all hang together, or we shall all hang separately.”
God’s
desire is that His people live in harmony, that His church is to exist in
harmony:
Ps. 133:1 –
“How
good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity!”
1 Pet. 3:8 –
“...Live
in harmony with one another...”
We are blessed to have a good spirit of harmony at Union City.
Today as we look at the principle of harmony, I hope that we will all look within ourselves,
to see what we can do to help maintain and promote that harmony.
I. THE CONCEPT OF HARMONY
What is harmony?
Harmony is defined as follows:
1- Agreement in feeling or opinion, accord,
2- a pleasing combination of elements in a whole.
Picture if you will an orchestra.
Let’s say they are going to play Swain Lake.
The performance begins. It is beautiful.
Then the strings section decides to play “Take Me Out To The Ballgame.”
The horns decide to play “Amazing Grace”.
The violinist decides to play some county fiddling.
What would you have? A mess!
When the all the parts of the orchestra are on the same page, the
performance is a good one.
Within the church, being in harmony means we are all striving for the same goal.
That we are of one mind in seeking to accomplish that goal.
We set aside any personal agendas, for the good of the church and its
mission.
Why is
harmony such an important part of God’s
Church?
A lack of
harmony will damage our mission.
If we all have different agendas, it will be hard to focus on what we
are called to do.
If we have various agendas, it will cause strife within the church.
Who wants to come to a fighting church?
Let us look at James 4:1-3:
“What causes fights and quarrels among you?
Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? 2 You want something
but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You
quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. 3 When you ask,
you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what
you get on your pleasures.”
The night Jesus was to be crucified, Jesus prayed for His disciples.
He prayed for one thing,
one thing that would show the world that God had truly sent His Son.
What was the one thing needed to prove the deity of Jesus?
The ability to perform miracles?
Powerful preaching?
Beautiful music?
Look at
John 17:20-21 with me.
20 "My prayer is
not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their
message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am
in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent
me.
Jesus prayed for harmony!
A spirit of harmony will ensure we are all
working toward the same goals.
The purpose of this church is to glorify God, through making disciples of Jesus Christ.
As a part of the Union City Christian Church,
this should be what we are working toward.
If we are in harmony, we will all be striving to make disciples.
If our programs are in harmony with the statement, they will help us
make disciples.
Our leadership will make decisions based making disciples.
I know people who think that church should be a political machine or a social change machine.
We need to be involved in these things,
but we must be in harmony with what we are called to do, make Disciples.
We must always be committed to keeping the main thing, the main
thing.
II. THREATS TO HARMONY
False teaching.
In Acts
20:29-31, Paul warns the church at Ephesus about people who would come in and
try to sway them away with false teaching.
I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. 30 Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. 31 So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears.
False teaching can cause a lot of discord in the church.
Our mission is based on our message, and if the message is corrupted,
then our mission will be corrupted.
False teaching must be dealt with quickly so it does not doesn’t
fester.
Legalistic spirit.
Legalism is defined as “strict, literal adherence to the law, or to a
particular code.”
Bob Russell says that: liberals want to change everything, legalists want to change nothing.
The legalist imagines he is standing for truth,
when he is usually guarding his precious traditions.
For the legalist, it is my way or you are doctrinally wrong.
The legalist believes everything is a doctrinal issue.
One church leader got mad, because the piano player was softly playing in the background while scripture was being read by the preacher.
When the preacher did not agree with him,
the leader said playing music in the background was adding to the word of God,
which was wrong.
In Acts 15, the Jewish Christians wanted the new
gentile Christians to be circumcised, before they could become Christians.
1 Some men came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the brothers: "Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved." 2 This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question.
The church acted quickly to find a solution.
In verse 31 we are told that the people rejoiced over the
resolution of the problem.
We cannot let
legalism dictate the direction of the church.
Legalism can be fixed, if we understand people’s natural resistance to change.
We need to determine if the issue is scriptural or traditional.
I read about one congregation where they wanted to build a multi-purpose
building to enhance
fellowship and outreach.
Some of the legalists insisted that organized recreation on church property was not spiritual.
They
debated for a long time whether it was the Lord’s
will for them to have a basketball court on the church grounds.
They finally came to the conclusion that it was acceptable to have one basket, but not two!
Having two baskets would indicate that the church was promoting competition and games.
Their decision had nothing to do with their original purpose: to enhance fellowship and outreach.
It didn’t even have to do with finances.
It had everything to do with some of the peoples’
legalistic spirits.
A legalistic spirit destroys the harmony of a church.
Criticism.
Criticism
is not a spiritual gift.
Galatians 5:15 If you keep on biting and devouring each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.
Bill Cosby said,
“I
do not know what the secret to success is, but I’ll tell you the key to failure;
try to please everyone.”
A spirit of
criticism
is lethal
to a congregation:
It dampens enthusiasm
It
discourages the leadership
It stifles creativity and productivity
It quenches the Spirit
Conflict often develops, because church leaders pay too much attention to the critic.
If you respond to every criticism, then the critic runs the church.
Now, some criticism is inevitable.
Even Jesus
Christ couldn’t keep everybody happy.
Just remember: chronic critics are never happy.
Uncontrolled
ego.
It
’s been said that “EGO” stands for “Edging God Out”People become proud of their influence and status,
so much
that when you threaten their little seat of power, they come out fighting.
They pretend they have the church’s best interest at heart,
but the real issue is a matter of “who’s in charge.”
People begin to regard their little area of service not as a ministry, but as a source of ego- gratification.
They’ve been over a certain program for so long,
they won’t allow anyone else to run the program or change the program.
If things don’t go their way, they cause all kinds of discord and unrest,
until everybody gives in to their way.
Basically, anything new threatens their little empire.
III. STEPS TO MAINTAIN HARMONY
1. Keep the ego under control.
Roger
Staubach, who led the Dallas Cowboys to the World Championship in
71,
admitted that his position as a quarterback, who didn’t call his own signals,
was a source of trial for him.
Coach Landry sent in every play.
He told Roger when to pass, when to run,
and only in emergency situations could he change the play
(and he had better be right!).
Even though Roger considered coach Landry to have a “genius mind” when it came to football strategy, pride said that he should be able to run his own team.
Roger later said,
“I
faced up to the issue of obedience. Once I learned to obey, there was harmony,
fulfillment, and victory.”
It would have been easy for Staubach to undercut the coach in the huddle, but he kept his ego in check for the good of the team.
We need to understand, we are playing on God’s team,
so we need to check our ego at the door.
2. Be flexible.
Sometimes the plan is great, but the time is not right.
Sometimes it’s better to let something die on its own, rather than to shot it yourself.
I know churches that are inflexible, and then they wonder why people leave.
We should be willing to exercise some give and take.
Don’t always draw a line in the sand.
3. Develop a sense
of humor.
Proverbs 17:22 A cheerful heart is good
medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.
Sometimes we take things too seriously.
When things do not go well, we can let that disrupt harmony.
Sometimes you just have to sit back and laugh.
4. Respect leaders.
Hebrews 13:17 Obey your
leaders and submit to their authority. They keep watch over you as men who must
give an account. Obey them so that their work will be a joy, not a burden, for
that would be of no advantage to you.
Let me ask you, is the only time you talk with our leaders, when you have something to complain about?
When was the last time you went up to them, and thanked them for the
work they do?
They were selected to lead the church.
Respect them, these men want to do what is best for this church.
They want this church to reach as many people as possible.
They make decisions based on that.
You may not always understand why they make some of the decisions they do.
But respect their decisions.
When members of the church criticize their leadership –
when they second-guess, ridicule, play politics, recruit opposition –
they make the work of the leaders a burden, and
they wound the church.
5. Avoid confrontation if
possible.
Do not
get tangled up in useless discussion and arguments.
In Titus 3:9 we read:
But avoid foolish controversies and
genealogies and strife and disputes about the Law, for they are unprofitable and
worthless.
6. Practice servant hood.
The disciples had a tendency to fight over who
was the greatest.
They had problems with focus.
In John 13, Jesus washed the disciples feet, to model for them the
principle of servanthood.
If
you are serving God together, it’s hard to be out of harmony.
The best way to maintain harmony in the church
is for church members to focused on serving one another.
Practicing servanthood, is the preeminent method of overcoming pride
and
developing a spirit of humility.
When people devote themselves to doing good, to serving one another,
they don’t
have any time for criticism.
7. Be quick to forgive.
When Jesus was arrested, the disciples left Jesus as fast as they could.
Peter even denied Jesus three times, after boldly proclaiming he
would die for Jesus.
When Jesus came back from the dead, did He hold a grudge against the
chicken disciples?
No, He forgave them.
He did not mock them with chicken calls.
He did not throw their fleeing, up in there faces.
He forgave them.
Be quick to forgive a brother or sister who wronged you.
CONCLUSION
We are all in the same boat.
If we are going to get where we need to be, we all need to be rowing
in the same direction.
When God Builds a Church, harmony is established, and we are
called to maintain it.
We need to make sure we put the interests of God’s church,
ahead of any personal agendas we have.
Vesta
Kelly: “Snowflakes
are one of nature’s most fragile things, but just look at what
they can do when they stick together.”
Harmony will go along way in helping us build God’s church!
Let’s
change the focus just a moment:
The most important thing in our lives,
that needs harmony, is our relationship with Jesus Christ.
Are you in harmony with Jesus Christ, with His love for you,
and His purposes for your life?
In music, the opposite of harmony is dissonance
Harmony: “The
sound resulting from the simultaneous sounding of two or more tones consonant
with each other.”
Dissonance is defined as
“A
simultaneous sounding of tones that produces a feeling of tension or unrest and
a feeling that further resolution is needed.”
Which one of those best
describes your life: harmony or dissonance?
Accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, and walking according to His
guidance in your life, will produce a heavenly harmony greater than any earthly
musical score.