Friday Fellowship

There has been something that has been troubling me for some time now, and I am calling on "The Blogging Bunch" to help me with this struggle.

What do we really mean when we say that we want unity? In my feeble attempt to address this issue, let me say that most of what happens in church to promote "unity" looks more like uniformity. Most church going people have no problem coming together in "unity" as long as the ones coming together all look alike and have similar policies, practices, and preferences.

I'm reminded of Paul addressing an issue between 2 members in Philippi. He told them to be of the same mind in the Lord. Christ should be the common union between believers, not religious preferences. I'm not suggesting that we cannot have religious preferences, but our preferences should not prevail over God's principles!

We, who are believers in and followers of Christ can come together for a common cause regardless of what I have called "The Great Denominational Divide", and then go back to our particular houses of worship and do the things that make us who we are.

God is looking for unity and not uniformity. We can be the same (believers) and work toward the same end (unity), without looking the same (uniformity). We all have a common denominator and that is Jesus Christ!! God in His infinite wisdom could have made us all the same and programmed us with the same likes and dislikes, but He didn't. God made us diverse, so let's appreciate the differences in the body and not automatically regard them as wrong because they are different from us!

I believe as the body of Christ that we can be much more effective if we put down our personal preferences and come together on God's principles!! Paul said that we ought to be endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bonds of peace.

We don't have to look the same, to live the same, or love the same. I tell BBC all of the time, that if you have on a uniform and your heart is not there, it's really not a uniform, it's a costume! You can put on the pants, the shirt, the shoes, the stripes, the badge, and the gun, but it's not until you take an oath (a matter of heart) to serve and protect, that you become a police officer. The same is true with any Christian. Be Blessed!!

National Baptist Convention

This week has been a tremendous blessing in my life! I was privileged to attend the 128th Annual Session of the National Baptist Convention USA Inc.! The theme of the Convention was "The Heavenly Vision and the Morals of the Church", taken from Proverbs 6:16-19, Micah 6:8, and Matthew 25:31-46.

I heard many expositions on this theme this past week and I came to the conclusion that the decline of the practice of morality by the church has been because of a deterioration in the proclamation of the message of the church! The practice of "watering down" the message by some to be more "seeker friendly" has crippled the morals of the church. We have more unwed mothers and divorcees than any other religious group! We must get back to sound, solid biblical preaching to change the moral climate of the church! Here's an equation for you to consider: A lack of preaching to the world, results in a lack of power in the world. In other words, when we don't preach sound sermons, we lose our ability to influence others!

Some of the major highlights for me was when Pastor Frederick Haynes gave a fitting tribute to the late Dr. C.A.W. Clark. This was concluded by the playing one of Dr. Clark's famous sermons "Is there a preacher in the house?" I was in awe seeing all of the people responding and rejoicing as we listened to the king of preachers do his thing! We were also blessed by the presence and a presentation by Michele Obama. Both parties were invited, and we thanked her for accepting the invitation.

I also contributed to Home and Foreign Missions and went to their sessions. I know that attending conventions is not popular among pastors and preacher my age, and I do understand the concern about the relevance, but I do believe in them, especially in the area of missions. These district, state, and national meetings not only offer fellowship and opportunities for exposure, but they give us an opportunity to do together what we could not do apart. NBCUSA Inc, built a new hospital in Africa! The progress of the Housing Commission in the last 19 years includes: 30 housing sites in 27 cities and 15 states totaling 1036 units representing over $150,000,000.00 in funding!

All in all, it was a blessed week!! Pray for us as we settle back in and get back to work serving this present age!