UNITY is brewing up!

(Message I shared with InterVarsity staff on Dec. 1, 2011)

1. Unity (including Racial Reconciliation) through Equality.

- I really feel like God wants to bring unity in the fellowship through bringing equality (Equality will bring Unity). (I've been learning a lot about that through my Black Studies class but I'll spare you the details... for now). I also learned that through the verses I shared last night:

a.) Galatians 6: 2 "Carry each other’s burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ." vs. 5 "for each one should carry their own load."

- What's "their own load" ? = "each other's burdens."

- God wants to bring equality in burden-carrying. NOT one-sided burden-carrying- That's only Jesus' job. Jesus tells us to do everything in unity ("that they may be one as We are one").

- And we cannot love each other deeply ("fulfill the law of Christ") if we there's no equality in burden carrying.

-In the world leadership is all about hierarchy, power and control. In the body of Christ leadership is all about equality, humility and servanthood and having an influence through that. We know very well that you staff are "here for us," "here to serve us" and that's true but it should be mutual. Leadership is servanthood. We are actually all here to serve each other (=lead each other) using the different gifts that God has given us. One-sided servanthood/leadership leads to a high expectation of staff to meet all the needs of the fellowship and lots of dissatisfaction and complaining when that doesn't happen and that's a huge burden for staff. God wants to wake us up to the fact that we are all leaders/servants. You can read more about that in the post: "A Call for Unity in the Body of Christ."

b.) 1 Corinthians 12: 6-7 "There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good."

-vs. 24b-26 "But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it."

(God's affirmative action plan (lol) for the sake of unity and equality)

c.) Practicals- So how can this be applied? When there is equality and mutuality in Common ground and all our different kinds of meetings. When its not just a time for one set of people to give (staff n worship team, any leaders) and another set of people (students= the "audience") to receive. We all should be giving and receiving. That way people feel part of what is going on and would actually want to come to be a part, to be known by others and to be used by God. That kind of sharing brings equality because this is what it turns into: "It doesn't matter if I'm staff or a student, it doesn't matter what year I am, whether I am a leader or just an "attendee", it doesn't matter what gender I am or what culture I am from, all that matters is that we are all one in Christ and I have a voice, spiritual gifts, talents and a cultural perspective to be used for the body and I want to give as much as I want to receive."

-Unity is all about equality in giving, all about equality in sharing -The early church (multi-ethnic and racially reconciled through Christ) gave all they had to each other so that no one lacked, whether it was materially or spiritually (ex. encouragement), just all aspects of giving.

"What then shall we say, brothers? When you come together, everyone has a hymn, or a word of instruction, a revelation, a tongue or an interpretation. All of these must be done for the strengthening of the church." (1 Corinthians 14:26)

- In the first email I sent you guys at the beginning of the quarter, I already shared some ways that I saw this being put in practice in Kenya so you can revisit that email. And I have a lot of more ideas, for example, how the Arts can be used as a form ministry and worship.

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2. Structure and Spirit

-So yesterday, you guys kinda went on a debate about whether structure is the problem and why or why it should be reduced/ removed.

-But I don't think its about structure. It's NOT about structure. It's about worship, our spirit interacting with the Spirit. It's all about the Spirit.

- There's 2 things going on:

a.) Our spirit, our heart- We've kinda dealt with this one. In Kenya we had roughly the same structure of "events" as we do here: bible study, discipleship, prayer meetings, church, Christian Union ("Common

ground"). So the difference is at a heart-level, the spiritual level-> Why do some people here feel forced to come to "events," good enriching events or stop coming, while others in Kenya have the same events but its never a burden but a joy and new people are always joining in? {Fruit & growth} So we answered that: It's a question of whether they are going to participate in what is going on (giving) and not just being in the audience (receiving) but both.

b.) How the Spirit moves and our spiritual response to Him moving- It's not about structure. So we can have structure and plan in advance BUT we should'nt be bound by it -> Our set structure should not limit how the Spirit may feel like moving that day and how and when people feel led to respond. For example, at the Real conference, it was during the first worship set and even before the Speaker was introduced that the Spirit was leading us to stand in awe of God and confess our sins n lay down our burdens. That wasn't in the schedule. They had planned to sing a few songs, have the speaker then prayer at the end but that wasn't how the Spirit wanted to move that night and not how the people felt led to respond. So the worship team stayed on that one song that we were responding to, to give us room to respond to how the Spirit was moving and Mattie and Erna invited us to get prayer in the back at that time during worship (not waiting till the end as was scheduled). I have other examples if you want.

Like Jesus told the Samaritan woman: (It's not about structure, its about deep calling out to deep-> our spirit interacting with His-> worship)

“Sir,” the woman said, “I can see that you are a prophet. Our ancestors worshiped on this mountain, but you Jews claim that the place where we must worship is in Jerusalem.” (structure)

“Woman,” Jesus replied, “believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. (Not about structure) You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” (John 4: 19-24)

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3. "Shadowing"- Learning through Another's (and each others) experience as well as experiencing something different for ourselves

- At my internship we went through a painful 36 hours of lecture/talks/ "being equipped with tools and information" but that wasn't enough for us to start working

our shifts. It was mandatory to shadow other experienced interns- to go alongside them (letting them lead you) as they did what now came naturally to them.

-I think the same thing is important for you guys as staff and us as leaders. In Worship team we started being more of a community (not just a bunch of different people singing and playing instruments together) and there's now room for open discussion for changes we wanna see and new things we wanna try. I would share my ideas with Shayne and Bubba, but most of the time nothing would change and they would be like "Ok thanks for all this insightful information, but what are we supposed to do about it?"

-That's when I realized, "It's one thing to teach people stuff by telling them things that could change, but its another to let them experience for themselves how that change is being put into practice = to shadow" .

- So Wilson first, then me, strongly suggested to the rest of the worship team to all go and experience something different together at Isla Vista Church. Stuff always came up but they were finally able to :) (I was in my intership training that day:(

- Anyway, in the same way, I think its great you guys are going to be further equipped with racial rec tools next week (have fun! and we'll be praying for you!) but I think its also important for you guys to "shadow" because there are some tools you won't know how to use that someone else does due to their cultural background and personal experiences. So you guys can go to IVC (Sundays at 4pm at the Korean church on Sueno) together or any other church that has a flowy, 1 Cor 14:26 kinda structure, or any church from a different culture, just to see how others do it. Not just to "see" but letting them lead you into worship as they know it. Essentially, this is what it means to displace yourself, that is, to get out of your comfort zone, what you're used to, in order to learn from another and experience God in a different setting (All about Jesus). Just a suggestion (a strong one:) ( *Update: InterVarsity, we don't have to go too far to displace ourselves, we are a multiethnic community let's start where we are. This was the idea behind having the "Black Church Experience" for one Common Ground but it got cancelled in Winter quarter :(

K have a blessed day! :)

Attachment: I have an image of racial rec in my head => People of different ethnicities/cultures coming together and holding hands (unity) and singing kumbaya (Come by here Lord). It's ironic that that's what people think we shouldn't be doing. People always use that phrase, "its not like we'll hold hands and sing kumbaya then everything will be fine, we have to do more." BUT I think that is actualy what it's all about Unity in everything (singing, praying, laughing, crying, working, resting...) not just for Christ but by Him (we need Him to bring unity).Unity in and through Christ our Lord, the Head, the main Shepherd, that's what holding hands and singing kumbaya represents.

Related Post: Check out "A Call for Unity in the Body of Christ" (The devil's plan is to bring disunity because he knows the power of being one in Christ) and Spirit of UNITY (only the Holy Spirit can bring Unity we cannot achieve it by our own strength and good intentions like the world tries to and fails).

Prayer Song: Lord, make me an instrument of your peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love. Where there is injury, pardon. Where there is doubt, faith. Where there is darkness, light. Where there is sadness, joy. O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love; for it is in giving that we receive, it is in pardoning that we are pardoned and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.