Unity

I had a difference of opinion with someone.
No, really.

It really wasn’t about who was right at the time.
We, in our own eyes, were both right. That’s how it goes, you know, rightness depends on perception. Without wise council and objectivity, we all can spit out the harshest of rhetoric. It’s interesting, to say the least, to observe how we respond to one another in times of crisis, whether real or imagined, and how quickly we are willing to stake everything on a feeling.

One of us used the phrase, “If I be a man of God than such and such will happen.” I can’t remember if it happened or not, I don’t think I am going to try and recall it. That would be a bit risky.

Our attempt at reconciliation (we weren’t at war, but we weren’t at peace either) I think was a bit muted. The subject of “unity” was thrown on the table. Like a small bowl of day old salad, you know, with kind of that brown fringe on the lettuce and squishy tomatoes with thick chewy skin. We put it there as our “out,” as a good way to close the conversation and walk on with the Lord. How many times have we all bit our lip and/or acquiesced out of obligation to “unity” or smiled and approved by omission something we didn’t agree with?

Why bring it up? Well, if we are the body of Christ, as we claim, than we should be in unity, but what is that? If it is cliché now, it was probably a standard before.

The Psalmist said, “Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” Psalm 133:1

Passive acceptance is not unity.
Fulfill ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Philippians 2:2

It’s easy to stand next to a guy or girl that you don’t understand and smile nicely, until they step into your world, their concepts and philosophies being so different, startling you into a fight or flight mode. If we are to come into unity, we need to be in one mind, one accord, which will never happen through passive acceptance, it will require conciliation and reconciliation. What’s the difference?

Conciliation (noun)
Getting people to trust or agree. An action taken to reach agreement or restore trust, friendship, or goodwill that has been lost, especially as a deliberate process used in a dispute.

Reconciliation (noun)
Achievement of consistency or compatibility. The making of two or more apparently conflicting things consistent or compatible

Unity is an act of cooperation.
The cost of unity is conciliation, the cost of consistent unity is reconciliation. God has called us into the ministry of Reconciliation. When we make the smallest segment of our personal society at least two. It’s not about “I” it’s about us. Love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.

And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.
2 Corinthians 5:18-19

So, there has to be a conciliation first, right? The conciliation happens when we come to a place where we trust each other. Until we are willing to have the dialogue that will bring understanding we cannot have unity. We will only have a shallow, surface peace, enough for a small bug to stand on, enough to reflect the sun on, but not enough for any one but Jesus Himself to walk on.

I say this because you can go to a lot of churches that have a move of the Spirit of God and only surface unity. God only needs the surface to move on, He can walk on the water’s surface without needing the substance under it. In those cases, God is moving on the surface in spite of the substance, to fulfill His word.

“ For where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them.”
Matthew 18:20


It is certainly nothing to build on.
You can’t build unity in water top experiences. Water will take on the shape of whatever container it’s in but will only support things that are empty. There is a distinct difference between a visitation and a habitation of the Spirit of Christ. He visits the surface and lives in the substance.

Approval by omission is not unity.
And Absalom spake unto his brother Amnon neither good nor bad: for Absalom hated Amnon, because he had forced his sister Tamar. 2 Samuel 13:22

Absalom kept the peace, but never made peace. He spoke neither good nor bad to his brother. This is unity by omission. There is a high price to pay for this type of “unity.” Someone has to die for the sake of maintenance. What I mean is that if the peace and unity façade is to remain intact, the two parties must never intersect. When they do, the fight or flight mechanism must be engaged, and their will be blood.

Now Absalom had commanded his servants, saying, Mark ye now when Amnon's heart is merry with wine, and when I say unto you, Smite Amnon; then kill him, fear not: have not I commanded you? be courageous, and be valiant.
2 Samuel 13:28

In a church setting the blood spilled is usually that of the children, the youth and the new convert or visitor. David’s (the father of Absalom and Amnon and the king of Israel) entire kingdom became unbalanced, unstable and was almost overthrown through this type of unity.

The problem was then perpetuated by David’s own use of unity by omission:
And the king said, Let him turn to his own house, and let him not see my face. So Absalom returned to his own house, and saw not the king's face. So Absalom dwelt two full years in Jerusalem, and saw not the king's face. 1 Samuel 14:24, 28

Absalom never received reconciliation and ended up rising up in complete rebellion against his father and ultimately died, shot through the heart by one of the King’s men, out of necessity to “keep the peace.”

Unity is based on relationship.
Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Ephesians 4:3

Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous. 1 Peter 3:8

Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? 2 Corinthians 6:14

If we are to be in unity, we don’t have to be in complete agreement. I saw an old movie about two men, a black man and a white man, who were convicts on a chain gang.

They were chained to each other on purpose, so they would never be able to escape. The thinking being that they would never be able to overcome their differences long enough to merit concern. In the end they escaped and were recaptured.

The physical bond on their ankles and wrists was broken and replaced by the bond of friendship. A bond so strong that one man gave up his chance at freedom to stay and care for the other one who was wounded.

What kind of bonds do we have? We can be in bondage to sin, to religiosity, to the law, and we know that’s a negative, but what about being in bonds to each other. “In the bond of peace” is how Paul wrote it. True peace cannot be established with out relationship, because peace is based on trusting motives. I may not be able to agree with your position but if I understand your motive, then I am willing to be vulnerable, and that, in it’s core, is the essence of peace. Vulnerability.

God was seeking reconciliation with Moses on the backside of the desert in Exodus so He could send Moses in as a deliverer of His people. God asked Moses to do a very strange thing in my opinion.

And when the LORD saw that he turned aside to see, God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses. And he said, Here am I. And he said, Draw not nigh hither: put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground. Exodus 3:4-5

Why? Why take off his shoes? Here’s the reason, in a nutshell, because God was drawing Moses into a deep relationship, a substance relationship, where Moses was going to have to be in unity with God. Not a unity by omission or a passive acceptance of the words of God, but a deep abiding relationship that would change the course of history. God asked Moses to make himself vulnerable, to trust His motive, to know Him in the bond of peace. No weapons, no fight or flight just pure one mind, one accord. It was “the making of two or more apparently conflicting things consistent or compatible.”

Excerpt from Smudges, As Much As I Can See So Far by Armando Heredia. Click here to purchase.

Flip The Wake | Confessions from the Leader-Ship

I have a confession to make. I am in “leader-ship” and because of this I have spent my ministry until a few months ago trying to be in front of the people who I am called to “lead”. I have tried to be the face that is seen and the voice that is heard. When the flag drops, my boat is the first off the line, leaving the wake that “my” team is supposed to follow in. The wake follows the path that my boat, my leader-ship, goes in. Where I point, that’s where everybody follows. It’s a nice and tidy little procession as long as everybody stays in the boundaries of the wake I set for them.

The problem with this is that it’s a nice and tidy little procession. As much as I want to think I am great, as hard as I work, plan and develop myself my wake is only so wide. But this is the leader-ship model that I have inherited. I have followed in the wake of other leaders and while that can make the path seem easier it has narrowed much of my understanding about what ministry can and should be.

You’re the pastor, youth pastor, head honcho, big cheese or whatever, so that automatically pushes you to the front, right? Wrong. Where did we ever get the idea that we were supposed to be the leader? Where do you find that the task of being a minister is the same as being the “man”? Jesus never said you and I were going to be the “man” if we were called into ministry, he said we would be the servants of all. When you put Greatest in front of Servant it changes the concept considerably.

Over the last few months I have become increasingly aware of my smallness. If this whole thing hinges on one person, it’s a pretty small door.

And what in the world will I do with the whole “I must decrease so He can increase” idea that that revolutionary prophet, John, said?

Here are a few thoughts that have been making me rethink the whole concept about leader-ship.

Make Sure You Have On A Life Jacket

The alpha male concept becomes very apparent when you are focused on keeping the lead and owning the wake. This translates into aggression between leaders, not just hostility, aggression. I have seen some incredible maneuvers by good men who were focused on owning the wake. If you are called into ministry and you are working your way to the front of the line, make sure you’re wearing a life jacket. “Man Overboard!” gets drowned out by the noise of the power motor too often. How many great men and women have been destroyed and/or thrown off the boat for the sake of one man/woman keeping his/her hands on the steering wheel?

The Wake Narrows Dramatically At The Front

The problem with leader-ship is that it doesn’t transfer well. As long as there is one boat at the front there will also only be one steering wheel. This is a problem as stated above because of aggressiveness, but also because the transfer is usually an after thought. The intentional development of others is typically absent in the wake of the alpha leader. Take a look at most of the leadership classes and concepts that you have developed or favor, in their essence they are about developing people within the wake, not about releasing them into the Kingdom of God or unleashing their potential.

The Most Turbulent Waters Are Always Behind The Wake-Maker

Being close to the “leader-ship” is dangerous because the most turbulent waters are always behind the wake-maker. The larger the group, the larger the wake, the more powerful the leader has to become to keep everyone moving in the right direction. The bigger the wake the rougher the water directly behind the leader-ship must be. This is where the whole elitist mentality takes on the most definition. It’s also why so many people who seem to have such potential are destroyed. They get caught in the current at the narrow behind the leader.

We expect that people close to the leader-ship are going to live by a higher code. Where do you think that comes from? If we are all kings and priests and called into the same kingdom, why is there a select few that must be somehow better than others? Here’s my opinion, because the front of the wake is narrow and if you are going to be at the front, you better be the “best” or you don’t “deserve” to be there. You can disagree, but look at it this way, we require less in graduation from the narrow front of the wake to the wide edges of the back of it, and we esteem the people in the back far less, if at all. Here’s the danger in this mentality, there is always the tension between “the people” to move forward, to push into the narrow, to displace the chain. I have seen vicious people at the narrow, people who would step on your head and push you under to hold their place, and yes, I am talking about religious people. Are they evil? Maybe, but probably not, they are simply following the rules set by the leader-ship model. When you are drowning in troubled water your only thought is to keep your head above water, at all cost, and I’d like to see you swim in the turbulent water behind a power boat and not feel like you were drowning.

The Creative Becomes Dangerous As The Wake Crowds

Wake boarding is impressive and early on you may have a maverick doing flips inside of your wake. You can wave at the people watching as you go passed, brag about him/her to your friends, but the creativity and potential of this person tied to you becomes a liability as the crowd pushes into the narrow.

A neat and tidy procession will scorn the wake boarder. He is too unpredictable. Not to mention that he sometimes works above the wake, not outside of it, but above it, in plain sight of everyone. In fact, his best work is done in the wrong place. He doesn’t work in the narrow, he trails along at the wider places, working back and forth, flying in the face of the people who despise his freedom and would cut his rope without a moment’s hesitation. To them he is showy and irreverent, and he’s having way too much fun.

The other thing that is bothersome it that he is not trying to move up like he’s supposed to and the leader-ship seems to give him special license to trump the model, to work above the wake, to have the freedom without the price of the narrow all of the other potential leaders have to pay.

His freedom is false and his time is usually short because he is breaking the law of the narrow. As much as the leader-ship needs him and his energy there is no long term avenue for him. He will have to go for the sake of the wake. He’s too dangerous.

Doesn’t The Vision Caster Have To Be In Front?

Vision casting is about the vision, not the individual. Leader-ship demands that the vision be cast into the wake. When that happens there is no growth because the course sets the cast.

True vision casting goes ahead and out, never back. So, if we cast the vision back, into the wake, does it really matter? Yes, but only if the vision is about the leader-ship. What if the vision cast set the course? What if the vision was bigger than the leader-ship?

And if we cast the vision forward and out who will work in it? If the vision is bigger than the wake and spreads outside of the reach of the leader-ship it will float away from “the people” unless the leader-ship goes around in circles trying to catch it. I’ve seen countless leader-ships racing in circles, leaping their own wake, trying to catch the pieces of a vision that were too big for this model.

When a leader-ship casts too large a vision and circles to cross its own wake it becomes a danger to itself. A lot of people will be lost by what seems like a lack of direction, when, in fact, the zig zag and the circle are unavoidable. The people may not intentionally leave the group, usually they flounder until they drown because the direction of the wake is indiscernible. Others will leave out of frustration, how can they get to the narrow if they can’t figure out which direction the narrow went?

Flip The Wake

I have had the distinct impression over the last few months that I am not called to lead. I am called to facilitate the potential of the people who God has placed in my life. My wake is too small to contain that because the potential of these people is much greater than mine. So, here’s how this is translating in my life. I have to flip the wake. I can never do what God has called me to do if I insist on being in front. In fact, my position has shifted completely. When the flag drops there are a whole lot of people that move before I do. If you are looking for me, I’ll be somewhere in the middle, “backing up” the potential.

My wake becomes a significant part of the process of development because I cease to be as dangerous when I don’t have to have the power to stay in front. My wake is easy, my turbulence is light (sounds kind of like what Jesus said, huh?)

Do I lead? Yes, but not from the front of “the people” but from the heart. People are not and should never feel like they have to compete to exist in the narrow place behind my leadership. I am “the people” and so I don’t feel compelled to push my way to the front. On the contrary, my wake is flipped and I follow in the path of the vision and the potential of those who God has blessed me to be a part of. Now we move in concert and in an unleashed potential.

When I cast the vision now, I don’t cast it backward, into my own wake, because it’s not about me. I cast it forward and out, where the potential is, and we don’t have to go around in circles to try to catch it, because it lands where the potential is already working and the ones in front can respond and continue to move forward.

Everybody can continue to look forward. The vision cast sets the course, not the other way around. This is the whole point of vision and unleashes the power of God’s creative Spirit to direct the church. The dictation has changed from my plan and my leader-ship, to His plan and purpose.

Wake boarders? Oh, yeah, they are necessary for the continued creativity and risk that is involved in changing the world. There have to be those that work above the wake in the widest areas. They are still tethered to the facilitator, the difference? They ride in the wake of potential, out front, where they can do the most good, where there is less traffic.

I’ve been a wake boarder most of my life, because of this I know that these people can do tremendous things for the kingdom, but they do it at great peril of completely running away from everything, so we’ll keep them tethered for a while, on a long rope, not just to keep them safe, but to keep pulling us further, out to where the water meets the sky.