Wednesday Day #21 Protecting Your Church.

"It is your job to protect the unity of the church. Unity in the church is so important that the New Testament gives more attention to it than to either heaven or hell.

Nothing on earth is more valuable to God than his church.

You are commissioned by Jesus Christ to do everything possible to preserve the unity, protect the fellowship and promote harmony in your church family and among all believers.

Focus on what we have in common.
We must remember that it was God who chose to give us different personalities, backgrounds, races, and preferences, so we should value and enjoy those differences, not merely tolerate them. God wants unity, not uniformity.
Concentrate on loving each other and fulfilling God's purposes.

Be realistic in your expectations.
Longing for the ideal while criticizing the real is evidence of immaturity. On the other hand, settling for the real without striving for the ideal is complacency.
The sooner we give up the illusion that church must be perfect in order to love it, the sooner we quit pretending and start admitting that we're all imperfect and need grace.

Choose to encourage rather than criticize.
When you criticize what another believer is doing in faith and sincere conviction, you are interfering with God's business.
It's the Devil's job to blame, complain and criticize...anytime we do the same, we're duped into doing Satin's work for him.
Let's agree to use all our energy in getting along with each other. Help others with encouraging words; don't drag them down by finding fault.
Listening to gossip is like accepting stolen property, and it makes you just as guilty of the crime.

Practice God's method for conflict resolution.
Go directly to the person.
If unsuccessful, take two witnesses to help confirm the problem and reconcile the relationship.
if unsuccessful, take it to the church.

Support your pastor and leaders.
Be responsive to your pastoral leaders. Listen to their counsel.
Honor those leaders who work so hard for you, who have been given the responsibility of urging and guiding you along in your obedience. Overwhelm them with appreciation and love!" PDL Chapter 21

I've never taken personal responsibility for my church. This brings new insight into my responsibilities. As we say in Men's Fraternity Reject Passivity. I also never considered supporting my pastor. It makes complete sense, I just never considered it.