10 Dec IHOP (International House of Prayer) Dining for Two Part 2

Last week we began discussing Six Aspects of Agreement:

Aspect #1:  Agreement in marriage (I Pet. 3:7).

This week let’s continue…

Aspect #2:  Agreement in Church (I Cor. 1:10).

Here the Word of God says, “Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.”

We have tremendous agreement on our staff!  My core team has been with Anne and me for 18-23 years!  I have people and pastors amazed at that!  We have had very little staff turnover because we work at it!  Over all these 23 years, we have disagreed many times but we have learned to disagree…agreeably.  We realize that our ministry assignment is bigger than our present personal differences!  We too, disagree in private but are one voice in public.

I am as loyal to them as they are to me and I will not undermine them to the congregation.  If something needs to be fixed, we will do so behind closed doors, but I will never throw them under the bus to the first congregation member who complains about them!  23 years of loyalty is worth so much more than that!  That unity has flowed down into our church (see Psalm 133:1-6) and while we are certainly not the perfect church (I tell people frequently “we are the perfect church for imperfect people”), we by and large are a very positive, loving, joyful unified church.  I encourage people in a very loving way to find a church that you can flow with and support the vision.  The worst thing you can do is just sit somewhere and disagree with everything and then talk about it!  Learn to focus on the positive (see Phil. 4:8) as whatever you magnify grows, and what get your attention, gets you!

Unfortunately, disagreeable people always find something to disagree about.  Remember this, everywhere you go…there you are!  Disagreeable people simply change location…they wouldn’t be happy unless they are unhappy!  We must work towards unity and agreement (see Eph. 4:1-3) as division destroys homes and churches.

Unity celebrates difference…but it takes your difference and my difference, and it locks arms and makes a difference for Jesus.  Remember this, unity is not sounding the same…it’s sounding together!

Next week we will continue our discussion on “Dining for Two”.