WORSHIP LEADERS
“THE BLESSING” BUILDING UNITY | Grant Norsworthy
Nothing brings about unity between people
more effectively than overcoming an obstacle
together. Unity is a natural bi-product of
having a shared goal - a common challenge to
overcome - and together… achieving that goal.
Working with one another to get the job done.
Successfully defeating a common foe.
"Those who love their idea or dream about
community [common-unity] will destroy it. But
those who love those around them will create
it.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906 to1945)
A group of people in disagreement might all
want agreement - a “common-unity” - but if
those people try to bring that about with their
focus on manufacturing unity itself, they will
usually (almost always) fail. If I try to bring about
unity, I will tend to want to drag other people
towards my concept of what unity should
look like. In other words, I try to make people
agree with me! That is more likely to cause an
argument - emphasize disunity - than bring
about true and lasting unity.
But, instead of working directly on unity, we
might be able to find a project to do together.
Motivated by love for our fellow human beings
we should be able find enough common
ground to identify something - anything (even
a small thing) that we could come shoulder to
shoulder with each other to work on. A goal
that we all see value in achieving.
As we work together to achieve that goal
and especially if we are able to accomplish
observable, measurable success, we may find
that our differences are not so different. Not
such a big deal after all. Or perhaps that we
are more willing to simply agree to disagree
on a few, peripheral issues. We may find that
we have a growing love for one another and
a willingness to move on to the next challenge
together.
For the past few months in my [WM] articles,
I have written about and shared videos of
the “virtual choir” phenomenon that has built
up around the Elevation Worship song “The
Blessing”. To me, these wonderful videos are a
huge encouragement and a powerful example
of people willing to work together to achieve a
common goal.
There are plenty of things that I love about
the growing collection of The Blessing “virtual
choir” videos on YouTube, but the best and
most heartening thing to me is the beautiful
picture of Christian unity that they paint.
Singers, instrumentalists and technicians
have come together - drawn from a broad
and diverse cross-section of churches - to
overcome an obstacle together. They have
not spared a thought for their differences, but
instead, have chosen to sing God’s words of
blessing together and to share that message
with the world.
I have often been troubled as I observe the
Christian Church’s inability to agree, to get
along, to be in community with one another or
even work together. My heart aches when I am
confronted with examples of disunity between
followers of Jesus, especially in the light of the
prayer of Jesus Himself that we - His Church -
would be one (John 17:21). But The Blessing
“The New York Blessing: 100 Churches Singing a
Blessing Over New York City”
“The Celtic Blessing | Celtic Worship & Friends”
44 August 2020
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