Put together or falling apart?

I have recently finished the book, Simple Church by Thom Rainer and Eric Geiger.  It was a very interesting book and I really enjoyed it.  One section that really caught my attention was one that dealt with unity.

God desires us to have unity because unity reflects who God is.  God is unified.  Unity is so uncommon in the world today.  People are usually always fighting to get their way.  The church that has unity looks like God and stands out because of that.  It is unusual to have any group of people unified.

“The goal is for all of them to become one heart and mind—
Just as you, Father, are in me and I in you,
So they might be one heart and mind with us.
Then the world might believe that you, in fact, sent me.
The same glory you gave me, I gave them,
So they’ll be as unified and together as we are—
I in them and you in me.”–John 17:21

Do you ever wonder what a church in complete unity would look like and what they could accomplish?  I believe that a church with true unity would look more like Christ than anything we have ever seen.  When we strive for unity, we get closer to God, for God is unity.  The book gave a visual for unity.

How many of you had a Mr. Potato Head?

I never had one (I know what kind of parents doesn’t give their child a Mr. Potato Head) but there was one at my grandparent’s house.  I used to love playing with him.  What child doesn’t love to make Mr. Potato Head look absolutely ridiculous.

The church is like Mr. Potato Head.  We have all the right pieces and if we find our spot, everything will work out.

1 Corinthians 12:14-18 talks about this idea:

“For the body does not consist of one member but of many.  If the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ that would not make it any less a part of the body.  And if the ear should say, ‘Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,’ that would not make it any less a part of the body.  If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing?  If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell?  But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.”

Each one of us has a place and a function in the church.  Each one of us can help create unity by being happy with who and what we are and not wishing we were something else.

So if your church were a Mr. Potato Head, what would you look like?

Would your body be composed of all feet?
Would you have all the parts, just in the wrong place?
Or would you have all the parts in the right places?