My Unity Manifesto

I'm taking the church through the book of Ephesians and asking the question: what is a Christian...really? 

To fully understand Paul's letter you need to understand God's mystery, that is, his desire to bring everyone and everything together in the person of Jesus. You can read or listen to my message on this today. It's a cry for unity in the church.

I closed the message with what I called my unity manifesto.  A couple people asked me to publish it separately from the message so here it is!

My Unity Manifesto:

If I’m going to call myself a Christian, and be a part of a church, then:

I want to be someone who makes every effort to unite people 

    and not divide them.

I will not divorce my wife or cut off my kids or encourage others to do the same.

I refuse to sacrifice relationships in the church over petty personal agendas.

I will not fan the flames of office politics and 

    undermine the dignity of my coworkers with secrets, gossip and slander.  

I will not diminish the integrity of the church across town 

    by criticizing their beliefs or practices.

And I refuse to bash political parties for not promoting or 

    living out my personal values. 

I won’t mock people in the news who self-destruct or minimize people 

    who have chosen to live a lifestyle that I don’t believe is biblical 

    or honors God.

I’m happy to call sin, sin. But I refuse to use God’s Word to tear people down.

The mystery of God compels me to make every effort to bring people together into God’s family.