📣 A Call to Action for the Church
The purpose of the Church—any church, every church, and all of us who call ourselves followers of Jesus Christ—is to point people to Jesus. We are called to proclaim the Gospel, to make disciples, to demonstrate the love of God, and to shine the light of Christ into a world that desperately needs Him. That is the purpose of the Church, and it is also the purpose of FishWorship: to use the power of Christian music to help people discover, remember, and draw closer to Jesus Christ.
And yet, too often, the Family of God allows itself to become distracted by division, arguing, and in-fighting. Those divisions do not make the Church stronger; they diminish our effectiveness and weaken our witness. Satan can use our divisions against us, turning brothers and sisters in Christ against one another while the world around us desperately needs to hear the message of the Gospel. We find ourselves living in a culture that seems more divided than ever, and sadly, many of those divisions have found their way into the Church—the collective Body of Believers who know the love, grace, and saving power of God. Now, more than ever, we must set aside the differences that divide us and return our attention to the task God has given us: winning a lost world for Jesus Christ.
And “winning” is the right word. Scripture describes our Christian life in terms of a spiritual battle, and the Church is called to stand together as warriors for Christ. We are not warriors against one another. Our battle is not against our brothers and sisters in Christ. Our strength comes when the Body of Christ stands together in faith, united by our common hope in Jesus and our shared mission to proclaim His Gospel. That is why the words of the great hymn Onward Christian Soldiers still speak so powerfully today. The hymn reminds us that the Church is not meant to march as isolated individuals or competing factions, but, as the hymn so boldly says:
“We are not divided, all one body we,
One in hope and doctrine, one in charity.”
But unity does not mean that we simply tell one another what we want to hear. Across the Christian landscape, there are congregations and ministries that have softened, reshaped, or set aside clear Scriptural teaching in an effort to be more acceptable, to avoid offending cultural movements, or simply to attract and retain more people. That is not the kind of unity to which Christ calls His Church. The increasingly common idea that we can simply “agree to disagree” should never be used to dismiss, diminish, or supersede the teaching of Scripture. Our goal is not to narrow the Body of Christ by insisting that everyone think exactly alike; our goal is to call the Body of Christ back to the same foundation. And that foundation is Scripture.
So this is our call to action: let’s stop allowing our differences to become more important than our mission. Let’s lay down the arguments, the labels, the grudges, and the distractions that keep Christians fighting Christians. Let’s stop “agreeing to disagree” just to put bodies in the seats. Let’s remember who we are, Whose we are, and what we have been called to do. Let us stand together as the Family of God, encourage one another, love one another, and carry the Gospel of Jesus Christ into a world that needs His hope. It is time for the Church to come together, stand together, and shine together—not for ourselves, but for Jesus.
Onward, Christian soldiers.
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