The Church is to be ONE.

“For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ.” (1 Corinthians 12:12)

Unity in a church is not an option it is an absolute must, a command from God and her Head Jesus Christ. God said while a “body” has many members, together they are one, as the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are One. It was Jesus who prayed to the Father just before His death for this unity, not only as a church but also as Christians. “That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.” (John 17:21) There is only one way for a church to be one, every member must have much love, humility, grace and mercy for each and every one of the other church members. It takes the power of the Holy Spirit as it does in everything else that is godly, and these fruits are all the gifts of the Holy Spirt. Every member must surrender all power and authority to the Lord Jesus Christ and allow that authority to work through the majority of the churches heart and desire. Allowing every vote to be settled as the will of God and holding no thought of opposition. But this goes beyond voting and working of the church, it is extended to the entire working of the church, this takes much love, it takes the “love of God in your heart”. This is submitting to the working of the Holy Spirit and incudes Him to assembling the church as He chooses, “But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him.” (1 Corinthians 12:18) We must understand that every member was set into place by the Holy Spirit and every member is as valuable as another no matter who they are. A church has many members and we all know that can create division and it is our job as members to overcome that and not allow division. Never, ever allow yourself to devalue a member of the Lords church, ever! “And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you…Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary…And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness.” (1 Corinthians 12:21 - 23) Unity in a church says “oneness” and oneness begins with our love and respect for every member, one for the other no matter what we are joyful, and sad together for each other. We were all set into the church for our learning and to worship God in that learning. We must all adhere to the scriptures on this subject and make sure we are fulfilling them the best that we can. The Pastor is the leader, he is the God placed teacher and it is from him that you should seek your understanding of the scriptures. The church is a seminary of biblical studies and your Pastor is your instructor in that biblical education. The Pastor has his responsibilities to the Lord, the church and the membership, and a dysfunctional body is not a healthy body. It is the Pastors job to work and keep unity in the church, and while sometimes that is a large work it is still their work. No member should ever become a dysfunctional member of the body, one dysfunctional member could affect other members and that could destroy a church. If a member has an issue that cannot be resolved then present it to the Pastor, do not become a problem in the body without consulting the Head (Jesus Christ) and His under-shepherd/overseer, the Pastor. The doctrine of the church is important, because doctrine is simply the teachings of the scripture. Remember, the church is “a seminary of biblical studies” of teachings handed down from Jesus to the twenty-first century. There is a lot of teaching in the world about the bible, and the vast-majority of it is worldly not godly. It is not your responsibility to give the others an opportunity, that could do great damage to your learning, do not forget Satan appears as an angel of light waiting to devour you. If we all work together, teaching, learning, loving, caring, and all doing our part, Jesus Christ will always bless the church. If you become an enemy of the church’s doctrine, of the churches ways of doing things it is better to leave than become a problem in the church. The church is the most important institution on earth because it is God’s assembly and changing the teaching to worldly teachings will do nothing but destroy the church. We must all stand strong in the word and in each other. Elder Oscar Mink wrote the following; "For the edifying of the body of Christ," all work and Service rendered should have this end in view, all effort Put forth to build up, or promote the individual is spent in Vain, the fabric of the church is so interwoven that when one member is weakened, the whole fabric diminishes in strength. Thus when we pray for an ailing member, we pray for him as an Individual, and for his improvement, but we should ever have in view as we pray for the individual the overall welfare of the church, knowing that the individual being helped, helps all The members of the body. …All Gifts are of Equal Importance... "for the edifying of the body of Christ," this is the Obligation of the membership collectively, and there is not a member which does not have something to contribute toward the up building of the church, your contribution may go unnoticed by the great majority of members, even as the widows mite was overlooked by the prominent members of the synagogue, but Christ took special note of the gift, and there is no gift in the church which gets more attention from Christ that any other gift, Christ says, "he that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much… (Luke 16:10)." “The church must be one”!