Diversity in Unity
One thing that can quickly become twisted in this concept of being One Body of Christ is the individual aspect. Uniformity is not the goal of unity. Sometimes when the church takes on programs described as "discipleship" we consciously or unconsciously have the incorrect goal of uniformity. The analogy of the church being the Body of Christ tells us the opposite of this is true. We are encouraged in our uniqueness. We have EACH been given gifts (have been designed differently) by the Spirit of God. It is our uniqueness that unifies that allows us to "fit" together and work as ONE body. Uniformity creates more of the same. Our diversity is what should be celebrated not feared. We have too many believers trying to be just like other believers and too many local churches trying to copy every detail of other local churches, and we are reaping the benefits....a dis-functional body.
So how do we grow in unity while discovering our diversities? A.W. Tozer in one of my favorite books, The Pursuit of God, paints a great picture to illustrate this. He writes, "One-hundred pianos all tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other. They are one accord by being tuned, not to each other, but to another standard." If you try to tune each piano to each other, you will drift away from the original tuning. You have to have the one original that all are tuned too. I love that. When tuned to him, we are able to live out our individual uniqueness in order to promote growth in the ONE Body! The consequence of "tuning" to Jesus is that we are all tuned to each other...like a great orchestra that has been tuned to one standard is only great when they each play their unique parts in unison.
Any thoughts, personal application, or church application from this idea?