Day One: What Disturbed Me

Now may the God who gives perseverance and encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus, so that with one accord you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 15:5-6 NASB Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus: That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 15:5-6 KJV

This passage is the reason, the impetus, for these musings. A friend used this passage in a devotional sent to my phone daily. As I read it and re-read it I became very disturbed by the passage, (hence Disturbed Thinking). When has the church collective been of one mind? You, dear reader, might think I am right, or wrong, or partly right, or mostly wrong in my thinking. You might get angry with me, or think I am “spot on.” You might even think I am nuts. But, when has the church collective ever been of the same mind?

I remember sitting around a table with ministers of the community where I pastored, planning our annual retreat. Someone suggested we have a communion service to close our retreat. Immediately those men and women began debating whether such a service was possible as we were all from different faith traditions. It was decided that we could not have communion together. It was then the Lutheran pastor spoke up and said it was tragic that the one thing that united us was the very thing that kept us apart, the body and blood of Christ.

We hold dearly to the individualism we desire. I don’t want to be a carbon copy of you. I told my associate pastors that the day they started wearing their hair like mine, preaching like me, acting like me they were fired. Why? The church only needed one of me and we need their uniqueness. But, if they preached a different gospel, they would be fired just as easily.

I am weird. Ask anyone who knows me and they will tell you something like that about me. I do silly things to make people laugh. I tell dad jokes. I use different voices. I will do just about anything to prove I am unique. I want to be that fearfully and wonderfully made, one of a kind, individual. In a word I want to be “special.” There is the rub. How will I have the same mind as others and the mind of Christ, and be totally the weirdo I want to be? If you figure it out write me.