Pastoral - Open Letter: Stay Together

   It’s an honor and a pleasure to write to you concerning the same message that Paul so graciously and humbly wrote to us in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, verses 10-17. The title of this past week’s sermon was, “Stay Together”, focusing on unity in the body of Christ, and a true focus on the person and work of Jesus. We will speak from experience, and ask the Holy Spirit to guide our words as we aim to make much of Him, all the while helping to shepherd our hearts towards Jesus.

     It can be one of the hardest tasks to keep true unity among the body of Christ at all times, and more specifically among any specific local church. Our sinful nature constantly desires to gossip, slander, and discredit other brothers and sisters for things that are secondary issues, and even tertiary issues at best. Paul gives us a very clear example of how the early church dealt with the same issues when he says,

“What I mean is that each one of you says, “I follow Paul,” or “I follow Apollos,” or “I follow Cephas,” or “I follow Christ.”

He then goes on to say: 

“Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?”.

This is a strong statement to the church. We tend to make much of things that shouldn’t be made much of, and we tend to diminish those things which should be held high. A specific example of this is the leaders we follow. I know for the Tanamachi (Jr.s) this comes most greatly in the form of Worship Leaders. As a family of musicians, we easily write off those who we don’t like, or those who we disagree with in philosophy or execution, and we glorify those who we are most like. Rather than seeing the work that the Holy Spirit is doing through each of these servants, we dismiss them and in our pride, feel that we don’t need to pay attention to them. In the long run, it may lead us to quarrel with others over who is “better”, or more “relevant”.

     The same can be said in many circles about the Pastors and Speakers that we follow. If we were to be very specific, most of us would say that we love to follow “Matt Chandler” or “John Piper”. They are clearly gifted, and have been empowered by God to lead us in making much of Jesus, yet they are human, just like us. We find ourselves getting up set when another person says, “I don’t really care for John Piper, for he believes in (insert theology here). Paul is begging us to turn our eyes towards Jesus. He is begging us to remember what is Primary, The Gospel of Jesus Christ. And in the same breath, he is asking us to stay together on what really matters.

     Like previously mentioned, may we remember that the Gospel is primary. If it's not the Gospel of Jesus Christ, then it's secondary. Secondary doesn't mean not important, but we must always remember to hold the Gospel of Jesus Christ as primary, for it is the power of salvation to all who believe. If we hold this dear to our hearts, and treat one another with the same grace and kindness that Christ gives us, we will be a healthy church. 

In closing, let’s remember that one of the first verses in this passage is Paul appealing to the church at Corinth, that there be no divisions among you. This takes hard work and focus, and is not an easy task, yet there are is something so beautiful about a church that can stand united under Christ. If we are willing to keep our eyes on Christ, and remember what is Primary, we believe that we will be better for it. 

Providence, may we stay together as we pursue Jesus, and may there be no division among us, as we aim to make the Gospel un-ignorable in our community. Love God, Love People.

-Brendan and Chelsea Tanamachi