I See You - Stronger In Community: Unity is the Power of Community

“There is a thing that sometimes happens in rowing that is hard to achieve and hard to define. Many crews, even winning crews, never really find it…It’s called “swing.” It only happens when all eight oarsmen are rowing in such perfect unison that no single action by any one is out of synch with those of all the others… Only then will the boat continue to run, unchecked, fluidly and gracefully between the pulls of the oars. Only then will it feel as if the boat is part of each of them, moving as if on its own. Only then does pain give way to exultation. Rowing then becomes a kind of perfect language. Poetry, that’s what a good swing feels like.” Al Ulbrickson, Boys in the Boat

“Swing is the invisible force that separates good teams from great teams. It is a feeling, it is a spirit. The same feeling you get when you walk into a room and see a tight knit group of people, passionately working towards something they KNOW is the most important thing. It is indescribable, yet everyone wants it. Swing is the near-perfect synchronization of talented people plowing ahead to achieve something no one else has, can, or ever will. It’s not just talented people hitting their numbers; not just smart, motivated workers beating deadlines. It’s a team doing something with an exponent over it; creating something that is greater than any one or two of them could ever do alone.” Teams of Distinction.com

Seeing is Seismic – Seeing is Systematic

5 Observations

·      Seeing is a Spiritual Discipline – practice it.

·      Seeing is a Spiritual Investment – invest it.

·      Seeing takes Spiritual Boldness – trust it.

·      Seeing leads to Compassion – feel it.

·      Seeing seeds Community – sow it.

“Our country’s issue isn’t that it doesn’t have enough spiritual content at its finger tips but that it doesn’t have enough healthy spiritual community at its door steps.”

Unity is the secret sauce that unleashes the power and potential of a Christian community. A church shares an address – 1288 Lewisburg Pike, but a community shares a heartbeat.

An impactful and influential Christian Community is unified in faith, unified by love and unified with mission.

·      Faith is our shared foundational experience.

·      Love is our shared operational secret sauce.

·      Mission is our shared existential purpose.

UNITY DEFINED

Why do teams wear uniforms?

·      A uniform represents a unified identity.

·      A uniform represents a unified objective.

·      A uniform communicates a unified sense of belonging.

Uniforms are an expression of unity, not uniformity. Uniforms do not dismiss individuality they leverage it.

Proverbs 27:17 “As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.”

UNITY IS GOD’S TARGET

Psalm 133:1-3 How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity! 2 It is like precious oil poured on the head, running down on the beard, running down on Aaron’s beard, down on the collar of his robe. 3 It is as if the dew of Hermon were falling on Mount Zion. For there the Lord bestows his blessing, even life forevermore.

How good = How profitable

How pleasant = How enjoyable

1. Oil running

2. Dew flowing

An impactful and influential Christian Community is unified in faith, unified by love and unified with mission.

John 13:34 34 “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. 35 By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

John 17:20-26 20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. 25 “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26 I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son that whosoever believed on Him would not die but have eternal life.”

Philippians 2:1-4

Therefore, if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.

Line by line

1. Christ’s love in common

2. No selfish ambition or vain conceit

3. In humility, value

Philippians 2:5-11 5 In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: 6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; 7 rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death— even death on a cross! 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.