A Field Guide for Genuine Community
How can we be in a unified community, with people who are unlike us?
One of the hardest aspects of God’s church is his call to live in unity with others. I try to imagine first-century church gatherings, which were often small groups of people trying to figure out this new, life-changing faith. They know theologically that in Christ, every dividing wall is broken: Jew and Gentile, male and female, slave and free . . . and while the counter-cultural reality of God’s work is amazing, it was just that: counter-cultural! It must have been hard for people of various backgrounds, genders, age, socio-economic, and ethnic divides, to operate as “one,” especially when the world around them kept them separate.
But that’s how God has always operated! He is less glorified in uniformity, when everything is or becomes exactly the same. Rather, God is more glorified in unity—which is when things that are different celebrate their differences, and bring those differences together for his purposes. That’s unity, and it’s been part of God’s design since the first chapter of Genesis.
“God is more glorified in unity—which is when things that are different celebrate their differences, and bring those differences together for his purposes.”
The opening chapters of the Bible are primarily a celebration of God and his power, seen through crafting literally everything that exists, out of literally nothing. Genesis 1 and 2 describe a world without sin—a perfect world as God intended it, and we must remember that anytime we read these chapters. Though we cannot comprehend an unbroken garden, unmarred relationship, and unadulterated creation, this is the setting of Genesis’s creation account. Light, water, land, every celestial being, every animal on earth, and so forth, all came into existence at God’s spoken word, over seven “days” (or “ages”), and existed perfectly together for the glory of their Creator. At the end of each “day,” Genesis tells us that God declared his creation “good” (Gen. 1:10, 12, 18, 21, 25).
Every single thing in days one through five of God’s creation was itself good. But every single thing in God’s creation was not the same as everything else, even other things created on the same day. Birds, for example, were distinct from fish; land was different than water. While everything in God’s creation was good, everything also had a specific place. In other words, each thing God created in Genesis 1 was immensely valuable, and each glorified him. And also, there were distinctions between all those different things God created: so each glorified him, not despite those distinctions but because of, and in, those distinctions. In days one through five of God's creation, unified and distinct things completed each other.
In making things distinct, God’s creativity was put on display: the array of amazing colors, shapes, attributes, and noises in creation is beyond stunning. In making distinct things work together, God’s sovereign goodness was put on display: each intricate detail of many things, perfectly coming together and glorify him, is beyond compare. In bringing unified purpose in distinct elements of creation, God’s trinitarian nature was put on display: a great mystery of the Christian faith is that God exists in 100% within Godself and God’s work, but that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit have unique roles and purposes within that unified work.
What we see in the first five days of creation is that God is not glorified by uniformity—by everything being the same or by minimizing differences between created things. Instead, like a beautiful orchestra comprised of dozens of instruments, God is glorified as we embrace the beautiful distinctions he put in creation, and see those distinct things work in unity and concert.
God is glorified as each unique element of creation fulfills the distinct purpose for which God created it, while simultaneously working with every other unique element of creation for the unified work of glorifying God. God is glorified as we acknowledge differences and break down walls between similarly opposite things, and see them work together for the glory of God.
Light is different from darkness and both have a beautiful place in the rhythm God instilled in the world. Day is different from night but both have a vital purpose in the purpose God instilled in the galaxy. Land is different from water, and both have an amazing but unique role to play in the sovereign plan of God for the earth. And at the end of each day of creation, God looked at these distinct but unified elements he had created and declared his work in each, “good.”
“God is glorified as we embrace the beautiful distinctions he put in creation, and see those distinct things work in unity and concert.”
It shouldn’t be a surprise that day six of creation follows the pattern of days one through five. In Genesis 1:26, God the Father says to God Son and God the Spirit, “Let us make man [literally, “humans; mankind”] in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
Notice the plurality in the verse: a Triune God declared his purpose to create a new entity, who—unlike anything else in his creation—would all be in the image and likeness of that Triune God. This new entity would reflect the heart and attributes of that Triune God to the rest of the earth. In its completed fullness, this newly created thing would be the Triune God’s steward, ruling everything else in creation. What would this new entity—with such a high calling—be named? Not a singular “man” or a singular “woman,” but “mankind” or “humans.” Plural. Distinct but united. Two sides of one coin, referred to as truly one, and also referred to by its unique sides, just like its Creator. To reflect and reproduce the image of a distinct but united three-in-one God, required a plurality of distinct but united people.
From that moment on, God created individual humans—each unique and different, in every way imaginable, and all in his image and for his glory. We display our triune God when our differences work together for his united purpose. We see that in the construction of the tabernacle, and in the different roles people play throughout history. We see it in the “body” imagery of Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12, as we all admit our need for other “parts” and as we bring our gifts to the table for mutual upbuilding.
Unity is hard, but part of the difficulty is that it’s misunderstood: rather than trying to make others think/act/worship/look/be like us, maybe the first step is celebrating how they think/act/worship/look/are, being shaped by them, and learning how their differences can come together with yours, for the glory of God. That is, after all, the purpose of community.
Adapted from A Field Guide for Genuine Community: 25 Days and 101 Ways to Move from Façade to Family by Ben Connelly (© 2021). Published by Moody Publishers. Used by permission.
Ben Connelly is Director of Training for Saturate and Soma, leads Plant Fort Worth, and is co-planting Salt+Light Community. He and Jess met doing student ministry in Waco, Texas, then moved to Fort Worth where they planted The City Church (Acts 29 / Soma) in 2009. Now, after over 20 years serving local churches together, they train disciple-makers and planter couples across the world, as well as churches and organizations with a desire for sending. You can find more of his work at benconnelly.net.