When we confess in the Apostles’ Creed, “I believe in the holy catholic Church and the communion of saints,” we are affirming that all who believe Jesus Christ is Lord belong to one Church in Him. The Church is called to fulfill the Great Commission as one body. Therefore, we must reject the selfishness of individual church and denomination. Throughout my ministry, I have tried to live out this conviction. Whether by supporting local church associations or faithfully contributing 100 percent—and often more—to my denomination’s apportionment, I have done my best to strengthen the unity of Christ’s Church.
Yet today, I feel that both American society and the Church are moving in the opposite direction. Instead of valuing unity, we increasingly embrace division. Within the Korean immigrant community, it has become common to categorize people through the lens of Korean political ideology, dividing them into “right” and “left.” Sadly, since the separation of The United Methodist Church and the Global Methodist Church, it has become all too easy for people to speak negatively of one another instead of seeking understanding.
Not long ago, the Southern Baptist Convention decided to remove churches that recognize women as pastors. As a result, Rick Warren’s well-known Saddleback Church was expelled from the denomination. My point is not to debate that decision. Rather, I grieve that we seem to be living in an age that is increasingly eager to divide instead of to embrace.
Human beings naturally gather with those who think like themselves. But when that instinct becomes group self-interest and destructive exclusion, everyone suffers. When the Church falls into the same pattern, it ceases to be what Christ intended it to be and grieves the heart of God.
What our world desperately needs today is the spirituality of embracing differences.
If the Church has a smaller heart than the world, the world will never find hope in the Church. None of us possesses the whole truth. Conservatives do not contain the fullness of the gospel, and progressives do not fully express the Kingdom of God. Christ alone is our center.
The future of the Church does not lie in gathering only those who think alike. It lies in bringing together people with differences to kneel together before the same cross.