One voice...

A brand new year...days just passed off. Didn't even realize how 2009 ended so soon.

Today it was a time of looking ahead for the year, being a first Sunday of 2010. As a church, we wanted to have an agreement on what our goals for 2010 should be.

One voice in church:
In Amos - 3: 3, the prophet writes "Do two men start traveling together without arranging to meet?"
The thought to be applied to today's churches is, we can not do anything unless there is an agreement. There should be one voice in anything that the church does.

In 1 Corinthians - 1:10, Paul writes to the church of Corinth "..may I appeal to all of you, my brothers, to agree in what you say, so that there will be no divisions among you. Be completely united, with only one thought and one purpose."
Paul is writing to church in Corinth at a time when Corinth was a great cosmopolitan Greek city. It was known for the commerce, proud culture, widespread immortality and variety of religions. Doesn't it sound it like many of the cities like we have today? Yes, it is pretty much like all the main cities in the world. So, this message by Paul to church in Corinth very well applies to us as well.
Why is it important to be in agreement and without any divisions in church?

Churches in rural areas have the advantage of having one kind of culture and one ideology. On the contrary, in cosmopolitan cities there are variety of cultures, people from different backgrounds and varied thought processes. Instead of a positive thing as it should be, many a time, it becomes a cause for the slower growth and less productive churches.

We can never reach destiny when traveling in a group and each person pulling in different directions. It is as simple as that. If the entire church doesn't agree on the common goals, it is really difficult to have the same needed burden and it is even more difficult to raise the passionate prayers. If, despite all these differences in people, if church can have one voice, it becomes an awesome blessing.