West Cocoa Chat

There seems to be in most churches, those “benchmark” events that can steer a church’s destiny for years to come. I know in my own experience and to my knowledge, most of those benchmark events seem to be on the negative side and usually result in folks leaving and churches splitting. I feel like our church had one of those benchmark events this past Saturday but I’m happy to say this one was on the positive / unifying side.

Several weeks ago, several women from our church and 2 local conservative Christian Churches decided to hold a “joint progressive dinner” for the ladies of our 3 respective churches. This group of women met together, planned out their parts of the progressive dinner, and then executed one of the finest acts of unity I’ve been privy to witness.

At 4:30pm this past Saturday, our ladies boarded our church bus and some private vehicles and left for the Christian Church just north of us for salad. They ended up back at our church for the main meal. I and several other guys had been cohered, I mean asked to help serve and cleanup once the ladies left our building to drive to the Christian Church in Merritt Island for desert. It was a most serendipitous occasion as the lasagna and the “blackened” fettuccini Alfredo was some of the best pasta I’ve ever ingested.

105 ladies in all participated in this event. They purposely set at tables with ladies from different congregations so they could get to know one another. When it became time for the ladies to leave they decided to go up to our auditorium to sing a few songs together before they left to drive to the Merritt Island Christian Church for desert. I was helping some of the ladies make the climb in our elevator. When I had made my second trip from our basement (yes, we have a rare Florida Basement in our church) to the floor of the auditorium, I heard the most beautiful sound. The ladies from our church and the two conservative Christian Churches were standing together in the front of our auditorium singing “Blest Be the Ties That Bind.” It was the right song for such an event based on unity.

I couldn’t help but think of Jesus’ prayer for unity in John 17. The entire night was about unity. Does our church and these two conservative Christian Churches agree on every point of doctrine? Of course not. Are they or we going to change any of our beliefs or worship practices because we’ve shared a meal together? No. The entire evening wasn’t about what we disagree on but rather what we have in common; a common savior, a common belief that one needs to be buried in Christ for the forgiveness of sins, a common (sounds like a camp song) love for one another.

I couldn’t help but think that Jesus was smiling for at least a moment as 3 groups of people, who differ in some areas of doctrine and practice, for a moment, were united in their love for each other through a common bond in Jesus.