Unity seems to be a key theme that's popping up around UCAN. To clarify…..disunity might be a more accurate description.
Several churches have been using our Churchworkers.net (CWN) HR support service for assistance with team conflict and disunity. UCAN team members have been in conversation with many in the UCAN network who are having trouble with line managers, or team members. Only 2 minutes on social media exposes us to the severe disunity which is playing out at the denominational level currently - for a variety of reasons and across a breadth of churchmanship.
If the gospel witness of the church links with John 13: 35 '…by this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another,' then we could extrapolate that our churches and perhaps even THE church is struggling to be an effective witness because of a lack of unity - and love - these days.
So, how can WE respond? You may have noticed that the UCAN team will offer support, advice and try to assist members who are struggling in this area. We'll also teach into this, and it's a recurring theme in our events. For those of you who attended July's Manager Member Virtual Roundtable, Jonny Barham shared an excellent 'thought for the day' on Unity (thanks Jonny!).
How can 'I' respond? Is perhaps the even better question. This is where opportunity lies. Unity is not uniformity. We are different, and in many areas, we'll hold different views on things. We're not called to group think and to be identical - that's a cult not church! However, we are called to be able to love and respect one another, alongside being able to debate, disagree and find a way forward together when things get rough. We're also called to place Jesus in the centre of all things and focus on Him as priority.
I LOVED worshipping with >100 UCAN Manager Members at the Cutting-Edge conference recently. I’m sure that we could have found several things to debate and disagree on if we’d put our minds to it, but our focus was to worship Jesus together and to encourage and build one another up intentionally. It reminded me of Psalm 33:1 ‘How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity’ - it was indeed good and pleasant and felt unified around valuing administration, and more importantly around surrendering to and worshipping Christ.
But sometimes we can kid ourselves we’re living in unity, when we’re simply enabling unhealthy conflict and disagreement to go underground. Some on our teams roll up their sleeves and enjoy debate - perhaps shutting down others in the process. There are far more who remain silent in open disagreement, but passive aggressively gossip their disagreement outside of the meeting room, undermining others and shattering team.
Working towards unity doesn’t involve an absence of disagreement but rather intentional love and good relationship care amidst working out our differences. And this takes work, selflessness, speaking up kindly, listening carefully and intentionally, and being willing to prefer the other over winning the battle and being right. This is the better way, but without doubt the harder way!
As much as my flawed character longs to be proved right during disagreement, when I look at my Lord Jesus, increasingly these days I find he smiles, calls me to take up his cross and to prefer the other – often at cost to me. This sort of stuff isn’t easy, or there wouldn’t be any disunity in our church teams!
Sometimes taking up our cross means having a difficult conversation directly with the person who has hurt us, so that we can both learn, repair relationship and move on. Sometimes that means shutting up, holding our viewpoint more lightly and listening more deeply. Sometimes, that means simply admitting we don’t have the answer - and yes some of us really struggle with that!
I don’t have the answer to the current disagreement you’ve got with your line manager, or within your team, church or denomination. I can’t help you win with the position that you’re so sure is right. But I can invite you to join me in playing your part to enable unity around you.
Playing our part means taking the opportunity to get in the right position. Are we going on the attack, sleeves rolled up, ready to blast our opponent and win?
Or, are we going to position ourselves kneeling before Jesus? Will we take a beat to surrender, confess the struggle and ask for His love to fill us? From that position we've got more chance of being able to disagree well, move towards others with gentleness, grace and open hands, and to find a way towards unity together in Christ.
I'm learning to take the opportunity to kneel more often...will you come and join me?
For you.
Jules Morgan
UCAN Director