There are few problems more challenging than the problems that come because people cannot get along with one another. The problem exists almost everywhere in the world of human relationships, but it is especially accentuated in the spiritual family among those who are supposed to be able to get along with one another.
The problem must be probed. It is that people cannot get along with one another? or that they do not want to? or that they refuse to? or that they do not know how? Each situation is different. The church will not grow until it thinks outside itself and invests more energy in developing relationships of understanding and acceptance. The church will be impotent as long as one group refuses to attend a certain activity because another group is going to be there, as long as I refuse to go where my estranged brother is present, as long as I refuse to communicate and pray together and attempt understanding.
Shamefully, we North Americans have imported our problem to Latin America. In a culture that has historically been built on meaningful personal interactions and strong interpersonal relationships, we have taught suspicion, exclusivity, and competition. We have walled off little groups with loyalty and allegiance to us more than to the Lord. We pay lip service to unity but preach and practice division. In nations where the church must register with the government, we do not register as a single unified body of Christ, but we register as two or three or half a dozen groups. We refuse to support and attend activities beyond our own little circle. We speak against and tear down and work against the progress of brothers and sisters who are also trying to help people know Jesus and go to heaven.
Further, this is “the elephant in the board room.” We refuse to acknowledge that it happens, we refuse to talk about it, we refuse to talk to one another about solutions and establishing relationships of understanding. Until we open lines of communication, we will not understand. And until we understand, we will remain hopelessly divided and fail to be the salt and light we are called to be. While we seek to be protected and accepted, we have little or no impact nor influence on the rest of the world journeying to condemnation, and we are of all people are most selfish and to be pitied.