It’s a new school year and a new beginning. It was a refreshing summer break. Perhaps you went on a mission trip with your church back home. You are stirred to see the campus know Jesus. But upon your return you are bombarded with what seems to be a million voices chanting the same thing:
Join our church!
Visit our fellowship!
Come to our campus ministry!
This doesn’t seem right. Your attention is being demanded by every Christian organization in close proximity. Something must be done. Then, a new idea pops into your head:
The Body of Christ must unite on our campus… And I’m going to do everything to make it happen!
Surely this must be uncharted territory. How is it nobody thought of this before? This groundbreaking idea sounds so good it must be the Lord’s prompting. But is it? I want to explore the idea of unity, how it can be misrepresented and how to experience true unity in its fullness.
Unity was not your idea.
I have been involved in student ministry for nearly a decade. I have traveled to over 60 campuses across the nation. Students come and go. There is something special about stepping onto your campus for the very first time with a fire and passion for Jesus. You feel like you can take on the world. But what about the campus ministries who have been there for 10, 20 or 30 years? Is it safe to assume these leaders have lost their zeal? Absolutely not! These leaders have been faithful to go where the Lord has led them – to your campus to train and equip the next wave that comes through. Every single year, new students come on campus with the noblest intentions to “bring unity”. It is with a pure heart. But it is often lacking regard to those campus ministry leaders who have been laboring for many years prior. The blame easily falls on them for dropping the ball with unity. But we must remember, unlike an established church whose members may stay for decades, a campus ministry is cycling students through in a very short amount of time. One campus ministry may be able to reach the students another campus ministry cannot. Believe it or not, these established leaders often respect one another and their place on the campus. Just as Jesus said, “For he who is not against us is for us." (Mark 9:40)
There is a false perception of unity.
25,000 students have filled your school’s football stadium. The lights are down, hands are raised, and everyone sings in unison to the words being displayed on the giant screens. The speaker gets up and rallies everyone in a battle cry for their campus. Sounds epic. But when the next day arrives, everything goes back to the way it was. Classes resume. Homework abounds. Pizza and Ramen noodles for every meal. College life proceeds as it has always been. You see, perhaps every Christian ministry in the area attended, but no one on the outside knows any different. And those filling the seats at the event aren’t any more equipped to share the Gospel than they were before. There’s something about large gatherings that feel good. I’m not saying they’re necessarily bad. But they are not the end goal. In fact, these can unknowingly be considered a one-off. It takes a lot of work, time, effort and money to pull something like this off. Can big meetings serve a purpose? Yes. But does it truly bring unity? No. Whether three churches come under one tent for a revival meeting or every campus ministry rallies all their students for a gathering, it does not create unity.
Doesn’t unity get a response from heaven?
Have you ever been to a large unity gathering and heard this rhetoric?
Open the heavens!
Pour out your Spirit!
Bring revival, Lord!
These words have polluted praise and worship music for far too long – written from the Old Covenant side of the cross. But often, unity meetings are an attempt to get heaven to respond to an outcry.
If we get enough people united together to sing the same songs and say the same prayer, maybe God will hear from heaven and we’ll finally convince Him to do something.
But God has done something! The truth is, heaven has heard. Heaven has responded. Maybe this isn’t about unity in the Body. Perhaps, this is about your union with Christ. You are united with Him. Unity begins with a revelation: It is finished.
For whatever does not originate and proceed from faith is sin (Romans 14:23) and without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). How many of these gatherings are in vain because it is an attempt to get a response from God? If we are gathering to “bring the presence” or “call down revival”, then we lack the revelation of Christ in us. The heavens aren’t just open – you are seated there now (Ephesians 2:6)! His Spirit has been poured out (Acts 2). You are a living, breathing, walking revival because you were co-crucified, co-buried, and co-raised with Christ as a brand new creation (Romans 6:1-14, II Corinthians 5:17). The fullness of the Godhead – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – is in Christ (Colossians 2:9-10). And now it is Christ in you, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:27). If God gave you anymore of Himself, heaven would be bankrupt! If we are gathering together to “contend” for something, then we need a revelation of the finished work of the cross. He has contended for us and given us everything we need. Shift your gaze from the large unity gatherings and onto yourself – who you are in Him. Your union with Him is the perfect picture of unity.
Let them be one as we are one.
Those infamous words of Jesus in John 17 beg the question: How were the Father and Son one? Answer: The Holy Spirit. It wasn’t until after Jesus was baptized in the Holy Spirit that His powerful supernatural ministry began on earth. After Jesus ascended, He baptized believers with the Holy Spirit, just as He promised in John 16:7. This was done with the specific purpose of empowering His followers to do the works He did and greater – to be His witnesses at home and abroad (John 14:12, Acts 1:8). If you are in a courtroom, a witness is someone who can afford evidence. The Holy Spirit empowers us to afford evidence that testifies of Jesus, who He is and what He has done. He confirms His Word with signs and wonders following (Mark 16:20).
We don’t believe in healing.
Miracles were just for the early church.
The gifts of the Spirit ceased with the Apostles.
Seek the Giver, not the gifts.
Many will go out of their way to avoid the Holy Spirit. A belief that is contrary to the active power of the Holy Spirit is actually more of a state of unbelief than faith. The Apostle Paul tells us to eagerly desire the gifts of the Spirit. And many do. They don’t have to seek the Giver for the gifts. The Giver found them! And there may always be those on the other side of the spectrum who do not desire the gifts of the Spirit and dismiss His place in their lives to partake in a supernatural life. I may never change the minds of cessationists. But I don’t believe the unity we’ve been searching for can ever happen as long as members of the Body of Christ reject the third person of the Trinity in their lives. If I press pause on a supernatural life to appease a few, I’ve forsaken my first love. Without Holy Spirit, unity cannot and will not be a reality.
Unity is great, but it's not the doorway to transformation.
Instead of wasting precious time trying to build unity on the campus, let it be the byproduct of your Holy Spirit saturated life. Instead of making it the primary goal, make the Great Commission your daily walk. Heal the sick, pray with people on the streets, encourage them, speak words of life to your peers and be Jesus to everyone in your life. Let your union with Christ be all the unity you'll ever need. Because in Him is your satisfaction. Forever. Drink from Him and you'll never thirst again. Unity by itself does not open the doors for transformation. But Jesus is the door. He came full of grace and truth. He is the Truth.
And like my good friend once told me, “Never forsake the Truth for unity.”
