You Shouldn’t Agree With Everybody at Your Church

I recently got an email from someone in our church that said, “North Creek has changed my life, I love coming, but I’m leaving because I disagree with someone that also attends and I don’t want to see them.”  My first thought, “How is this person EVER going to find a church where they agree with everyone?”

Honestly, I understand the temptation to run away from people that you disagree with.  I think we’ve all ducked into the next aisle at the grocery store to avoid someone at sometime.  We have all attended the family reunion and DREADED the encounter with THAT cousin, aunt, brother, etc.  It’s awful, it’s miserable…it’s life.

If you need to agree with everyone in your church, one of three things are currently true about your life:

• You haven’t been at your church very long.
• You’ll be leaving soon.
• Your church is full of plastic people who don’t have opinions.

At North Creek, the diversity in the crowd might overwhelm you if you really knew what people thought.  We’ve got Democrats, Republicans, atheists, people on all levels of the gay marriage issue, divorced people, homeless people, gossipers, drug addicts, alcoholics, people who don’t like yellow paint (I know, crazy!), people who think we need the music quieter, louder, less drums, more hymns, etc, etc, etc…

We’ve basically got a really nasty disagreement about to happen at any given moment if the right two people get on the same host team.  And if you want to know the truth, that’s what we’re hoping for.

Spiritual maturity isn’t always about agreeing, but rather about learning to communicate, forgive, and love in spite of.   Sure, there are extenuating circumstances where distance might be beneficial, but that is the exception, not the rule for our lives.  Next time you want to run away, have an honest conversation with yourself.  My guess is that you probably need to explore some areas of your heart steeped in unforgiveness, judgmentalness, and self-righteousness.

Surely you agree, right?…