Jesus prayed that His church would be one
On the night before He died, Jesus prayed that the church would be one, as He and the Father are one. These were His words:
21that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
John 17:21-23 (NIV)That is the goal. But how can the church be one? There are five levels of unity in the church. We climb them one rung at a time, and by the end you will see what each level looks like and how to recognize it in the churches around you.
Watch it in five minutes
The whole message in five minutes: the prayer of Jesus, the five levels of church unity, and the Conductor who leads them.
5 min 4 s · English captions: use the captions button in the player
Jump to a level
The five levels of church unity
Each level is a rung higher than the one before. Here they are, from the lowest to the highest.
Level 1: Cohesion
Kids riding in a car
Churches, ministries and believers can exist together, without conflict or fighting. A good example is kids riding in a car: picture them in the back seat, staying quiet. They tolerate each other. They might not respect each other, but at least they can live together in peace. They are not playing together and not talking, but nobody is attacking. No fists. No warmth. Just permission. That is cohesion, and it is the lowest level of unity.
Level 2: Solidarity
A vandalised church, and its neighbours
Until now the churches only stayed out of each other’s way. Solidarity is the first time one church’s trouble becomes every church’s business. It is not agreement. It is standing beside a neighbour who is hurt. If one church gets vandalised, the others, different denominations with no shared programs, rush to its defence. They are not united, but they will not let harm land alone.
Level 3: Unity
A shared cleanup day
Here the churches stop only reacting to harm, and start working toward something together: reaching the lost, cleaning up the city. They may rarely meet, but they wish each other success, because when one church reaches someone, the whole town is better for it. Picture a shared cleanup day, where everyone shows up for the same street. Different churches, but one job, one unified goal. Unity does not erase their differences. It joins them in one purpose.
Level 4: Harmony
An orchestra, ready
At this level the churches are not only aiming at the same goal. They are prepared and ready to move as one. Picture an orchestra where every musician is ready together: all on the same page, all in tune, a well-organised team. Or an elite company of soldiers, all trained up, all together, all dressed perfectly, every one of them ready.
Level 5: Symphony
The Conductor steps in front
Harmony made the team ready. Symphony puts a leader in front of it. Symphony is when a master conductor enters the room and takes a well-trained orchestra to places it could not have gone by itself. Or when a general takes charge of an elite company, and they can do operations they could not do on their own. The musicians are the same. The soldiers are the same. What changes is who leads them. For the church, that Master Conductor is Jesus Christ. He is the General of His armies. When a church that is ready follows Him, He takes her places she could not have gone by herself: new lands, new nations, new movements, new gifts.
Step by step, Jesus is perfecting His church. Rung by rung, He is lifting her higher. Jesus will have a church, He will have a beautiful, spotless bride.
Downloads
Everything is in the files folder, in a simple list that works on a phone or a computer: the video, a phone version, the sound alone, captions and subtitles, the transcripts, the pictures and the slides. Tap a name to open a file; the download button at the top of the list (the arrow pointing down) puts a download button next to every file.
Open the files folder Video, sound and captions See the pictures
Slides and infographics
The same message in other forms: a set of slides, two infographics and a slide-show video. They call the levels “stages”.
Infographic: A Ladder to Supernatural Revival
Infographic: From Coexistence to Symphony
Video: The Five Stages of Spiritual Unity
6 min 33 s, 32 MB. A slide-show video of the same teaching.