I believe that a recovery of the spirituality of the church could allow us to enhance and better live in unity, while our diversities may be properly appreciated and don’t seem to undermine that true unity. So, the spirituality of the Church reminds us that our focus needs to be on evangelism and discipleship and living for Christ in our world, understanding that some of us may have some different ideas about the particulars of that.

Unity, Not Uniformity

The spirituality of the church can offer abundant dividends if we use it rightly and don’t misuse it. We’ve seen the misuse of it with the failure to address the evils of slavery in some cases. We don’t want that—what Charles Hodge called the church avoiding her painful responsibilities. What we want, rather, is a good and helpful use of the spirituality of the church.

I think a good and helpful use can be had if the people of God recognize what it is that we especially have in common. We have in common what God’s word says, and many of us believe that that’s also properly summarized in the ecumenical creeds of the faith, as well as Reformed confessions and catechisms of various sorts.

And so if you think about most of us in many of our churches, we have a very large body of agreement. But in some churches, it’s not enough to agree with what the church teaches about what we all believe in terms of God in Christ and salvation. No, it’s almost more like you have to, on the left, you be something like a member of the Democratic Party or hold those positions; or on the right, a member of the Republican Party or something else.

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