Mississippi of the Spirit

Praying for Biblical Unity

Photo by Anne Nygård on Unsplash

I’ve grown up in a highly analytical, Word-centered, tradition. I am so grateful for that. The Churches of Christ have a strong thirst for knowledge, and strong hands for service.

Yet, one thing I’ve appreciated since returning to Pepperdine is broader exposure to charismatic Christianity through the student body. While my analytical side has questions to ask about lots of things, I can’t help but admire the vitality and expressiveness of that stream. Over the years, I’ve come to appreciate many other streams of Christianity. This is not to say I believe everything about every stream is biblical. Rather, I’ve come to recognize that the Faith is held in clay jars, and there is at least mild treasure in each.

When I was a graduate student at Pepperdine in the late 1990s, I wrestled mightily with sectarianism. It wasn’t so much that I thought my tribe was the only heaven-bound tribe. Rather, I saw all other traditions as either mildly or fatally flawed. Something inside me knew that couldn’t be completely right. Then in 2001 Richard Foster released a book, called, Streams of Living Water: Celebrating the Great Traditions of Christian Faith. It helped me process my thoughts immensely. In it, he highlights the five major streams of Christianity and celebrates the history and beauty of each stream. Foster helped me rework my sectarianism into a cautious unity. I’ve been a work in progress ever since.

Few areas of Scripture discuss how the Body ought to work together more than 1 Corinthians 11-14. The apostle Paul talks about authority, gifts, love (of course), and expressions of faith. While reading Scripture, my eye stopped here recently: “So what shall I do? I will pray with my spirit, but I will also pray with my understanding; I will sing with my spirit, but I will also sing with my understanding” (1 Cor. 14:15). Paul here encourages us to have regard for one another in how we use our gifts in worship. But he doesn’t say, separate into churches or denominations consistent with your own understandings. God’s will was that they learn to love one another, together (1 Cor. 13).

We really should always pray for biblical unity, as Jesus did. Like…really we should. It is not a parenthetical suggestion by God. It is foundational to pleasing Him. “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3).

In the introduction of Streams of Living Water: Celebrating the Great Traditions of Christian Faith, Richard Foster writes:

“The astonishing new reality in this mighty flow of the Spirit is how sovereignly God is bringing together streams of life that have been isolated from one another for a very long time. This isolation is completely understandable from a historical perspective. Over the centuries some precious teaching or vital experience is neglected until, at the appropriate moment, a person or movement arises to correct the omission. Numbers of people come under the renewed teaching, but soon vested interests and a host of other factors come into play, producing resistance to the renewal, and the new movement is denounced. In time it forms its own structures and community life, often in isolation from other Christian communities. This phenomenon has been repeated many times through the centuries. The result is that various streams of life — good streams, important streams — have been cut off from the rest of the Christian community, depriving us all of a balanced vision of life and faith. But today our sovereign God is drawing many streams together that heretofore have been separated from one another. It is a little like the Mississippi River, which gains strength and volume as the Ohio and the Missouri and many other rivers flow into it. So in our day God is bringing together a mighty “Mississippi of the Spirit.”

I can’t put it any better than that. I am not changing tribes. But I’ve put to death my tribalism. I hope you’ll join me, whatever your tribe.

To the extent it can be done according to God’s will, we should all pray for the Mississippi of Spirit.

Flow, river, flow.