That We May Be One: Practicing Unity in a Divided Church

Transcending divisions and healing the broken Body of Christ. 

Disunity is a reality within churches today. Left unaddressed, political disagreements and racial inequities can fester into misunderstanding, resentment, and anger. But often the act of addressing this discord prompts further animosity, widening fissures into gaping fault lines between fellow members of the same community. 

Gary Agee, a pastor well-versed in leading diverse congregations, reflects here on the roots of division within the church and the virtues and practices that can promote the restoration of unity. With disarming honesty and humility, Agee offers sage advice gleaned from Scripture and years of practical experience to show how we might fulfill Jesus’s prayer on behalf of the church: “That all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. . . . That they may be one as we are one.” At the end of each chapter, Agee includes exercises, discussion questions, and suggested practices, providing a concrete path to unity through dialogue and action.

 

Gary B. Agee is lead pastor of the Beechwood Church of God in Camden, Ohio, and serves as affiliated faculty at Anderson University's School of Theology and Christian Ministry. Having previously taught church history at Anderson, he is also the author of A Cry for Justice: Daniel Rudd and His Life in Black Catholicism, Journalism, and Activism, 1854–1933 and?Daniel Rudd: Calling a Church to Justice.