What Causes Church Disunity?

Starting a church is energizing, exciting and stressful. Maintaining, no, growing a church is completely different from starting a church. When starting a church everyone is unified because there is a clear end goal. Discomforts could exist because it was a journey, but now that the goal has been reached there seems to be more disunity in the church. How did it come to this? Why is there disunity in your church?

1 Corinthians 1:10 I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought.

5 Things That Cause Disunity in the Church

Below are 5 things that cause disunity in the church. Believe it or not, they are not all sin issues, some are simply overlooked because it is “how we’ve always done it” mindsets.

1) Lack of Communication

This problem runs rampant within churches. Internal communication is something that is overlooked because it seems like it can be fixed with coffee and a conversation. As a church grows there isn’t enough coffee or conversation, or time to continue running a church by word of mouth.

1 Corinthians 1:10 says to “be perfectly united in mind and thought”, in order for that to happen you must know what the other person is thinking. It is no wonder in James that we are told to confess our sins to one another. If we are able to grow our connection within the church and be willing to lay our sins in front of each other, then we should not have a problem communicating. So talk about it. Ensure your relational communication is honest and clear, and then on the side of church functionality, make communication easy. Make it easy? How?

By creating clear processes for communication in the church you will succeed in:

• Saving Yourself Time
• Create Clear Expectations
• Have Clearly Documented Communication

All of these will result in increased unity within your church. At Christ Link, we have a marketing process that helps set up internal communication processes to help your church become more unified as well as your message. If your internal communication is not unified, then your external communication will not be unified.

2) Lack of Direction

So there may be great communication processes within your church, but is anything being said? Without direction, a church is bound to be pulled a million different directions by different people within the church (especially the loud people). By making a clear path and direction, or mission, there will be a clear vision and expectation. This vision allows the leadership to acknowledge other members of the church’s personal vision and then ask how it aligns with the vision of the church as a whole. Allowing for people to not have hurt feelings, but to recognize we must move forward towards the goal of the church as a whole.

3) Lack of Expectations

While this was mentioned in the previous two reasons, it is of vital importance on its own. If there are no expectations, the body of believers will not rise to an expectation and will not follow the expectation that fails to exist. Each part of the body will “do its own thing”. If our human bodies acted in disunity we will quickly fall apart.

4) Lack of Focus on God and His Truth

• Sin Issues

  Sin in the Church is a common source of disunity in the church. These issues can be from gossip, pride and fear or even sin issues with compromising the word of God to cater to the world. Let’s be honest. When looking at things that can cause division in the church, they all come down to sin issues. Sin issues are a result of lacking depth in your faith and relationship with Christ. All of these issues should be dealt with swiftly and carefully. Prayer before action is a must, but if it is a sin issue, it is like a poison arrow is in your side. Yes, it will hurt a lot pulling it out, but if you don’t remove the sin it will surely kill you.

• Lack of Prayer

  Do you pray for your Church? Before Googling about disunity in the church, did you pray without ceasing for your church’s unity? Do you pray in the good times and the bad? And most of all, do you give praise to God because he answers those prayers? Or, do you give Him praise when he doesn’t answer your prayers?

• Lack of Relationship with God

  In connection with prayer, are you investing with your relationship with God? As leaders in the church, we have a habit of placing problems on our own shoulders, taking on projects and tasks last minute because of our own pride and self-worth. A truly unified and effective church would continue growing and become stronger if the leadership were to all die in an instance. This is because we are unified in Christ, not in the leaders or pastors.

I remember hearing a lesson by Ravi Zacharius (I think) where he spoke of a church who loved their pastor but wasn’t growing spiritually. Their pastor would go up the hill and speak with God, then he would come back down and tell them what God had said. They loved and thanked the pastor for such a great message. What the church family failed to realize is that they could go up the hill to the source, to God. As church leaders, we need to stop pointing at ourselves and point towards God.

5) Your Church is More of A Club or Business

If your church lacks focus on Biblical truth you have become a club or business. It is interesting how a church that compromises the word of God for the world suddenly sees a drop in loyalty and growth. This is because by aligning yourself with the world you have made your organization insignificant. If this is your church, you must pursue God first, not the world.

A Healthy Church

A healthy church is a body (1 Corinthians 12:12-27). And a healthy body functions from the largest organ to the smallest fingernail. In order for the body to function each cell must work in unity. Think of each person as a cell. And their relationship with Christ must be healthy for the whole body to be healthy.

“No vital Christianity is possible unless at least three aspects of it are developed. These three are the inner life of devotion, the outer life of service, and intellectual life of rationality.” – Elton Trueblood

Not only does each person in the Church need these three aspects to function, but the Church as a whole needs to function as a Christian, a “vital Christianity” as Elton Trueblood puts it. Does your Church have an inner life of devotion? Do you have an outer life of service? Does your Church have an outer life of rationality? All three grow together. Help your Church to grow their relationship with God, help them by providing opportunities to serve their local community and educate them on the word of God and how God has revealed himself through the Bible.

But why are you asking me? Learn about unity in the Church from the Bible, here are some Bible verses about unity that will help you get started.

None of These Forms of Disunity Fit Your Church?

If none of the listed problems seem to be a problem, maybe you are going through growing pains, but lacking the capabilities to sustain the growth. When a body grows it needs vitamins and food to keep growing. Outside help is a great way to assist your Church. Contact Christ Link to increase the unity within your church and improve your internal and online communication.