When Aaron Boydston got sick— really sick—his network stepped up. Aaron is the youth ministry pastor at Ojai Valley Wesleyan Church in Ojai, Calif., a small city about an hour northwest of Los Angeles. He was diagnosed with leukemia in May 2006, and his condition was very serious. Aaron and his wife, Natalie, have two small children.
With the Boydstons’ attention absorbed in rounds of debilitating chemotherapy, while also caring for their own children, who would shepherd the 20-30 teenagers in their church youth group?
It was time to circle the wagons. Aaron was very involved in the Ojai Network, which is one of 900 regional networks affiliated with the National Network of Youth Ministries. The Ojai Network is coordinated by Ryan Connell, the youth pastor at an Assembly of God church. As Aaron and Natalie saw their medical expenses mount quickly, the members of the Network immediately involved the churches in the community, sponsoring fundraisers to help them.
But that didn’t take care of Aaron’s youth group. The senior pastor at Ojai Valley Wesleyan, Lynn Thomas, approached Ryan Connell. and He asked, “What can we do?”
Among the committed volunteers at Ryan’s AG church was a young couple, Tommy and Vanessa Wilson. Tommy worked in construction while training to be a fireman, and Vanessa was an elementary school teacher. God prompted Ryan with a win-win idea. He sensed the Wilsons were ready for a challenge, and the Wesleyan church had a screaming need for leadership.
What if Tommy and Vanessa shepherded Aaron’s youth group while he was focused on his cancer treatment?
Ryan and Lynn Thomas worked out a four-month agreement with the leadership of the Wesleyan church, which was later extended another four months to January 2007.
In a show of support and affirmation, the Church of the Living Christ (the Assembly church) commissioned the Wilsons in a morning service for their ministry at Ojai Valley Wesleyan. Tommy and Vanessa led the Wesleyan church youth services on Sundays and Wednesdays. The youth groups also partnered to do camps and events together.
Aaron was able to sporadically attend some youth group events between rounds of chemotherapy. Knowing that his youth are being cared for gave him hope and encouragement.
“The experience has really stretched and grown Tommy and Vanessa,” said Ryan. “They learned to deal with style and doctrinal issues in a sensitive way.”
It’s good to know your Network has “got your back”!
The Case for Community
In Acts 2:43-44, Luke recorded that because of the early church’s commitment to community, “everyone kept feeling a sense of awe” and that they “had all things in common” (NASB).
Such radical expressions of unity and selflessness are refreshing but rare today. But if we are as serious about unity, cooperation and community as Scripture tells us we should be, then it wouldn’t be rare at all. In fact, authentic unity would be the norm, not the exception—which it currently is. And the culture would be in awe of the church—which it currently is not.
Having been committed to networking in my ministry since about 1980, I thought I had a grasp of the biblical instruction about unity and community from passages like Ecclesiastes 4, where Solomon wrote, “Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. For if either of them falls, the one will lift up this companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up. … [I]f one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart” (Eccl. 4: 9, 10, 12).
It made perfect sense to me: In Bible math, one plus one is greater than two.
But when I more thoroughly studied what God’s Word teaches about unity, I was stunned. I found that unity is not window dressing or an option for the church. Instead, I saw three truths that rocked me:
1) Unity is rooted in the Trinity. In Jesus’ prayer in John 17, He interceded for us who would “believe in [Him] through [His disciples’] word” (v. 20). John 17 records only one issue Jesus mentioned more than once. He prayed three timesthat “they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us” (v. 21) … “that they may be one, just as We are one” (v. 22) … and again “that they may be perfected in unity” (v. 23).
Two things jump out at me from this. First is that our expression of unity should be a reflection of the unity of the Godhead. That moves the issue to a foundational level of my faith right away. It’s more important than pre-Trib, post-Trib, predestination or postmodernism. The Ojai Network story is remarkable, partly because a Wesleyan church and a Pentecostal church could set aside their doctrinal differences when kids’ spiritual lives lay in the balance.
Second, Jesus tells us the reason we are to reflect unity: “so that the world may believe that You sent Me” (v. 21) and “so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me” (v. 23). Evangelism hinges on unity. I think it’s fair to also say that, conversely, people won’t find Christ like they should if we refuse to work together.
The success of the Great Commission depends on the church working together. The same can be said regarding the Great Commandment. Jesus prayed that “the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them” (v. 26). Love, too, is a reflection of the Divine.
Mike Higgs, the executive director of the Portland (Oregon) Youth Foundation, sums it up well: “Love and Unity are a REALLY big deal to God; one of the reasons being that love and unity are reflections of the character of the Trinity. In addition to the many unfathomable truths about the triune God, a few are clear: The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are consumed by, and define for us, true love and unity.”
2) Ministry effectiveness depends on cooperation. For those who are more motivated by the practical over the theoretical, the Ecclesiastes 4 passage cited earlier rings true. I’m inclined that way myself. Ministry done together strategically multiplies our effectiveness.
It’s also wise, if we want to finish the race. Not only is the “Bible math” principle compelling, but linking with others in relationships will probably save our bacon at some point. On the road of life, Solomon pointed out, our wheels will eventually end up in a ditch. We all get in trouble sometime. Who’s going to pull you out of the ditch when it’s your turn? All this wisdom points to a lifestyle characterized by deep interpersonal relationships, vulnerability and intentional cooperation. Only pride could stand in the way.
Mike Higgs points out how important prayer and relationship are to unity: “love and unity are part of His purpose in creating us—so that He might share with us the intimate Trinitarian expression of love and unity. Which is why true spiritual unity is best cultivated in the crucible of united prayer; for it is there, in the context of relationships, that our love and unity receive Divine impetus, sanction and blessing.”
3) We belong to one church in many congregations. God’s design for the church is that it have a united, community-wide expression and identity. In my study, I quickly found seven passages from Paul’s letters in the New Testament that spoke clearly to unity and community (see margin). A common denominator among these passages is that they were addressed to the church of a city—not a single congregation. To receive and apply these principles only within a congregational setting would be taking them out of context.
It is certainly true that unity should be a priority within a congregation. But that was not the context of the letters Paul wrote. The church met in houses or synagogues, but the letters were addressed to ALL the believers in the city—not just one building.
It makes a difference how we read a verse like 1 Corinthians 1:10 from a “citywide-church” perspective. “Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment.”
How can we draw lines based on what one congregation or denomination believes as long as we agree on the historic tenets of Christian orthodoxy? The Psalmist (119:63) said, “I am a companion to all who fear You.” We don’t have to agree with another youth worker on every point of doctrine. Men or women; Baptists or Pentecostal; black, white, Asian, Native American or Hispanic—it shouldn’t matter.
I believe Rupertus Meldenius had it right in 1627 when he said, “In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.”
Doug Clark (dclark@nnym.org) is Director of Field Ministries for the National Network of Youth Ministries in San Diego, California. Doug was a youth pastor at an Evangelical Friends church for 16 years before joining the Network staff in 1990. He graduated from Fuller Seminary. Besides helping youth workers cooperate to reach teenagers in their cities, Doug helps coordinate promotion for See You at the Pole, a movement of students praying for their schools. He is married to Debbie and has a daughter and a son.
