Essentially One: Striving for the Unity God Loves

Christian unity is counter-cultural. We are dynamically diverse across cultures, races, denominations and temperaments. Yet together we enjoy all the certainties and privileges of belonging to God and to a reconciled community. We need to confront issues of division, and develop a greater eagerness to grow and maintain unity. This book offers crucial biblical and practical help. It emphasizes the attitudes and practical behaviour that overcome division and enable us to live authentically as the new society which God intends. We are ‘essentially one’, for the sake of God’s honour and glory, and for the global spread of the message of the gospel.

240 pages

Contents

• 1 The God-centred family
• 2 The unified family
• 3 The diverse family
• 4 Difference and division
• 5 Living with difference
• 6 Good disagreement
• 7 Handling conflict
• 8 Managing change
• 9 Living with people
• 10 Christlikeness
• 11 Godly behaviour
• 12 Working together
• Epilogue: Be eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace

A powerful appeal for believers to repent of ungodly divisions and share God’s passion for Christian unity. Jonathan Lamb’s combination of clear biblical teaching and deep pastoral wisdom, forged in years of close engagement with believers from varied cultures and traditions, results in a book that will inspire and challenge in equal measure.

A very well-written must-read for Christians – hopefully all of them – who are concerned at the fact that far too often the church mirrors the sad divisions of a fractured society, and lives in ‘breathtaking disharmony’ rather than maintaining the unity that God has created through Christ.

Jonathan Lamb roots his book in a deep commitment to the authority of Scripture. With clear insight, sensitivity, wit, wisdom and a pastoral heart, using helpfully chosen analogies and illustrations, he brings a lifetime’s experience to bear on illuminating relevant biblical passages. He shows how they are geared to encouraging virtues and patterns of behaviour in Christians that enable them to listen to one another, resolve conflicts, live in harmony and love one another in truth, thus witnessing to the world that they have really been with Jesus.

The questions at the end of each chapter are usefully geared to getting people engaged in understanding and opening up the topic.