Together In One Accord
Those at Countryside who attended the recent Ministry Forum were able to participate in an exercise of Biblical unanimity. Not that we all thought the same thing going into the forum, or even that we thought the same thing coming out of it, but we shared a common passion, a common goal.
The goal was not some type of mind-lock where everyone thinks the same thing at the same time about everything. That is the outcome one expects to find in certain cults, not in God’s church. The goal was what the Scriptures define as our being of one accord.
In the New Testament, it is first noted in the early church just after our Lord gives the church its mission , “be witnesses of me In Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the ends of the earth”. The disciples retire to the upper room where they were staying, along with other followers of Christ. Act 1:14 records, “ All these with one accord were devoting themselves to prayer, together with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brothers”.
With one accord (Gk. Homothumadon) − Homo means one; the second part of this compound word, thumos, speaks of anger, boiling emotions, or passion. These early believers had one common passion: to do what God had commanded them. How they would accomplish His work would look and feel differently to each one. They would even debate it, as recorded in Acts 15. But they shared the passion to obey and to glorify God.
We see the similar idea in Philippians 2:2 where Paul employs a different Greek word− “complete my joy by being of the same mind, having the same love, being in full accord and of one mind.” Here the idea of one accord means literally having the same spirit. It is hard to miss the unity desired by Paul in this passage−have the same mind, the same love and the same spirit. To put this into a sports metaphor, we are on the same team, we are all moving the ball in the same direction, and our common passion is to win. We will not fight with each other, or work against each other, but, as one, reach the goal together.
The Ministry Forum on February 2nd was a model of this. I would have loved to have visitors, seekers, or other believers experience that process. I would have loved for them to see how God’s people work together to achieve His purpose. While you may have thought there was nothing special about that morning, being of one accord is not as common in God’s church as one would expect. It is one evidence of God’s hand upon this ministry.
We do not know which of the paths discussed and debated in that meeting will be the one God will lead us in, but I am confident when the path is revealed, we, with one accord, will follow it.
− Pastor John Lillie
