A Share in David

7 min read

16 When all Israel saw that the king refused to listen to them, they answered the king: “What share do we have in David, what part in Jesse’s son? To your tents, Israel! Look after your own house, David!” So the Israelites went home.
— 1 Kings 12:16

Unity and peace are difficult to achieve. Disunity and strife are easy. Disunity is the opposite of community. Community is impossible without unity. A commitment to listening and sharing is the key to unity. When there is a commitment to do the hard work of building community, a commitment to listening and sharing is a must.

But many (if not most) people do not naturally want to work hard to build community. People for the most part need a compelling reason to do so. And even with a compelling reason—the greatest commandment or the great commission, say—it is all too easy to get off course.

When it comes to building community, alignment to a vision is a necessary core value. And when it comes to Christian community, that vision must be aligned to the purpose of God—that is, to fill the earth with His glory in Jesus’s name through God-fearing, God-honoring, God-worshiping, God-loving communities and families, the church.

Churches struggle and fall apart either because (1) there is no vision, (2) whatever vision there may be is not aligned to the purpose of God for His people, (3) whatever vision there may be is not being communicated effectively (that is, repeatedly), or (4) the people as a whole refuse to be aligned to whatever vision there may be.

There may be some other reasons too.

But if there is a vision, and if that vision is aligned to the purpose of God given to us in His word, and if that vision is being communicated repeatedly, then the only reason for a church to struggle and fall apart is because the people as a whole, for whatever reason, refuse to be aligned to the vision.

And if that is the case, then it is critical for that “community” to understand why and then to fix the problem that is causing that refusal.

It is possible that the pastor of that church is simply not likable. Maybe the pastor has a vision and that vision is biblical and he shares it repeatedly, but he just has terrible hygiene, or terrible breath, or terrible people skills, or just refuses to listen to people. Or maybe he’s just a bad-to-below-average preacher.

Of course, if a pastor refuses to listen to people, the people might rightly wonder if his vision is really for the glory of God for his own personal glory. I feel like I meet a lot of pastors who are like this. But I don’t think they even realize it. They genuinely think they are in it for the glory of God, but their words and actions and attitude show that personal glory is really what is motivating them. And I believe that God deals with them accordingly—sooner or later.

Ever since God called me into full-time ministry, He started developing a vision and a message in my heart. It basically took about sixteen years—eight of those years at GCC—for that message to develop into a vision of house church ministry here. Thank God that y’all didn’t boot me out before that vision came to fruition!

But here’s what I think that God has been doing here—not just with me but with all of us. He was training and equipping us to be aligned to Him through His word by being aligned to one another in love so that we could be aligned to a biblical vision of witness for His glory.

And God is not done with us yet. The key is alignment.

Father, I am amazed at all that You have done in my life and in my family and in this Canvas family. I marvel at what You are doing now, and I am filled with a powerful hope of what You will continue to do in us and through us. Bring us all in line with You, because we are a stubborn people. Help us to be aligned with one another. And fulfill Your ongoing vision for us and align us to that vision. In Jesus’s name. Amen.