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Disunity in Christ ch. 10

Chapter 10 of disunity in Christ does a good job of wrapping all the chapters together and closing out the book. Christena Cleveland brings up many reasons that unifying into one larger group can erase a lot of the bad feelings that we struggle with today amongst different groups. She emphasizes the importance of maintaining different cultural backgrounds because it is biblical and it is something everyone should be proud of. I like this final chapter and can agree with a lot of what she said. Becoming we instead of they causes for groups to build each other up and grow closer to one another. A good example is the senior all state games at the end of many sports seasons. Often teams are rivals throughout much of the season and have very little good to say about each other. However, when they are put on a team together they can focus on one main goal and they come together as a team on their own. Our faith works in much the same way. We may always hold some sort of grudge or uncomfort...
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Disunity in Christ Ch. 8 and 9

Chapters 8 and 9 deal with different conflicts in the church such as unity and disunity among different cultural groups and different denominations. Cleveland points out many differences however, the main idea of chapter 8 is that it is ok to have different religious views even within the same denomination. One scholar pointed out that none of us are God so we do not know exactly what is right or wrong in his eyes making it harder to know exactly how to treat each situation. Some Christians are more reserved and focus on individual Christian values while others find it more important to focus on unity amongst the entire collective church. In reality, both are important and feed off each other to help us grow in our faith and further the kingdom. Chapter 9 deals with unity among different ethnic groups and cultures. Often times we get caught up in disliking other groups simply because they are different then us but cleveland makes an emphasis on coming together to serve one specific pu...
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Disunity in Christ Ch.6+7

Chapters 6 and 7 in Disunity in Christ were very interesting and applicable chapters. We as humans always try to make ourselves look better even if it is at the expense of other groups. The chapter primarily talks about putting others down as our primary means of building ourselves up. I find this to be very true especially with very competitive families. I am very closely involved with a family in the area that is very competitive. They are local farmers who are very good at what they do in terms of not only running the whole operation but running individual equipment. Because of this, I always find myself trying to make myself look better just so that I can feel as if I fit in. This sometimes comes in the form of trying ot make others look bad and make myself look better. I do this so that it seems as if I fit in skills wise with them. Comparing this to Christianity, I would be failing significantly if I did this with issues based on a person's actual worth and especially if it h...
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Disunity in Christ is a very interesting book. I like how Christena Cleveland points out the faults in herself seemingly right away. In chapter one she talks primarily about right vs. wrong Christians. I found this idea very influential because I myself often look down on others who do not do things exactly as I think they should. In my head I sometimes put them down and think they cannot be true Christians for acting or believing in the way that they do. However, Cleveland does a good job here of showing that there is no perfect way to be a Christian. We can all be Christians simply by believing in God but the day to day processes we do are not for us to judge or worry about. There is no saying who is doing it perfectly right. We need to be more accepting of people with different back grounds and that is something I have been working on since arriving at Dordt. In Chapter two, Cleveland talks about the importance of being in diverse groups. She said that these different members all ...
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