Voices: A wider path to unity

History and literature give us a plurality of leaders who forge paths to unity in different ways—some by exclusion and others by inclusion.

In Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the Queen of Hearts refuses to tolerate differences and shouts, “Off with their heads!” She seeks unity by removing everyone who does not conform. Conversely, the King of Hearts follows behind her and states, “You are all pardoned.” He maintains unity by, well, letting everyone live.

The prevailing approach behind the proposed Truth and Unity amendment seems to be eliminating disagreement. The amendment would constitutionally define what women cannot be or do—pastor or preach—based on one interpretation of Scripture. Churches that hold another interpretation of Scripture would be out of cooperation with the Southern Baptist Convention and disfellowshipped.

Thus, the amendment’s promised unity arrives by excluding churches that reach a different conclusion.

But what does it profit a Baptist to gain like-mindedness and denominational efficiency if the price is cutting off a part of his own body?

A biblical case for unity without uniformity

Scripture calls for “every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3). And unity among God’s people need not mean uniformity.

All believers come to be part of the body of Christ by grace through faith. We have “one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all” (Ephesians 4:5-6). Unity.

But “even so the body is not made up of one part but of many” (1 Corinthians 12:14). The body of Christ consists of people with different ethnicities, genders, economic realities, spiritual gifts, and interpretations of Scripture. The body “grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work” (Ephesians 4:16). Diversity.

Early Christians expected strong boundary lines around who was “in” and who was “out” of fellowship. Even the disciples who followed Jesus most closely were inclined to send away outsiders.

They tried to prevent a man from casting out demons “because he was not one of us.” But Jesus responded, “Do not stop him … for whoever is not against us is for us” (Mark 9:39-40).

They also asked Jesus to send a bothersome Canaanite woman away, “for she keeps crying out after us.” Instead, Jesus engaged in conversation and ultimately commended the woman’s great faith (Matthew 15:23).

The teachers of the law had their own objections to who Jesus welcomed. But Jesus instructed them with three parables about the great rejoicing that occurs when the lost and separated become found and reunited (Luke 15:1-32).

Not only does Jesus tolerate “outsiders,” he seeks them and celebrates when they come in. If he does this with the lost, how much more are we to demonstrate this within the family of God?

We, too, are called to accept one another, not because we agree with one another, but because Christ accepted us (Romans 15:7). Making every effort to pursue unity looks more like welcoming in different perspectives than casting them out.

Mutual flourishing

We have an example of this across the Atlantic Ocean.

Our brothers and sisters in faith in the Church of England have laid out a wide path to unity that allows for diversity of opinion and demonstrates love that seeks the good of the other. They institutionalize a way for people with different theological convictions to remain in the one Church and achieve mutual flourishing despite deep disagreement. How did they do it, and what can Southern Baptists learn from them?

The Church of England approved the ordination of women as priests in 1992 and gave final approval for women to become bishops in July 2014. The legislation passed with strong, but not unanimous, support. Not everyone welcomed this change.

Thus, alongside the 2014 legislation, the House of Bishops issued Five Guiding Principles as a way for people who disagree to “continue to relate to each other within one church.”

The first two guiding principles clearly state the Church’s position and require ministers within the Church to acknowledge, even if they do not agree with, the Church’s corporate decision.

The third guiding principle takes a broad view and humbly recognizes the Church of England’s decision regarding ministry and gender is “set within a broader process of discernment.” Other Anglican churches and the broader church of God have sought similar discernment and arrived at different decisions.

The remaining two guiding principles give provision for those whose theological convictions render them unable to receive the ministry of female clergy. Accommodations are made so even those with dissenting minority convictions may remain and flourish within the Church’s life and structures rather than being pushed to its margins.

A resource for further study of the Five Guiding Principles is available here.

Unity amid diversity

Interestingly, instead of seeking to bring theological agreement, these principles enable ongoing community amid divided convictions.

Bishop James Langstaff describes the committee that drafted the Five Guiding Principles as a diverse group of people who held differing convictions on the issue. They met together, ate together, prayed together, and ultimately treated one another as “fellow Christians, rather than as opponents.”

He explains their process was not about changing each other’s theological convictions but finding a way forward for the whole Church.

Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally reiterates the need to stay together. She believes: “To separate, to walk apart, would impoverish the Church of England. The costlier and the more narrow way is to walk together, to bear one another, to suffer the discomfort of our diversity and difference within the body of Christ, to suffer being misunderstood and perhaps even reviled for refusing to say to a fellow follower of Christ, ‘I don’t need you’” (Andrew Atherstone, Archbishop Sarah Mullally, 142).

In other words, the capacity to hold difference together is a feature of genuine unity rather than a threat to it.

Like the Church of England, the SBC has clearly stated their majority opinion on a nuanced issue. And like our brothers and sisters across the pond, many within the denomination disagree. Perhaps we can agree that splintering our fellowship is not the only way to go from here.

Southern Baptists, too, may identify ways to remain together and flourish together. Instead of sending off those with different convictions, may we strengthen what remains. May we humbly demonstrate to one another the costly love that bears the discomfort of walking together on a wider path of unity.

Lauren Roberts Lukefahr is a lifelong resident of the Houston area. She is a senior director at Alvarez & Marsal, a student at Dallas Theological Seminary, and a member of Houston’s First Baptist Church, Sienna Campus. The views expressed in this opinion article are those of the author.