Dear Minister,

Grace is yours in Jesus Christ. I write to remind you that the church of Jesus Christ was not designed to be a competition ground. The goal of your local assembly should not be to outplay the other. Your focus should never be shifted from saving unbelievers to snatching the available believers from other assemblies.  Do not let your messages be packaged to tell people how a particular personality and interpretation of doctrine is better than that of the next neighbour. For God has not called us to compete with one another but to complement each other.

You may never get to a point in your lifetime where all Christians say and believe the same things because they all have different rate of growth even as they try to measure up to the full stature of Christ. If Matthew and John who were eyewitnesses to the events in the life of Jesus, did not write about them in the same way, then what about your followers who are trying to understand what has been written. Do you expect that they say all things the same way?

Differences may always exist between us, but we should focus more on our origin – God, our mission – evangelism, our destination – heaven, and join hands together to fight the enemy – devil. “When we focus on personalities, preferences, interpretations, styles or methods, division always happen. But if we concentrate on loving each other and fulfilling God’s purposes, harmony results” (Rick Warren).

Our differences do not necessarily need to result in negativity. Just as different notes on a piano keyboard are necessary to compose a good music; our differences will result in a beautiful success if we have the right focus. Let us be more passionate about the ultimate goal rather than our individual roles.  Let’s work together to win many more souls into God’s kingdom.

Some of us are saying we belong to Paul, others are saying we are protestant, but God is saying – you are a Christian, with a global mission that is bigger than the project and constitution of your local assembly.

You know so well that the boundary of God’s family, which is the body of Christ, is beyond your local assembly. Therefore, everyone that has been saved by the blood of Jesus Christ should be treated as your brother/sister. See them as partners in ministry and not opponents. Share bible knowledge with them. Rejoice with those accomplishing great feats for the Master, rather than maligning them in envy. Pray with them and for them. Let’s turn off the local mentality … and appreciate the global reality.

Best Regards,

tope aladenusi