1) STRENGTH IN UNION - illustration
A visitor to an insane asylum noted the patients sitting about the buildings and grounds with only a guard here and there to watch after them. A number of these were young girls who seemed to have no fear whatever.

“Are you not afraid these inmates may become violent and do you bodily harm?” a visitor asked one of the girls.

“Not in the least,” was the reply.

“Suppose they should organize themselves and at a prearranged moment should attack you, what would you do?”

“Organize! Organize!” said the girl contemptuously, “if they had sense enough to organize they would not be here!”

SOURCE: Unknown

COMMENT: It's sad if our congregations are so lacking in unity that nothing gets done. Are we a house of the Lord or a house of the insane?

2) UNITY: IT'S UNIVERSAL CALL - quote
Unity… It is the last word with which an athletic coach sends his boys into a game, the slogan with which an industrial leader seeks to put his staff on their toes, the insistent demand of politicians as they gird themselves for the battle of votes.

Reim, Edmund. The Strength of Christian Unity, p. 11
Essays on Church Fellowship (1996)

COMMENT: What better place should there be a call for unity - then within the community of saints.

1) LIVING STONES, NOT BRICKS - quote
Living Stones, Not Bricks - Bricks are all the same; same size, shape, texture, color. But stones are different. Look at that person next to you; different, heh? We’re not bricks . . . that’s OK. We’re stones; all different but a beautiful mosaic God brings together. (cf. I Peter 2:4-12)

SOURCE: Hunter, Randy K. A letter of hope – answers
May 2006. Forward in Christ – Series on I Peter, Vol. 93, No. 5

COMMENT: My daughter and I were recently walking through the woods. I marveled to my daughter, "Isn't God great! Not only did he make all sorts of animals and all kinds of plants, but he also made lots of different rocks." God is a great artist, making beauty everywhere. We are all different living stones, used by him to make a beautiful mosaic called his Church.

2) MY PEW - one-liner
Some people are kind, polite, and sweet-spirited… until you try to sit in their pews.

SOURCE: Unknown

Two Short Ones

1) GRINDING THE AXE WHEN THE STONE IS DONE SPINNING - one-liner
When all is said and done, too many people keep on saying and doing.

SOURCE: Unknown

2) HARMONY OF MINDS - quote, but whose?
Peter tells us as Christians to be in harmony with one another. Unloving dissension is far from harmony. Actually, it is closer to someone dragging their fingernails down a blackboard.

SOURCE: Unknown

1) EVERY LITTLE HELPS - a "little" story
A man by the name of Little lived in a little house in a little town, and he worked for a very little salary. The neighbors wondered how Mr. Little and the whole Little family could get along on so little salary. He was asked, “Mr. Little, how do you and Mrs. Little and the seven little Littles get along on such a little salary?”

He replied, “Every Little helps.”

COMMENT: How blessed a church, where everyone offers what they can to spread the Gospel and be a blessing to the community! But we aren't little. We have the Lord on our side to bless us all the more in our 'little' efforts.

2) FLYING PROFILE - news article
(New York) Hoping to ease the nightmare of flying next to a crashing bore, a company in New York will match like-minded passengers to help make the time fly.

…“It is for anyone who travels who does not want to have to deal with the psychological hell of sitting 2 inches from someone you don’t know for eight hours,” he [Peter Shankman founder of AirTroductions] said.

To use AirTroductions, travelers register online, listing personal details in a profile. When they post their traveling itineraries, the registry provides information on other people taking the same flights.

…The system allows passengers to note if what they really desire is a seatmate who will leave them alone.

SOURCE: Wulfhorst, Ellen. Hello there… You come here often?
January 30, 2006. Reuters – Oddly Enough

COMMENT: Sorry, in the church you don’t base who you share your pew with on compatibility profiles. We’re different for a reason. God uses our differences for our benefit.

1) COMPLIMENTING A FRIENDSHIP - short story
The greatest compliment anyone ever paid our friendship, I think, was in the second grade, when Miss Hipsure (spelling? – audio book) moved us apart… She told us that we were never going to learn anything if we sat next to each other and talked all day…

What a great thing for a person to notice about a friendship! What better testament than that? “You two are such good friends that I have to move you apart.”

SOURCE: Greene, Bob. And You Know You Should Be Glad:
A True Story of Friendship. Chap. 3

COMMENT: When we really share in a strong Christian friendship, the devil will try to split us up. Maybe we should look at disagreements that way: Wow, we must be really close, because there is an effort out there to make us enemies.

2) DIVERSITY VS. ONE-MINDEDNESS OF FAITH - quote
“We are a community that really encourages diversity among our members, but the church has taken a stand to be welcoming of gay and lesbian persons. Because this particular issue has been so identified with ‘Christian’ values and so many churches have poured lots of money and effort to block gay marriage, we chose to make a public statement that there’s not one Christian view on this,” [Rev. Liz Oettinger, pastor of the First Congregational Church] said.

SOURCE: Reeves, Carol. Voting religious values
October 4, 2004. Corvallis Gazette-Times

COMMENT: So much for being one in mind as far as God’s Word is concerned.