Essentially One, Jonathan Lamb
/SEPTEMBER BOOK OF THE MONTH
REVIEWER: Ali Hull
BOOK: Essentially One: Striving for the unity God loves
AUTHOR: Jonathan Lamb
(IVP, June 2020)
Our neglect of Paul’s instruction in Ephesians, to ‘keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace’ is ‘shameful’, according to Jonathan Lamb, in his easily accessible book on the importance of seeking to heal a fractured church.
‘The growth of the church is handicapped, fellow believers are injured and our mission loses its credibility’, he says. He uses various Bible passages to consider how we should approach each other, both individually and as churches, and unpacks what we can learn from those who have faced disagreements before us: after all, they began with the disciples and carried on into the Early Church.
The book balances the importance of unity with a thorough consideration of the issues over which we fall out, and he considers race, sexual orientation, gender, and that most British of issues, class. While it is written for all Christians, it would be of great use to any preacher who wanted to speak on the issue of unity, maybe to do a series on it, and to use the book to explore what it could say into their own church situation.
But there are no easy answers, as he admits. He seeks to look at why we disagree, and where it matters and where it doesn’t. The author does not give any definitive answers, but helpful principles that we can apply for ourselves.
He also considers how we disagree, in a key chapter on language and attitudes, which explores the idea of sub-cultures and their language. It is usually our words that divide us, so learning how to express ourselves clearly, and understanding how we are heard, is vital. He also looks at the idea of good disagreement: how to disagree without being disagreeable.
Above all, he stresses that seeking unity is not an optional extra, a ‘nice to have if we have the time (but we don’t)’ issue. It matters to God, and this importance is, of course, reflected in the subtitle’s careful choice of verb: ‘striving’. Drawing on a wide selection of sources, both inside and outside the church, this is a rewarding and thought-inducing read.
Reviewer: Ali Hull
Ali Hull has spent nearly thirty years working with words, as a writer, editor and writing coach. Now the Book Editor for Preach magazine, her ‘to be read’ pile is approaching frightening proportions.
