This may sound shocking, but churches are not supposed to be like country clubs.

That is, Christian churches shouldn’t be filled with people who all look the same, act the same, and come from the same backgrounds. Christians don’t necessarily even have to agree on every theological issue to be part of the same church.

Yet often, Christians don’t understand this. Various people have written books and articles on the subject, exhorting for change.

The Christian musician Rich Mullins commented in 1997 that many Christians seem to think following God is “about building an absolutely secure little niche in the world where you can live with your perfect little wife and your perfect little children in your beautiful little house where you have no gays or minority groups anywhere near you.”

One area this lack of unity has recently been obvious is the Christian art world. Various writers have commented that many Christians seem to think “good Christian artists” only work in Christian entertainment (CCM music, Christian fiction, etc.) and they criticize Christian artists working in the mainstream. Often, their criticisms have less to do with theology and more to do with having a very sheltered, middle-class idea of how Christians should behave.

Steve Stockman noted in his book “Walk On” that when evangelicals criticize the singer Bono, they typically focus on the fact Bono smokes cigars rather than on the fact he openly talks about his faith in crowded stadiums and does whatever he can to care for the poor.

Christians need to fight this tendency to only get along with Christians they like or totally agree with. They need to have unity. Not only are there direct Biblical commands to be unified, it’s also the image the New Testament shows of the early church.

One thing that’s very clear from reading the New Testament is that the first generation of Christians was an extremely diverse group.

There were people like Thomas and James who had exorcised demons, and Mary Magdalene who’d had seven demons exorcised out of her.

There was Matthew, a tax collector and therefore scum in Jewish society, and Joseph of Arimathea, who held a respected position on the Jewish high council.

Then after Jesus’ resurrection, these people were joined by Paul of Tarsus, who had hated Christians. Not only that, but Paul was everything most of the other Apostles weren’t – a privileged man with formal theological training who could quote obscure Greek philosophers at the drop of a hat, as he did in Acts chapter 17.

This was God’s team to invade a broken world with the Gospel, and they were the last people one would expect to work together. Some of them had similar backgrounds and those who traveled together probably had complementary passions. As a whole, though, the early Christians had little in common -- except that they all chose to follow Jesus.

By working hard, and probably with much help from the Holy Spirit, the first Christians banded together and changed the world. Modern-day Christians are called to do the same.