Kingdom Talk - True Ecumenism

Evangelical Christians sometimes get spooked by the word "ecumenical" - and for good reason. Often it has reflected a sort of least common denominator approach. And the "least" part of it was pretty low. But what I call true ecumenism is something we are commanded by Scripture to seek. Finding true unity - and that unity only exists as we together seek the Kingdom. We see the Kingdom and the King (Jesus) as the absolutes, but we recognize also that the Kingdom may play out in various forms through history and through culture. The Kingdom of God tends to break out from within rather than invading from without. Jesus showed up inside a specific culture at a specific time, ushering in the Kingdom. But neither that culture nor that time could contain it. It continues to break out over the world in many different ways. How tragic when we miss out on this due to a mistaken assumption that when it breaks out there it should look like it did when it broke out here. True unity occurs when we sense and celebrate the commonality of God's Kingdom in its varied forms and ways.