“Unity is not optional. It’s mission critical”: Rev Edmund Chan urges greater collaboration among churches for the Gospel

Ever wondered why the German automotive brand Audi has four interlocking rings as its logo?

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, as companies were being bankrupted one after another, four automobile companies – once competitors – chose to merge to form Auto Union, which eventually survived the economic storm.

After Volkswagon bought over Auto Union in 1969, it changed the brand name to Audi – one of the four original automobile companies – but kept the brand’s logo as a tribute to the partnership that stood the test of time.

Rev Edmund Chan, Leadership Mentor and former Senior Pastor of Covenant Evangelical Free Church, was sharing this story at the 30th annual LoveSingapore Summit, held from January 13 to 15, to illustrate the power and importance of collaboration in the body of Christ.

“Even secular competitors know how to collaborate. How much more the Church of Jesus Christ?”

Spiritual autoimmunity

Addressing an audience of almost 1,400 leaders and representatives from about 185 churches and 120 para-church organisations, Rev Edmund warned against “spiritual autoimmunity” in the body of Christ.

This happens when we compete with each other for resources and recognition, hindering the whole body from growing healthily. 

“Unity is not optional. It’s mission critical,” said Rev Edmund, who is also Founder of the Global Alliance of Disciple-Making Churches.

Elaborating on what unity looks like, he stressed that it is not uniformity but an alignment to the call of God and the Great Commission.

“It’s not everybody doing the same thing. Rather, it’s everybody doing what God calls you to do, and we do it together with the sense that we have one vision, one mission to make a difference where God calls us to witness,” he said.

True spiritual unity must be matured through trust and deep relationships, said Rev Edmund to an audience of almost 1,400 representatives from more than 300 churches and para-church organisations.

He added that unity cannot be manufactured, but must be matured through trust and the deepening of friendships – something that LoveSingapore has done over the last 30 years.

“When LoveSingapore first started, our focus was to win the city for Christ. But we started that vision with building relationships with one another,” said Rev Edmund, adding that churches he has visited all over the world today look to the Singapore Church as a model of Christ’s unity.

“About 30 years ago, we didn’t know one another. 30 years ago, we didn’t really care. 30 years ago, we were doing our own things. But 30 years ago, God called us to come together.

“And as we treasured the getting together, pastors started knowing one another, not by name or by reputation, but as friends. It became a friendship movement, a friendship network, where we celebrate each other and our work, and encourage each other more.”

Ego, the threat to unity

Nevertheless, Rev Edmund acknowledged that while collaboration sounds great in theory, carrying it out practically is “painfully difficult”.

Why? “Because it’s a clash of egos. It’s a clash of preferences and style and the way we do things,” he said, adding that the root cause of ego is insecurity.

“In our cultural narrative, we champion choices, individuality. But we have to learn how to submit our preferences, even choices, to one another, to listen to one another, to align ourselves together and to serve the purposes of God together,” Rev Edmund urged.

Using an analogy that God once showed him as young and rising leader, he likened two Christians to two sticks in the ground. Seen from way up high, both sticks are just two dots. 

“Is it beautiful or not beautiful? What colour is it? What length is it? One stick can be long, the other short, half its size, but looking down, it’s only two dots,” he said.

“Two people can be gifted differently, but from heaven’s perspectives, they are only two dots.”

He continued: “The Kingdom is not defined by our superiority. It’s defined by our submission. When we are willing to submit together, then we are willing and able to collaborate.”

Christian leaders from across Singapore came together for a time of praise and worship at the 30th Pastors’ Summit this year.

Turning to the biblical story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11:1-9, he cautioned against churches trying to “make a name for ourselves” (Genesis 11:4) as the people did in Babel.

“This is the problem with the modern Church … We are more concerned about our brand than the Bride (of Christ). We are more concerned about our castle than the Kingdom,” he said.

“But God is reversing all that around the world. We are learning the Kingdom of God is greater than any single church, no matter how great it is. And the call of God is not, ‘We will make our name great.’ The call of God is, ‘We will make The Name great, and His name is Jesus.”

A needful change in focus

In the Tower of Babel, God responds by confusing the people’s language and scattering them. This, Rev Edmund stressed, is not punitive punishment but a means of grace to prevent themselves from self-destruction.

“Sometimes God loves us too much to allow our plans to succeed. He has a redemptive purpose for what He leads us in,” he said.

Stressing that God is looking for people who are aligned to His purposes, he urged leaders to move their focus away from their platform – their stage, credentials and accomplishments – and instead, to their “pathway of discipleship” – their relationship with Jesus, and their inner life of obedience, sacrifice and surrender.

“Let me put it in a simple aphorism for us, a simple principle: Take care of the depth of our lives, and leave it to God to take care of the breadth of our ministry.”

In his 50 years as a Christian, Rev Edmund said he has seen many Christians who have deep spiritual lives, yet hardly have a name or brand to themselves – something he personally would choose if not for the call that God has placed upon his life to speak publicly. 

He shared this to illustrate a point: “Every one of us must know our calling and responsibility. Know your station, keep to your station, and be faithful.

“If the Lord says, ‘Stand up and speak’, you stand up and speak. If He tells you to sit down and listen, you sit down and listen. He tells you to be in the limelight, you stand in the limelight for His glory. He tells you to be in the shadows and keep in obscurity, you stay there for the glory of God.

“Because it has nothing to do with the brand. It has everything to do with the Bride (of Christ).”

One for His glory

Unity within the body of Christ today matters because we are living in the last days, Rev Edmund stressed.

And “when people are united in identity, aligned in worldview, committed in action and focused in purpose, their collective impact is formidable”, he said.

He added that regardless of where we are in the world, or what denomination we come from, we can all agree on these key principles:

• Jesus is coming again soon
• Thus, there is an urgent task of world evangelisation
• The key of evangelisation is intention disciple-making
• The heart of disciple-making is biblical discipleship to Jesus

“So the question is not, ‘Are you together?’, the important question is ‘Together for what?’ For the Gospel.”

Quoting the late American author AW Tozer, he said: “Has it ever occured to you that a hundred pianos tuned to the same fork are automatically tuned to each other?”

“We are different from one another, but we are one for His glory,” said Rev Edmund, urging leaders to be all in to further the Gospel.

He continued: “If we are tuned to Jesus, we are tuned to the Gospel, we will be tuned to one another. The future of the global Church does not belong to the most gifted or the most funded or the most visible.

“The future of the global Church belongs to the most aligned and the most collaborative – aligned to Jesus, and collaborating with one another.”

At Pentecost, he pointed out, God redeems language by using it as the means to communicate the Gospel of Jesus.

“God does not erase diversity. He sanctifies that diversity … and uses that diversity of His glory,” said Rev Edmund.

“We are different from one another, but we are one for His glory.”

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