An election year is upon us and with it all the debate, suspicion, and rancor that is sure to accompany the culmination of another four-year cycle. Though the election is still months away, I’m already dreading the inevitable interpersonal struggles that will come with it and even the strains it may bring to the unity of my local church. What’s crazy is that we don’t even live in the country that will be holding the election. Yet because America is so close, so powerful, and so culturally dominant, its debates inevitably extend above the 49th parallel and across the world. Love the Ones Who Drive You Crazy Jamie Dunlop My concern is less for the unity of my nation than the unity of my church. An election like this one, or an election like the one Canada will face in 2025, provide a context in which people can easily begin to distrust and antagonize one another. Of course, there are many other issues that can provoke trouble—pandemic regulations, educational decisions, not to mention age-old issues like the discipline of children or the consumption of alcohol. In so many ways Christians are challenged to maintain a strong unity despite deep differences. But I wonder if we often think wrongly about the challenges to our unity, and especially our unity within the local church. In Love the Ones Who Drive You Crazy, Jamie Dunlop insists that our differences are not so much a bug within the local church, but a feature, and not so much a problem … Continue reading Love the Ones Who Drive You Crazy