Last night our worship team was fooling around before practice and ran through the U2 classic "One". The most popular story is that it was written when the band was going through a rough patch and they wrote this song which brought renewed focus to their tour and relationships. (Or something like that) However, the background has always seemed a bit ambiguous and some have even claimed that the band has intentionally fueled that ambiguity to help the song gain wider appeal. So here's my theory.
A pastor was reflecting on the relationship his church had with the other churches in the community and ended up writing this song. The band happened to run across the lyrics and the rest is history. Okay, so that really didn't happen but if you read the lyrics and are familiar with a lot of inter-church relationships you could easily be convinced that it did.
I find this part of my job as pastor to be the most discouraging. That doesn't mean that we don't do a lot of great things together but it just bothers me when it is so easy for sin to pop up in a place where you should least expect it. The two big culprits in my book are pride and gossip.
I pray that I will always be humble and honest when I work with other churches in our community. We seriously need to "carry each other" rather than "hurt each other."
Churches Working Together
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1:06 PM
Even though you still haven't found what you are looking for in working together as one with other local churches, don't give up!
The One song is about a father whose son was found to have HIV, how they come together despite all that could seperate them in light of his controversial illness.
Though you don't have HIV, you are UBC, so I suppose that might make others waffle on doing ministry with or without you. Just remember that you have lots of capacity to bless them as you are.
1:48 PM
As for the story behind One, I've actually read a lot of quotes from Bono on this and he contradicts himself several times. Thus the idea that they are being ambiguous on purpose. The HIV thing seemed to have started when they were doing a fund raiser using this song and used the royalties for HIV. But what do I know.
As for working with others, I just keep having to remember that God probably feels worse having to work with me but He does it anyway.
10:30 AM
So, you're a U2 fan as well? It's odd, there are millions and millions of them around the world, but I don't know any that live around here. Well, now I do...
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