God Uses The Willing

For ten years I have had the privilege of serving on the board of Christian Unity Ministries, a ministry begun by my lawyer son. God has given him a passion for the health of the church, not just Baptist churches, but all churches. To communicate that passion the Lord has him to write three wonderful books. The primary text of the ministry is the Word of God, and Blake Coffee has taken from God's Word what he sees as five principles that help the church function well in its relationships. Relating to other people is what church is all about. We recognize that one cannot be in harmony with God and out of harmony with others. The question is, "How do we maintain that harmony with other people so as to stay in harmony with the Lord God?"

Blake's book Five Principles Of Unity has outlined the way churches can maintain harmony, or unity, in her fellowship. Christian Unity Ministries has dedicated itself to teaching those principles wherever God leads. By His mighty power he has seen the book translated into Japanese, Spanish, Russian, and the language of the South Africans. God has used these principles in hundreds of churches across America and in other nations such as Ukraine, Romania, and South Africa, as well as with a Japanese speaking church in Los Angeles who translated the book and uses it profusely.

For these first ten years the ministry has done well and has brought alongside Blake a marvelous corps of volunteers who not only have seen these principles at work in their own churches, but now have committed themselves to teach them elsewhere. That eclectic group includes a college professor, a city attorney, an Associate District Judge, an architect, a retired district judge, and a fund raiser, as well as one retired denominational executive. This group makes up the Executive Board of Christian Unity Ministries. Two weeks ago this group met and decided it was time to take the ministry to a whole new level. Step number one is to enlarge the board and seek to be inclusive of all denominations of the Christian faith. Already the new chairman of the board is not a Baptist, for the first time. The challenge is to find people who want to sign on to help spread the word that God has an answer for all the churches who need to understand it is all about how we relate to one another.

Step number two was to bring on board another executive who will oversee the operation of the ministry. Blake Coffee will continue to serve as Executive Director for programming. However, the Lord has brought to us Tom Cuthbert, a man who has started and grown businesses, to serve as Executive Director of Operations. Tom has set himself apart as a business growth consultant. He was the founder/CEO of Click Forensics (now Adometry). Currently, he chairs a group of CEO’s in San Antonio for Vistage International, one of the world’s leading CEO organizations. He loves God’s Word and has been teaching it in the local church for many years. He also has been in church leadership positions in times of severe conflict and his heart breaks for the devastation it can cause among God’s people

The ministry has made use of all media in the free world (and we mean free). Christian Unity Ministries is on Facebook, Twitter, and in the blog world. The ministry's blog at http://fiveprinciples.net this week has started a new feature called Principley Speaking which will feature one of these extremely confident board members sharing how they teach these principles in the churches to which they go. This week Dr. Ann Farris, a professor at Tarleton State University introduces the 5 principles and illustrates how she teaches people so they will not forget.

It has been an extreme joy for me to be part of this ministry for the past ten years, and to walk alongside my son as he developed the ministry concept in the manner God led him. It has also been a joy to welcome aboard those called by God to become part of this work, with no pay, and with an extreme commitment to the Word of God as taught through this ministry. The quality of this group of people is hard to imagine. How God brought them all together is a mystery to me, except that each of them had a personal experience where these principles were used to help their churches or to help them personally. Two district judges, a city attorney, a profoundly successful architect from Phoenix, etc.—all coming together because they believe in what this ministry seeks to accomplish in the churches.

I don't know where this ministry is headed under the new leadership Team of Directors Blake Coffee and Tom Cuthbert and board Chairman Kelley Kimble, but I know it will be a great ride and I can hardly wait to see where it goes. Who knows, it might even be to your church.