Is kindness killing the Church? That really is a risky question, especially as in Church circles kindness is so highly prized. Obviously, nothing will kill the Church, as Jesus has declared he will build his Church 'and the gates of Hades will not overcome it'.2 But kindness can be suffocating as well as subtle, and although we know that it will never completely stifle the Church's life, there is a sort of kindness that can seriously hinder the Church's progress. Let me explain.A few years ago, despite having engaged in the world of inter- church relations for many years, it dawned on me that I still struggle to understand how the current approach to Church unity is supposed to work. When I committed my life to Christ in my teens, I was very happy to live almost entirely in my own sector of the Christian world. So it came as a surprise when God started to impress on me that it is going to take the whole of his Church to impact the whole of his world. I was not sure how to respond.

How could the various parts of the Church be properly brought together, and what kind of unity could speak to a sceptical world?I had been around long enough to know that when the world claims that our disunity is the cause of their dismissiveness, it is just an excuse. I realise that if we were to become a monolithic organisation speaking out with monotonous predictability the words the world wants to hear, we would probably be just as easily marginalised. I think we have to accept that being a provocation to the world is more important than seeking its preferment, and that being a lively Church held together by love and respect will definitely have something to say to a world where violence, disrespect and dismay so often hit the headlines. But there was something in me that was beginning to realise I was being taken on a 'wait and see' journey, as if I might not know just how muchimpact a rightly relating church would have on the world until the right relationships were actually in place. I needed to press on and trust God for the outcome.