Summer ‘LW’ explores unity and variety in the church

St. Paul appealed to the Corinthian church “that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment” (1 Cor. 1:10). He encouraged the Ephesians to be “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph. 4:3).

But what true unity in the church looks like is not always easy to determine. Exactly how many things must be believed in common to say that we are “united in the same mind”? And when it comes to practice, where is uniformity desirable, and in what ways is variety healthy?

The June/July issue of The Lutheran Witness (LW) takes up the topics of unity and variety — topics that can be controversial among us as they have been among bodies of Christians from the church’s earliest days.

Pick up a copy of the June/July LW to read about the two different kinds of unity on which Scripture speaks; how questions of uniformity and variety have arisen and been settled in every era of the church’s history; how our congregations can pursue a beautiful, faithful variety grounded in a common foundation and formation; and how multicultural congregations give us a foretaste of the feast to come in heaven.

Visit witness.lcms.org to subscribe and to read select print content and additional web-exclusive articles.

Posted June 19, 2026