It’s Friday, and I’m pleased to announce that the Rally to Restore Unity has generated over 120 synchroblog posts, 150 signs, and nearly $2,000 for Charity:Water! I don’t know about you, but I consider that a BIG success. 

Tomorrow look for some final reflections on the rally as well as a sign contest. 

Earlier Today:

Author Frank Viola joined the rally with a fantastic post entitled “Rethinking Christian Unity”

Here on the bog we bid Farewell to Dirty Water 

Total Raised for Charity:Water:

We’ve raised $2,000, which means we’re only $500 away from meeting our (slightly adjusted) goal! Please don’t hesitate to throw in just $5-$10. If each person who contributed a post or sign to the rally donated $5, we’d far surpass our goal. Donate here. 

Signs and Synchroblog Posts:

Matt Appling with “Heresy Wins”
“What’s amazing to me is how threatened we are by unity.  We’re suspicious of it.  We question the motives of people who call for unity.  We think that we’re going to have to 'give up' something or let truth be 'silenced,' or let heresy 'win'in order to be unified...We say that Jesus is bigger than our differences.  But we’re not.”

Zachary Banker with “Protestant Tested, Catholic Approved”

Andy Smith with “We Are One in the Spirit”

 Diana Trautwein with “Living the Other Truth”
“Anger was not going to do a thing to bring change. But living that change just might make a beginning…”

Jen Rose with “do. love. walk.”
“We are a family. A huge, sprawling, beautiful, dysfunctional family, under the head of Christ, scattered to the ends of the earth, but somehow -- somehow -- a complete body he uses to accomplish redemption.”

Stephen with “Have you heard the good news?”

Tara (MommyHaHa) with “How to Grow a Kid God’s Way”

Brett Harrison with “Unity is Merely a Symptom”
"We don’t love one another in order to be disciples.  Rather, our love for one another is a symptom of our condition — that we are disciples of Christ. I’m slightly uncomfortable, then, with the popular view that unity is equal to tolerance.  Unity is not the result of broad-mindedness.  It is the result of obedient lives, changed by the Holy Spirit to be more like Christ.Seek obedience to Christ. Unity will come."

Josh Lunde-Whitler with “High Stakes Unity: Paul, Cyprian, Belhar”

Carlene Byron with “Outside the Sheepfold is Where Life Begins”

Ed_Cyzewski with “A Letter To Myself 15 Years Ago: An Exercise in Christian Unity”
“There are a lot of surprises waiting for you. You’ll find out that the church will let you down, that secular music isn’t evil, and that women really can teach men. Your worries over the rapture and evolution will pass away, and you’ll end up in a career that you won’t see coming but you should have seen all along….And one more thing. I know it’s going to take a lot of faith to believe this, but trust me, I would never be so cruel as to dash your hopes with something like this… The Phillies will win the World Series before your 30th birthday.”

Like a Child with “Love Never Fails” and “Reflections on Unity”

D. Taylor with “Mercy and Unity”
“ Because of his mercy, we are acceptable to him. Not because we’re right”

Thomas Whitley with “Getting Uncomfortable for the Rally to Restore Unity”

Megan @SortaCrunch with “How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Body”
"If you have received the Holy Spirit of the Living God, you are a conduit for love.  Not just phileo love, that enjoyable, warm fuzzy brotherly love.  We are conduits for agapeo love, the love that makes no sense.  It's love that covers offense and loves the unlovable and unlovely.  It's love that would rather walk away than prove itself right.  It's love that lives out the Resurrection every single day."

 Becca with “Going Into the Woods”

Eric M. Pazdziora with “The Things We Want to Sing About”

Chris Logan with “Substance”

Dan McMonagle with “Want the truth? Check your assumptions…”

Thomas with “Unity is the Goal, but Unity Under What?”

Alexander Marshall with “On Showing Sympathy, Even When We Disagree”

Hannah Abbot with “Jesus Had Long Hairs”

Amanda Bee with “A Lesson Learned From The Office”
“But if we all just remember what Paul said about Jesus being the one foundation among all us believers. Then though my Eucharist may involve oyster crackers and grape juice, whereas yours involves pita and wine, we understand that we're all communing with the same God. When we do this the Body of Christ will start moving effectively throughout the world, no longer bound by our own beliefs but unified by our belief in Jesus Christ.”

Amy B. with “Laughter is the Best Medicine”

Caleb Wilde with “The Relativity of Being Right” (While you’re there, check out Caleb’s excellent piece about why 99.9% of pastors agree with Rob Bell…at funerals.)

Shelly Coulter with “Rally to Restore Unity”

Shawn Smucker with “Restore Unity: Don’t Hit Submit”
"If we want to restore unity, sometimes we have to shut up. Sometimes we have to refrain from hitting ‘send’ or ‘submit.’ Sometimes we have to turn the other cheek."

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Let me know if you have nominations for a favorite post or favorite sign. (Can't be your own!) :-)