Differences can be threatening. In a marriage, difference often leads to conflict. In an organisation, difference can often seem chaotic. In a church difference is often interpreted to be disunity, disobedience, or even apostasy.In the face of this I think of the occasion when Paul of Tarsus addressed the Christians in Corinth, and he said, “…there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are varieties of ministries, and the same Lord. There are varieties of effects, but the same God who works all things in all persons.”“Variety” means the quality or state of being different or diverse the absence of uniformity, sameness, or monotony. So, if you plug that back into what Paul was saying, he used the plural form of the word to emphasise just how many differences were to be expected and normal in the church. On top of that, it seems to me to be a multiplying, compounding of difference so that the amount of difference is so overwhelmingly exponential as to defy one’s ability to account for it totally. There are many diverse gifts, but one Spirit who oversees their assignments. There are multiple ministries into which all of these various gifts can be used, and there is one Lord overseeing how these ministries are to be carried out. Then, there are exponentially diverse effects, the outcomes of these layers of difference, and the same God who attends to the growth, the accomplishment of His ultimate purposes in each person.I do not believe anyone could possibly keep track of it all when it’s functioning the way God designed it. I recall when I went on a church staff retreat and a fellow staff member said, “I think our job is to get out of people’s way.” I remember thinking that was wrong, and that I needed to be IN people’s way so as to have an effect on them and so that as a staff person I could make sure the programmes of ministry were running the way they should.I was wrong.The way people work in ministry, using their gifts, and the effects that they have are a matter for God to keep track of. Other people, even ordained ministers, need to get out of the way. Set up a structure in which ministry can take place fine but then get out of the way. Do not micromanage something too complex for any human being to control.What Paul said is also an indictment against the boring, same-old-same-old that people usually encounter in church. I don’t care what the church is. It could be a liturgically high church with incense and classic music celebrating time-tested theology in thick lyrics. It could be the combustible spontaneity of prophetic and charismatic churches where people want to experience God in the here and now. Most churches fall into a routine, and they tend to do things over and over in the same ways, using the same buzzwords and Christian idiom. In that sense, every church has its own liturgy the pattern or the way in which things are done.Considering patterns, scientists can now map the brain and study which genes are being “turned on” in various situations, showing the liturgy of the way the brain functions. What they have found is that we, all human beings, are about 90 percent similar to one another. That concerns the way we are made and how the way we are made reacts to stimuli. So, how come we don’t all look, act, sound, and feel the same as everyone else? Well, largely we do. Again, that is the basis for how we can understand one another, but there are still a myriad of developmental experiences that distinguish one person from another.For instance, nobody else grew up in Fair Oaks, California during the late 50s and early 60s, in a family of seven people housed in an old, two-storey structure on Lemon Street, the oldest of five children to an alcoholic mother and an emotionally unavailable father. Nobody else had my experience of being a neuropsychiatric technician during the Vietnam war, going to three-day pop festivals, and hanging out with rock bands in the San Francisco bay area during the “summer of love”. Nobody else experienced in just the same way the moment God broke into that mix and answered my request, “If You are real, make Yourself known to me”. Nobody else in the world had MY experience of sitting with godless professors in my undergrad work, meeting with other Christian students for our prayer and worship gatherings along the creek bed behind the college, where spontaneous singing broke out and people prayed conversationally. Nobody else went off to seminary, worked and interned while taking a full academic load, had three kids, and then returned to serve his home church as a Minister of Children. Nobody else’s family blew up after 19 years of marriage, and nobody else had to work in a print shop in Portland, Oregon for three years, single parent two boys and a girl, and then go back to school at mid-life to retrain for a new career. Nobody else has the diverse wisdom that all that [and more] generated.At any given moment each one of us is a unique human being, different from every other one. The non-defensive, non-judgmental appreciation of difference is crucial to the Christian life. At any given moment each one of us may have several sins on the table for God’s consideration. Imagine someone with this mix: gluttony, adultery, gossip, idolatry, jealousy, and outbursts of anger. Now, the church would likely focus on the adultery and either not have the courage to tackle the others or not even know how to deal with them. However, in the process of relating to that individual, God might very well bypass dealing with the adultery in order to deal with the outbursts of anger. Then what? That would mean the person might not actually stop having an affair not when others think they should. There is no such thing as a one-size-fits all process of sanctification. Sanctification is not a matter of taking a class, learning some ideas, and memorizing the verses that go along with them. Sanctification has to do with Christ-likeness how changed we are becoming. Each person is different and will go through his or her own, unique process of sanctification at God’s discretion. Appreciation for the complexity of difference, and the tolerance for individual differences, is something wise clergy develop over time. Differences can seem threatening, and they can also be frustrating. Difference brings challenge to living. However, difference is also what makes being alive interesting.