I have a friend that pastored a church in upper Michigan. His church and another across town decided to merge their congregations. Their theology was enough alike that they had no problems there. Even the leadership groups merged in an amazing matter. One building was aged and falling apart and the other was new construction, so merging the two into one meeting place made everyone happy.

But, they had one difficult difference that was hard to resolve. One congregation believed that communion should be with real wine. The other congregation believed grape juice was necessary with no alcoholic content. Because of the two historic backgrounds, this threatened to keep the two factions from taking communion together. My friend had to take steps to resolve this seemingly important division.

So, they had everyone come to the front to receive communion, with certain elders using grape juice, and others with wine. The elders shifted place from week to week, and people tended to receive communion from their favorite elders, who sometimes changed from juice to wine. At the end of five years, people had forgotten to ask which it was they were taking and all they then served was grape juice. Deep set convictions had shifted over just five years.

Just how important is the thing that you think is important? Fellowship seems to trump tradition.