Your homework is to identify some of the key issues that have resulted in church splits in history. From your memory, identify some of the key splits that have separated the Body of Christ in history. For example The Great Schism of 1054 that led to the split between Eastern Orthodoxy and the western Roman Catholic Church, The Protestant Reformation, the split between the Anglican Church and the Methodist church, etc. By asking Google to identify the key issues in each split, you can quickly identify some of the major issues.
For example, the East/West split had some political issues between rulers, the fact that the West emphasized Latin while the East used Greek, an argument about whether the bread for the Eucharist should be leavened or unleavened, and whether one should emphasize the humanity or divinity of Jesus as primary.
Anglicans and Methodists argued over free will and salvation, proper decorum in worship, who can ordain the clergy, and the degree to which the church should be involved in helping the poor.
Go ahead and play with Google and identify various splits in the One Body of Christ. With your list of key issues, ask people if they can identify why that issue was so important.
WHAT IS LOST AND GAINED
At an educational event in the church, note the leadership’s concern that your church preemptively addresses how a church approaches potential areas that can lead to conflict in the church.
Ask them to speculate what would have happened if the church had debated the issue but refused to let it separate them. Then ask if they believe the worldwide witness of the Body of Christ was strengthened or weakened by the split and whether they believe it was worth the price.
Next ask them to identify some of the key issues that are causing tension in the church today. Discuss which issues are worth splitting the Body of Christ over and which may be important to debate but should never be allowed to take such importance that it splits the church.