The Bridge That Couldn't Agree

In 2017, crews from two countries began building the Pelješac Bridge in Croatia, a stunning cable-stayed span connecting the mainland to the Pelješac peninsula across the Adriatic. Chinese and European engineering teams worked on opposite ends, each following their own methods, standards, and timelines. Observers wondered whether the two halves would ever meet cleanly in the middle.

But the bridge had one set of blueprints. One design. One purpose — to connect what had been separated. When the final segment was lifted into place in 2021, it fit. Not because the teams worked identically, but because they submitted to the same plan.

Paul wrote to the Corinthians because they were building from opposite ends and had forgotten the blueprint. "I follow Paul." "I follow Apollos." "I follow Cephas." Each faction claimed a different architect while the one bridge — the gospel itself — sat half-finished between them. Paul's question cuts straight through the noise: "Is Christ divided?"

The church has always been built by different hands. We bring different gifts, different backgrounds, different ways of expressing worship. That diversity is not the problem. The fracture comes when we start naming the bridge after the workers instead of the Architect.

Paul points every faction back to the cross — the single blueprint that holds it all together. The message of the cross may look like foolishness to the world, but it is the power of God. And it is the only design wide enough to hold us all.