Christian Growth In Times Of Controversy

I recently read the latest volume in John Piper's The Swans Are Not Silent series, and in it he mentions something that we don't often hear today. We're often told that we should try to avoid doctrinal disputes and separation from moral error, for example, in order to have more unity, which will lead to revival. But some of the greatest times of Christian growth in history have been times of much controversy and division. John Piper writes:

"The witness of church history is that seasons of controversy have often been seasons of growth and strength. This was the case in the first centuries of the church. Most Christians today would be stunned if they knew that the battle for the deity of Christ was not a battle between the great force of orthodoxy, on the one hand, and marginal heretics, on the other. It was a battle in which at times the majority of the church leaders in the world were unorthodox. Yet the church grew in spite of controversy and persecution. Indeed I believe we must say that the growth of the true church in those days was because of leaders like Athanasius, who took a stand for the sake of truth. Without controversy there would have been no gospel, and therefore no church....The time of the Protestant Reformation was a time of great controversy...with controversy at the center, the Great Awakening brought unprecedented life and growth to churches in the American colonies and Britain....The same thing can be said of the Second Great Awakening....The point of these illustrations from church history is to lay to rest the notion that powerful spiritual awakening can only come when controversy is put aside. Though I would not want to press it as a strategy, history seems to suggest the opposite. When there is a great movement of God to bring revival and reformation to his church, controversy becomes part of the human process. It would not be far off to say with Parker Williamson that at least in some instances the controversy was not just a result but a means of the revitalization of the church....awakening and reformation are caused and carried by more clear perception of the glories of Christ and the repugnance of sin; and when these are seen more clearly and spoken of more precisely, division is more likely than when Christ is spoken of in vague terms and people care little for his name....as we learn from the heroes of our faith, let us resolve to renounce all controversy-loving pride and all controversy-fearing cowardice." (Contending For Our All [Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Books, 2006], pp. 23, 26-27, 29-31, 35)