During a Sunday morning church service in January of 2024, Sharon felt a call from God. It wasn’t an audible voice or trancelike vision, but she clearly felt led to organize an event for Christians of all types to come together and praise Jesus. The event would center around praise and worship music, with some speakers sprinkled between some of the songs. She knew the gathering was to be big, including as many followers of Jesus as could be gathered. That was all the details she had.
Over the following months, she would share this story with many people. At first, there were only a few people. These were people Sharon knew to be like minded in their love for Jesus. Some were pastors. Others led praise and worship. Most were just close friends. Reactions were mixed, ranging from excitement to mild interest.
Despite sharing the call with many people, there were problems. The idea had very little firm structure. There was no date, location, format, funding, or list of participants. Other priorities, such as high school graduation, preparing for college, and a mission trip to Bulgaria, took up precious time. Still, the desire lingered and the vision was continually shared.
Sharing the vision would raise questions in those that heard. The most common question revolved around the ultimate purpose of the event. Not that fellow believers gathering to praise God was not purposeful enough, but it seemed that such events were not uncommon occurrences. As Sharon prayed for more direction, the purpose seemed to gain a finer detail.
Localized churches gather regularly, but there is a lack of the Church cooperating and working as one instead of individual parts. How much could the Church accomplish if it put aside minor disagreements between individual members, and focused on the beliefs we all have in common?
These beliefs are that there is only one true God. We have all decided to reject His authority in our lives and made ourselves enemies to Him. That rejection caused a death to our relationship with Him that we could not repair. We were all doomed to spend eternity separated from God. Yet, in His love for us, God created a way to make whole what we tore apart. He sent Jesus, who is in all ways equal to God, to become a human being on Earth. Jesus never sinned. We killed Him in a horrific and violent manner, but His perfect blood made it possible to remove our corruption that prevented us from being in the presence of God. Anyone can now accept this gift and have a complete relationship with God, as was His design from the beginning.
Before His death on Earth, Jesus prayed for His disciples, but He also prayed for all future believers. This prayer is recorded in John chapter 17, verses 20-23.
John 17:20-23
20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message,
21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—
23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”
Jesus prayed for complete unity for all who believe and follow Him so that the world would know He was truly sent by God.
Unfortunately, this is not the history of the Church. Many times, the Church had to purge false and misleading teachings. This has been critical to ensure people could know what following Jesus meant in order to truly be restored to a right relationship with God. However, far more often, Christians have separated themselves from other Christians based on doctrines which ultimately have no bearing on whether one has accepted Jesus as savior.
In pursuit of attaining the relationship with all believers for which Jesus prayed, the Church must gather and network beyond its smaller congregations. Gathering many local churches to produce one praise event is a step in that direction.
Once such cooperation is established, the network can be used to perform other activities with far greater impact than single churches can achieve alone. Ministries can be created to assist people in need. These groups could use individuals working together across denominational barriers. More believers working together, in addition to being more effective, can model unity to a world that desperately needs some.
Will you join us?