The Unity Project: REACHING THE COMMUNITY TOGETHER

Most people agree with me when I suggest that the churches of our communities need to work together to reach our unchurched neighbors. Churches, usually of the same denomination, have been cooperating together to do mission activities outside of their communities for decades. But when we look closely at their cooperative efforts in their own communities we see they are usually not targeting the needs of their unchurched neighbors as much as they are the desires of the members of their churches. Churches will join forces to plan a Christmas or an Easter service, for example, but they will seldom work side-by-side to reach the unmet ministry needs of those not attending their churches. While we may be having some good fellowship with other believers we are not reaching out to meet our neighbors and their needs in Christ together.

Churches are increasingly competing for members and their finances. The rise in programs and activities being offered by most churches reflects this trend. The focus of most of a church's ministries is on meeting the needs and desires of the members themselves. There is little if any effort being made to work with other churches in the community for the purpose of reaching those so far unreached by the churches of the community. Reggie McNeal explores this phenomenon in his book, "The Present Future."

In my efforts to build bridges between the churches in our community and then to encourage these churches to work together I am seeing a lot of busy ministers managing very full ministry plates already. As much as they would like to do more together, they just don't see how they can.

I would like to suggest an option -- the Unity Project. The idea of the Unity Project is for at least two churches to commit to working together on one community outreach/missions project. To free up the money and manpower resources of both churches one of the churches would choose not to do a ministry they had already planned to do, possibly an outreach effort they do annually already. The two churches would then plan a cooperative effort they would co-host in the community. Along with the various meetings that would be needed the church leadership could plan combined worship services where the ministers would take turns preaching about unity and obstacles to unity. Small groups could study the similarities and differences of the two church traditions and dialogue sessions could be planned for sharing among the church and the community members. This is doable but it would require two churches willing to take the risks and make the efforts necessary.

My belief is that the unchurched of our communities would be impressed enough by this effort to attend the event, or events, just to see what is happening. This would be a wonderful testimony to them and to the churches themselves of the uniting power of the love and Spirit of Jesus (see John 13:34-45). What do you think? Would you be willing to give it a try?