Church Unity & WALK THIS WAY in Turlock, CA

Walk This Way in Turlock, CA I just love reading about ministry that happens across denominational lines like this. It is tremendously exciting when everyone works together to build the kingdom of God and not just their own kingdom. My friend St. Brad of Abet, who is a genius and pastor of Cornerstone Covenant Church in Turlock, CA is participating. Brad's blog is daily read. Having worked this past year on the North Country Encounter and seen the benefits of churches working together I want to see more and more of it. I've been dreaming about being a part of making more of this happen ... Imagine Churches Working Together on Publicity ... What if the churches of every community worked together to create a web site that listed every church in the community with their relevant data: worship service times, pastor names, maps, location, etc. Someone in Utica, NY is working on this at the MV Churches site. But then, what if every church worked together to see every church in the community had their own web site and a link to them at the main site. Imagine Churches Working Together on Evangelism & Discipleship ... Imagine a church that worked 9-12 months for a proclamation evangelism event — something like Franklin Graham, Luis Palau or Steve Wingfield might do. As part of their preparations for the event there would be the normal concerts of prayer, sharing your faith courses, etc. But then add in several weeks in the process of what Turlock is doing. And follow it up with a community wide 40 Days of Purpose and/or Alpha course. Imagine dozens of churches all over the city offering the same course at the same time. And what if they worked together on a media campaign inviting people to church. And imagine churches banding together to make sure there were evangelical chaplains at local prisons and hospitals — someone with good theology and not just CPE training. Imagine they worked together to support campus ministers from Young Life and Campus Crusade for Christ, AND they worked to have chaplains for local work sites through Marketplace Ministries or some other such agency. I think this type of missional unity could change the life of an entire city. It would cause significant media interest further fueling the excitement of the churches and interest of the unchurched. What if we really did work together? Not just occasionally but consistently, for years on end, working to eradicate poverty and convert the lost. What if?