One Church :: St. Joseph

part·ner·ship : the state or condition of being a partner; participation; association; joint interest.

Tonight, Thursday night, I will join with the pastors of 32 various area churches of all denominations for an event that we like to call One Church :: St. Joseph. Started years ago as simply a National Day of Prayer event, this event has now evolved into this incredible city-wide call to unity and prayer. We have something here in St. Joseph that very, very few cities across the country have and that is an incredibly vibrant, meaningful cross-denominational partnership between our local churches. Tim Doyle, and his ministry Joseph Resource Group, has facilitated these relationships for 7 years now. What sets St. Joseph apart from almost every other city in this regard is that the pastors of literally almost every church of any size and significance are involved in this effort. Along with the more well known and influential churches, there ! are many, many pastors like myself from smaller churches that are accepted as part of the group as well. Tonight we will gather at Word of Life Church which is the only church in town with a sanctuary large enough to hold the 2-3,000 people we anticipate at the event.

This event, and all of our partnerships that we have developed here in St. Joseph with a variety of pastors and /or denominations is one of the things I'm most excited about. I am amazed at this biblical expression of unity and peace as Baptists, Methodists, Pentecostals, Assemblies, Independents, Non-Denoms, etc. are joining together - partnering if you will - to show a visible picture of the unity of the body of Christ. We are excited to stand together for the gospel. I'm proud to be a part of this needed statement and I hope that it represents much of what I've been trying to communicate through this blog over the past few years. I thank my God every time I remember you. In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.

Philippians 1:3-6