How do we build unified mission teams that can reach all people in our community?

It’s hard! Like attracts like. We naturally attract people like us to our churches and gravitate towards those who are similar to us. How then does a mono-cultural or mono-social Church reach a multicultural or multi-social community? 

The Bible addresses this challenge.

In 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 Paul says God’s Church is like a body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” nor should the foot say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body”.

Paul had social and ethnic differences in mind when he spoke of the different parts of the body of Christ. (In verse 13 Paul refers to Slave and Free, Jew and Gentile.) In other words God’s purpose for our Churches is that, wherever possible, they be ethnically and socially diverse. We need each other and the differences God has created us with, just as a body needs both arms and legs. We need each other and the differences God has created us with, to effectively reach all  people in our community.

This year at Reaching Everyday People, we will workshop 1 Corinthians 12 and hear from those seeking to put it into practice. We pray this will help us better cultivate unity between different social and ethnic groups in our Churches so that we might reach all people in our communities. In particular we’ll be thinking about everyday people* (because they make up 70% of Australians aged 16-64 and are often under-represented in our churches) and professionals. 

Jesus prayed, in John 17:20-23, that the Church would be united so that the world would know Jesus.

Will you join us this year, as we seek to cultivate unity in our churches and so strengthen our witness in the world? 

*By everyday people we mean those who have gone straight into the workforce from school. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics they make up 70% of Australians aged 15-64. (See https://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/products/D422D0160CA82AE8CA25750C00117DD1?OpenDocument)

Please visit http://www.reachingeverydaypeople.com.au for more information on speakers and program.