So last night's joint worship and prayer night was really, really good. There are definitely some sub-sub-cultural differences between the two groups, and it felt like everyone brought their good stuff to the table.
In thinking some more about the whole question of unity there are a couple important caveats that I wanted to post on.
First, the most true thing about Christian communities is that we are already one in Christ. The hard work of being reconciled across all boundaries (theological, cultural, racial, economic, geographic) is already done in Christ. The work of unity is not a work from scratch. The hardest part that we couldn't do has been done for us on the cross. It is already completed, it is only ours to participate in faithfully.
This is hard to live out "structurally" (i.e. between churches or various Christian organizations). It is even harder to live out inter-personally.
Secondly, I am all for joint Christian events when their mission includes prayer (as ours did last night) but even more so when their mission includes cross-cultural reconciliation. There is tremendous work to be done to move the Christian church from a de facto status of segregation to a genuine expression of the corporate body of Christ. This work must be done intentionally, or it will not happen at all.
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