Coming Together

As I write this I am watching a live broadcast over the Internet of OneCry.  A guy that I knew at UT, Jeremy Story, had a vision.  He and Justin Christopher, another friend of mine, created a ministry at UT  Austin called Campus Renewal Ministries.  They are not a ministry that does direct ministry, they are a ministry that unites the ministries!  At UT they connected all the different campus ministries together, who had different doctrines, different cultural makeups, different focuses, and different goals, and united them....without changing them!  The body of Christ is all different and God has made them all different in order to reach different people and to represent different aspects of him and his church!  At UT they demographically separated UT into hundreds of separate "communities" and all the campus ministries began going out to plant "authentic faith communities" in each so that everyone at UT would have direct contact with true Christians living out their faith publicly.  Once a year they all united in one week-long event called RezWeek that brought in big speakers, big worship bands, and served coffee and had an art gallery and a "free speech wall" right in the middle of campus.  It was a beautiful thing.

Well tonight Jeremy is up in New York City, putting on OneCry.  A bunch of people are gathered in Times Square Church praying and worshipping, but the amazing thing is that it is broadcast live over the internet and people on tons of college campuses all over the nation are gathering together in rooms and apartments to watch.  People are being united for the purpose of repentance, prayer, and worship.  The goal is reconnection with God and revival in our land.  It's very cool.

I live in Dallas.  Dallas is a city of megachurches.  Dallas churches are independent.  Whether large or small, churches in Dallas have an attitude of being self-sufficient and not needing a thing.  They operate on their own, almost in competition with other churches even right across the street.  It's a disgusting attitude that limits the Kingdom of God in this city.  If Dallas churches could come together and worship together, pray together, and be unified in vision and purpose, this city could be changed.