God is our Father and as His sons and daughters we automatically belong to His Family.  We are brothers and sisters in Christ because it is through Him and His death on the cross that we are one Family.

The Father’s Family is founded on His love as revealed through Jesus.  Our city will be blessed when it sees and experiences the love we have for one another.  John 17

We thank God for the desire for unity as expressed by so many church leaders in Toowoomba. However the journey towards being His Family must continue. Let me make a couple of comments.

Firstly, over the centuries Christians have divided into many denominations and local churches which only too often have not expressed Christ’s love to one another.  Author John Stott writing in response to Paul’s comment in 1 Corinthians 1:13.  “Has Christ been divided?” – called division a rhetorical impossibility!  No family can be divided and survive, let alone be a blessing to its community.

Secondly, unity in Toowoomba is not about the engagement of church structures with a view to some sort of organisational or ecclesiastical unity.  The unity is relational rather than organisational.

So our unity is not about a greater structural unity but rather the simple recognition of our relational unity as the Family of God.  This recognition is already leading many to pray and to serve Christ together for the sake of the city.

Now of course I understand that all Christians have a commitment to their local church and or denomination.  This commitment needs to continue and be honoured by all those belonging to the various expressions of local churches.

Unity is never uniformity.  We are not going to end up in some monolithic structure all worshipping and serving Christ in an identical pattern. In fact the opposite is true.  Diversity is the strength of unity.  Diversity founded on Christ’s love, releases the giftings of each church (and individuals) to serve Christ and the city in such a way that all are blessed.

Our prayer is that the full expression of the Body of Christ will emerge as we continue the journey.  The current activity in this journey is the drawing of senior clergy and lay leaders into a Community of Leaders for prayer and fellowship.  As we pray in unity, God will work in power. We have enjoyed several dinners together and slowly but surely are recognizing afresh our “Familyness”.

The other fact that is emerging is the number of groups and individuals from various churches who are working together to bring Christ’s love and blessings to Toowoomba.  Check out this website for some of these activities.

This also can be said of many who express their faith and love in work situations and to their neighbours.  Then there are those who work in schools, with youth, migrants, the poor and the list goes on and on.  We celebrate all these people and their efforts in Jesus name.

In short, the Family of God will love the city it’s been placed in.