What is a "City Church"? What do we mean when we talk about
" The Church in the city"? or by "One Church, many congregations?"
"May they be in us so that the world might believe that you have sent me.
I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one:
I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know
that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me."Jesus' prayer in John 17.
Read
"Is Unity Finished?" by Ian Shelton, Senior Pastor of Toowoomba City Church,
Leader of the Christian Leaders' Network, Toowoomba Qld,
and Convenor of the One Heart Working Group.
PAUL WRITING IN HIS LETTERS -
"We are writing to the Church in Corinth..." 1 Cor 1:2 and "..written to God's holy people in Ephesus..." Eph 1:16
"This letter is from Paul,Silas and Timothy, written to the Church in Thessalonica". 1 Thess 1:1
"God knows how much I love you, God's people in Philippi.." Phil. 1:8,9
Read
"One Heart" by John Bond, Senior Pastor of South Perth Church of Christ ,
Chairman of Citireach WA
and of the Servant Leadership Team for Prayer Summits WA.
Acts 8:1 and 11.22 speak of the church in Jerusalem
Romans 16:1 mentions the church in Cenchera
Colossians 4:16 "the church of the Laodiceans"
Read "
Could it be we're doing it wrong?" by Colin Shaw, associate pastor at Toowoomba City Church.
He travels extensively, promoting unity and facilitating pastors' prayer summits.
Write what you see into a book. Send it to the seven churches:
toEphesus,Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea." Rev. 1:11
"If we are going to reach our cities, we must change our mind-set.
It is time to stop pastoring our churches and start pastoring the cities in which we live.
As long as you just pastor your church that's all you'll ever have. Butif you can start pastoring your city, revival will come to your city.
It is time for the gatekeepers to take their place in the gates and to guard the source of influence over a city."
Tommy Tenny,"God's Dream Team", Ventura 1999.
Read "
One Church, Many Congregations"
excerpted from Derek Prince's "The Ethics of Ministry"
The fact cannot be overemphasized that in scripture no other name than that of a locality is ever connected with a church,
and division of the Church into churches is solely on the ground of difference of locality."
and "In the New Testament there is one method and one alone for dividing the Church into churches,
and that God-ordained method is divison on the basis of locality."
Watchman Nee, "The Church and the Work 11: Rethinking the Work" New York, 1982
