November 2004

Unity in London

My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may 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 sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. (John 17:20-23)

In the above text the italics are mine because I wanted to illustrate how passionately Jesus prayed for our unity. Whilst there are no formulae that I am aware of, I believe this is a vital prerequisite to the revival of our city (or anywhere else for that matter). Because out unity is so close to Jesus’ heart, we have to allow for the fact that the enemy is constantly attacking in this area and so, as in any battle, we need to develop a strategy to defeat his.

Put simply the issue and the challenge is this: If we want to see London turning to Christ (by which I mean thousands... tens of thousands… hundreds of thousands…) then the people of London will have to have seen a radical expression of unity within and between the churches in this city. Obviously, events like Soul in the City, just10southlondon, the 24-7 London Prayer Initiative and Prayer for London (to name some of the activities from the recent past) are a tremendous encouragement because they all involved a lot of churches working effectively together.

I believe we can capitalise on this by actively seeking to develop unity across London between the diversity of all its different Christian churches and denominations wherever possible. I certainly believe that prayer is part of the process and that we need to go on seeking to create an “atmosphere of prayer” which progressively permeates more and more of our city as a kind of sowing into the process I am speaking about. I also think that now is the time to defer to each other, to prefer one another, to lay down all forms of competition within the body of Christ and to seek his face and his kingdom with renewed passion and longing. In practical terms, this involves local churches continuing to function effectively and well at the local level in the diversity of their different traditions and expressions but also increasingly functioning more and more cohesively as the Church in London through prayer, joint events with a greater awareness of our oneness in Christ across the board.

I do believe that what I am describing is developing inexorably and I think it is time for us to fan the flames of unity at every level, in every opportunity and as a matter of the utmost urgency in the days ahead. One tension is that such a movement will essentially entail a “facelessness” about it but will also require anointed leadership (the Acts model) – we really need to pray for God to be developing the one while positioning and raising up the other simultaneously because the prize is what London (and the world) has been waiting to see.

Once opportunity for such prayer will be the New Year’s Eve Prayer Party here and, meanwhile, there are always the ongoing Regular Prayer Meetings on Tuesday mornings at 7am and Thursday evenings at 7pm!

This article was first published in Focus Newspaper. Reproduced here by kind permission.