Thanks so much for reading this month‘s news from The Initiative, a community committed to “walking in deeper friendship with Jesus and his followers, so that the love of Christ might exceed all divisions.” We do this primarily through prayer, sharing of our lives, and proactive work for greater unity.
This month, we’re talking about the perception and reality of “love at the center of everything we do” and announcing the launch of our weekly Zoom gathering for prayer, conversations & interviews, Scripture study and exploring historic & emerging developments in Christian unity.
In the weeks since our national gathering in June, I’ve been reflecting a good bit on the ways that love – and friendship across difference – emerged as the focal point of our powerful time together. That reflection led me to further rumination on something I’m calling the “goes-without-saying” dogma of love being the core value and practice of our Christian churches and organizations. More specifically, I mean that whatever we’re doing in our many and various North American church activities – gathering in fellowship, witnessing to our neighbors, serving the needs of our community – we are often operating with the perception that “it goes without saying that love is at the center of everything that we do.”
And I believe that’s become a tremendous blind spot. First of all, it doesn’t “go without saying”. Putting love at the center requires significant amounts of consideration and disciplined effort. Also, because of the nature of God revealed in Jesus Christ, we know that love should be the center point. However, knowing something and actually putting it into practice are two quite different things (see Matthew 7:24 or John 13:17, for example). In fact, I would go so far as to say that everything, from our vision to our programs and structures, is in need of serious re-examination and reconstruction so that Jesus’ Church can begin to re-center love at its core.
I don’t want to presume that The Initiative is (or needs to be) at the vanguard of this kind of renovation of mission and activity, but I am becoming more persuaded that our practice of friendship across difference is an essential element of re-centering love in all of the various activities of our Christian communities.
I’m pretty sure I’ll have a lot more to say in the coming months about this – and about a spirituality of friendship, along with some ideas about what it could look like for us to take on a certain shape of love for the particular moment we find ourselves in. For now, I simply want to invite you to take a step or two further into the kinds of examinations and experiences that the Holy Spirit can use to form Jesus-shaped and Jesus-centered love in us individually and corporately.
Weekly Zoom Gathering – starting Thursday, August 20th
One of the practical next steps you can take is to participate in one of the upcoming Zoom gatherings with some other members and friends of The Initiative.
As I mentioned in the June/July update, the Leadership Council felt compelled to take the twice-a-month online gatherings for prayer and for conversations that we had started last year and make them a weekly event. Beginning on Thursday, August 20th, we will be gathering on Zoom every Thursday at 8:00pm Eastern time. The format will alternate each week between four things: 1) prayer, 2) talking about a Scripture passage together, 3) digging into a topic related to friendship and Christian unity (or disunity), and 4) hearing from some of our friends in a kind of interview or podcast-style discussion. The prayer times will be roughly an hour; all the other formats will be 90 minutes. The Zoom link with remain the same every week; click here or on the button below to join.
Here’s the upcoming rotation, through the middle of September:
- August 20 – Introduction & Prayer
- August 27 – Conversation: How do Christians from various traditions engage Scripture together?
- September 3 – Bible Study: Acts 5:33 – 6:15
- September 10 – Interview: Two friends (Catholic & Protestant) talk about why they can’t share communion (trying to recreate the amazing dialogue from our June gathering)
- September 17 – Prayer
Resource of the Month – UniteBoston’s “Beloved Community Lab” Online Cohort
If you feel compelled to take a deeper dive into an examination and experience of centering Jesus’ love in everything, I highly recommend considering joining UniteBoston’s “Beloved Community Cohort” for this coming fall and spring.
Here’s what Rev. Kelly Fassett (UB Director) says about it: “In a culture marked by deep polarization, I hear many leaders asking for tools to navigate differences with grace, truth, and wisdom. This 12-session interactive cohort offers a practical, theological space to integrate unity, peacemaking, justice, and reconciliation directly into your daily leadership. We recently wrapped up a pilot with 16 Boston-area pastors, and we’re already seeing how deeper trust among diverse leaders is bearing fruit in collaborative partnerships across our city.”
This online cohort means that you don’t have to be in Boston to participate! You can find out more about what’s involved by going to this page or clicking on the picture below. You can also reply to this newsletter with any questions, since Elizabeth Woodard (from our Council) and I were part of the design group that helped craft some of the curriculum.
Thanks again to all of you who read, pray, participate in our community and give of your time and resources. I don’t want it to “go without saying” just how much I appreciate and am inspired by your love and friendship.
It’s an amazing privilege to learn and grow alongside each of you in the way of Jesus. My prayer for you this month is that you continue to walk boldly in that way and discover deeper friendships that transcend division!
Yours in Christ’s Love,
Scott Brill
Executive Director
