Newsletter

Special Annual Gathering issue.

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.

In last month's update, I made a passing reference to the tongue-in-cheek placeholder name for our community (before we landed on The Initiative) as "FOJ (Friends of John)". Somewhere in there, I think we also played around with the idea of keeping the FOJ and just subbing in "Jesus" for "John". Ergo, the "Friends of Jesus"

This month, I'm sharing a brief reflection on the beginning of Ephesians and some of its imperatives for our relationships with one another in light of who Jesus is. We also want to celebrate the good things from January's Week of Prayer for Christian Unity and offer a number of ways to participate in the "living laboratory" of our community.

As we start another calendar year, I've continued to pray and reflect on the theme of tables and how God wants to expand who we "sit with" and how we "sit together". I've got more thoughts to share (next update!) but I have a strong sense that our experience of this has the potential to be both more joyful and more challenging than we can imagine.

This month's update includes the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, more Zoom prayer & conversation, details on our national gathering in June, and something called "JC2033"

This month, after reflecting on the past week at the CCT Forum, we invite you to our monthly Zoom times for prayer and for conversation, and to join Christians from many traditions and convictions in prayer & fasting against violence.

This month, we continue with both our Zoom prayer and conversation gatherings, explore another emerging unity resource (that came from the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity), highlight a couple of events coming up, and take a quick glimpse into Scott's campus world.

This month, I've been thinking a lot about friendship: its gifts, expectations and challenges. We're also introducing two new ways to connect with The Initiative on a regular basis. And the talks from the ASM conference are now on YouTube.

This month, we look back at last week's National Gathering and the American Society of Missiology. We're also getting a sneak preview for next year's Week of Prayer for Christian Unity - and taking some time off for the summer.