Christian cooperation, an oxymoron?

The ultimate oxymoron?

When I share with someone that I am Protestant, their follow up question is often, "Do you ever have contact with people from other Protestant churches?"

Now you have to understand that I live in a city of 1/4 million people where there are only 5 Evangelical churches (yep, 1 church per 50,000 people). So we Evangelicals know each other well and have a city-wide Evangelical ministerium.

I share, therefore, "Yes, the pastors get together every other month to share news and pray." You can almost hear the unspoken, "Whew! or Wow! I thought all Protestants were fractious, sectarian isolationists!"

Paris' Sunday Night Gathering is a demonstration that "Christian cooperation" is not necessarily an oxymoron. A Baptist church (300 people), a Grace Brethren house group (15 people), and a full-time InterVarsity worker (1 person), are co-laboring together.

Our concerted efforts flow from a common heart and vision for the thousands of young church-less Parisians, who leave the city for the weekend and return late Sunday afternoon, to encounter Christ.

Students in Paris

Pastor Appéré of the rue de Sèvre Baptist church on Paris' rive gauche

Paul Appéré described the first Sunday Night Gathering (Jan. 21st) like this:

"Well, it has been a few years now that some of us have sought a Sunday night gathering. With the arrival of Dennis Martin and Edward Nelson, this project has finally materialized.

The first Sunday Night Gathering took place tonight, the fruit of long, careful preparation. And what we lived went beyond all that we could have dared hope for. More than 70 people were present, of which half were visitors…"

The Sunday Night Gathering is a missional attempt to honor Jesus who prayed to His Father that "they might be one heart and mind with us. Then the world might believe that you, in fact, sent me.… I in them and you in me. Then they'll be mature in this oneness, and give the godless world evidence that you've sent me and loved them…."