Sunday – June 5 – 10 a.m. – noon at Steinbrenner Baseball Field.
One year ago the Lord led a few church planters in Brandon to gather in worship and prayer. They discussed a Friday, Saturday or Sunday night gathering but decided, “we will not offer God a sacrifice that costs us nothing,” and settled on a Sunday morning. The Sunday they chose was Pentecost Sunday – 50 days after Easter. Since it was an event seeking to unify the church in Tampa they found it appropriate to set the date for the last time the church of Jesus Christ was completely unified – the day of Pentecost (see Acts 2). They hoped for three or four churches and a couple hundred people – but in just a couple of weeks the Lord brought together 33 churches and 1,500 people outside on the property of Overflow Church.
As these passionate young pastors connected with other pastors in Tampa Bay, particularly through the annual prayer summit hosted by Tampa Bay 4 Christ, the vision grew to try to bring churches together from all across the Bay area – Bible-based, gospel-centered churches from every culture and tradition. To host a larger gathering, they chose Steinbrenner (which can handle around 8,000 for an event like this).
Why would a church like Oakwood participate in a Sunday morning event like this?
Here are 10 reasons:
10. To support the God-sized vision of a couple of energetic young church planters
9. To answer the prayer of Jesus in John 17 for unity among his followers
8. To experience the blessing of worship and prayer in a large gathering
7. To represent the Evangelical Free Church in a unifying initiative like this
6. To help Tampa Bay 4 Christ build momentum as a gospel-centered coalition
5. To help lead other churches to see the bigger picture of The Church and the Kingdom
4. To help show the people of Tampa Bay that there is something significant about this Jesus thing
3. To help visibly demonstrate the unity of the One body of Christ
2. To cry out to God for revival in our city
1. To worship the Lord Jesus
If you want a single answer to why we invest in Tampa Bay 4 Christ, why we help facilitate cooperative evangelism all over the city, why we host and support new church plants and why we would participate in an event like To Gather, the clearest answer is here at the end of the longest recorded prayer of Jesus:
“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.” John 17:20-23
One more Scripture as a prayer and benediction:
“May the God of endurance and encouragement grant you to live in such harmony with one another, in accord with Christ Jesus, that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” Romans 15:5-6