The blessings that flow when cities unite for Jesus
- deansimpson7
- Jul 8
- 5 min read
BY LAUREN MARTIN
During one of his regular walks with God in a park, Ryde Corps Leader Greig Whittaker felt God reveal to him that he was “an abusive lover” of his local city council area. The revelation sent him staggering to his knees and on a quest to discover what it really means for the church to ‘be as one’.
His journey towards unity and oneness within the church began in 2017 when he was invited to a pizza dinner with Gather Movement team members Roger Sutton and Dave King from Salford, England. They shared stories about what God was doing in their country to bring unity to the church and, through that, citywide transformation.
“At this dinner,” Greig writes in his recently published book Unity for Movement, “the Holy Spirit awakened something in me that has been my journey and passion since.”
He began re-reading the Scriptures and was struck by how passionately Jesus wanted his followers to live in unity, noting that in John 17, Jesus asks the Father four times to “make us one”. Something had birthed in Greig that he “couldn’t leave alone”.
God wants the city
One day, as he was brainstorming with God on a walk, he felt God asking him to be “wildly optimistic” about his hopes and prayers for Ryde Corps for the following year. “I was rattling off the stats that I thought mattered, and then God firmly and directly interrupted me – ‘I want the city [of Ryde]!’”
He realised that his vision had been small, centred just on Ryde Salvation Army (in Sydney’s north-west), and therefore “not in alignment with God’s vision”.
“He said, ‘You love your church in the city. You love upon the city, so they will come to our church, but you do not love the city. You do not even know your city’.”
Greig realised that he was “an abusive lover of my city; I loved for gain, for what I could get. This is not Heaven’s love. I love that God revealed that to my heart because awareness is the beautiful gift that leads to repentance and transformation.”
From then on, Greig prioritised unity and oneness by intentionally setting aside time in his diary to have coffee or lunch with other pastors in the Ryde City Council area. God challenged him to spend 15 per cent of his time investing in the unity space.
He remembers that, at the beginning, stepping away from the demands of a busy corps to attend regular long lunches with the aim of building relationships (not even talking about working together on a project at that early stage) felt strange. He also experienced some revelations, writing in his book: “Playing exclusively in my Salvos sandpit, I never realised how deeply I was lacking, and also what I had to give. What is second nature for my tribe is rocket science to another, and vice-versa.”
He also realised that there was no “quick fix” or “silver bullet” to oneness.
“We’re talking generational reformation of church here.” They waited on God as the small group of pastors came together regularly just to get to know each other, trust each other and love each other. They then realised that they didn’t really know their city.
Ryde was changing dramatically, with high-rises replacing traditional Australian quarter-acre blocks. “We had no idea how to minister to a ‘vertical village’,” said Greig, “because we had never lived in one.”
So, God opened access to the pastors a grant for a research project to begin on ‘vertical villages’. Macquarie University came on board, and the research has opened up new opportunities and partnerships.
Together for the city
From the lunches and the relationships that formed amongst the pastors, the ‘Together for Ryde’ movement was birthed, a network of churches and Christian ministries in the Ryde area who have a shared vision of serving the city through partnership and collaboration. The movement collaborates on outreach opportunities, with volunteers from all churches joining community members to love their city through various initiatives.
Greig says that through intentional relationship building, he and the other pastors bonded over their deep love of their city, and they grew to trust each other.
When Greig suggested that they collaborate for The Salvation Army’s Red Shield Appeal fundraising campaign one year, with all profits being put towards the ‘Together for Ryde’ movement, it was Ryde Salvos’ largest Red Shield Appeal in history. Now, the movement employs a part-time worker and has gained so much momentum that community leaders, including the local council and the police local area command, are approaching the movement to collaborate on tackling social issues.
“When we come together, the blessing of Heaven flows and we experience Psalm 133:1,” writes Greig in his book. “How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity.”
Ryde Salvos now worships in oneness with the Ryde Baptist Church, after the building the corps used to worship in was sold. Because of the relationship built through the ‘Together for Ryde’ movement, the Ryde Baptists invited The Salvation Army to share its space, free of charge. “So, we became the four o’clock congregation at the Ryde Baptist with offices, counselling rooms, everything free, just given to us because we were in relationship with each other,” said Greig.
Soon, the two congregations decided to merge.
“We’re one church with two logos and two bank accounts, but we do everything together! And people say, ‘How on earth does that work?’ and I say, ‘Well, it’s not as hard as you think it is.’ “We have just relationally connected.”
Bringing other cities together in Christ
Greig Whittaker now works for the City to City Movement, passionately working with pastors from cities across Australia and the South Pacific to help facilitate oneness. He is spurred on by a vision of cities being transformed by “the grace, love, mercy and justice of God led by the unified body of Christ”.
He says momentum is building. “The conversation almost didn’t exist when I started [2.5 years ago], and now the conversation is all over the place, lots of movement!”
City to City supports churches and faith-based organisations in more than 70 cities in Australia, Fiji and New Zealand. Salvation Army corps officers in Sydney, on the NSW Central Coast, Clayton in Victoria, Cairns in Queensland and Rockingham in Western Australia are also joining City to City ‘tables’ where they commit to setting aside time to intentionally get to know and love the other pastors in the city, with the prayer to see the city won for Jesus.
“I feel the pleasure of heaven when we meet in unity,” Greig writes in his book. “He seems to smile upon his kids when we play well together.”
He has this vision for the church: “Imagine, a unified church, witnessing the transformation of their city, giving glory to God for his goodness.”
And this challenge: “Now go and be your imaginings.”
If you want to find out more about unity and oneness, head to: citytocityaustralia.org.au
