Mark 9:38 – "Teacher," said John, "we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we told him to stop, because he was not one of us." (NIV)

About forty-five years ago, my home town of Glasgow, Scotland, started to pull down many old buildings that had been condemned as not fit for human habitation. These inner-city slums housed thousands of families, who had built up a strong community over six generations.

Vast new sub-divisions were being built on the outskirts of the city, so masses of families were moved to these new areas. One of them was called Easterhouse, and as the people moved there, some new community churches were built by the various denominations across the city.

There was a great enthusiasm for the locality, and someone suggested that the churches should print a community newsletter, to build up bonds among all the people of Easterhouse. It was a wonderful idea, but we're talking about forty-five years ago, when the old traditional tribalism still existed. The churches wouldn't cooperate, and they defended their patches and new parishioners with a jealousy that jaundiced the entire community.

So, the Communist party in Easterhouse decided to produce the monthly newsletter. It successfully used the paper as a vehicle to indoctrinate the local people into accepting Marxist propaganda. Where the churches failed to influence the hearts and minds of the people, the Communists took over. Within a decade, Easterhouse became strongly associated with Communism, and sadly, to this day, the party still holds sway over much of the local community government.

If only the churches had not divided, if only they had worked together, things might have turned out differently for Easterhouse. But couldn't the same thing still be said about our churches across the globe? It would be wonderful if we could stop being so territorial and start applying what Christ said long ago: "Whoever is not against us is for us." (Mark 9:40 NIV)

Prayer: Lord Jesus, we want to win the world for You, but sometimes we do things in our churches that sabotage Your work and diminish Your mission in our communities. Empower and enable us to pull down the barricades of pride, intolerance, and injustice, which emanate from us when we seek to be exclusive, territorial, and indifferent. In Your holy name, we pray. Amen.

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John Stuart <traqair@aol.com>
Knoxville, Tennessee, USA
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