By Anne Baenziger  | Originally posted on VOX.

From a young age, I loved gathering people. I love thinking of people, their interests, desires, skills and how we can connect. When I began my role with Praxis back in 2020, we wrestled with a role title and finally nailed down the word “connector” – one of our core pillars is ‘connect’. The importance of connection, relating, partnering, collaborating, and coming together is such a key piece of Christianity and God’s kingdom. We all have stories of beautiful gatherings and connections made with our church communities, families and friends. We read various stories in scripture about connections whether it’s a wedding, a meal, a visit to someone’s home or coming together in a public space.

We want to help connect people, churches, organisations, and individuals for God’s Kingdom as we reimagine mission together.

I have had the privilege to see people connect over topics such as missional enterprise, women in leadership, rural missional context, creative arts, and more. It is a wonderful thing to see people gather under a common cause and wrestle with the ups and downs of what it means to follow Jesus in that sphere.

Priya Parker is a facilitator and strategic advisor who seeks to help people create collective meaning in modern life, one gathering at a time. In her book The Art of Gathering she shares the importance of gathering, “why do we gather? We gather to solve problems that we can’t solve on our own, we gather to celebrate, to mourn, and to mark transitions. We gather to make decisions, we gather because we need one another. We gather to show strength. We gather to honour and acknowledge. We gather to build companies, and schools, and neighbourhoods.”

It is in these gatherings or networking which we can exercise the truth of what it means to be the Body of Christ. We see more of the parts put together for good function and meaningful impact. It is in coming together with those who are different from us that we can see a different perspective, a solution we couldn’t before, and simply be inspired to keep going.

The amount of times I have heard, “oh so I’m not the only one” when it comes to living more missionally and the desire to follow Jesus in a real way.  We need each other to keep going and spur one another on. To see the Kingdom come here in Ireland as it is in heaven, we must work together – gather, share, partner, and collaborate.