Jean, JISRA and churches working together in Mali

Division and finding unity

‘How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!’ says Psalm 133:1. The gospels are full of calls to communities in Christ to work together, to live in harmony, to be as one. Yet, often the divisions in the world are echoed in the church. This was certainly the case in San.

Even though Christians are in the minority in San, the different denominational and organisational affiliations that congregations hold have made it difficult for them to work together and have a social impact. In many cases, churches belonging to a particular group would only work together with each other. This reduced what they could achieve and left some other churches completely excluded.

A community of believers that could have been working together to do excellent things instead were full of fractured frustration.

Jean and the JISRA programme

As part of the JISRA programme (the Joint Initiative for Strategic Religious Action), in 2021 Tearfund’s local partner in Mali started to run awareness-raising activities for Christian communities in the city of San about understanding and accepting different belief systems to help build collaboration and acceptance between them.

Jean, who is 84, is a leader in one of the oldest churches in San and is now also a member of the city's intra-religious consultation framework (looking at church relationships within the Christian community). He was originally reluctant to take part in the JISRA programme, saying, ‘It's true that it's important for us to accept each other and work together, but I fear the reaction of senior religious leaders if we get together.’

Changes in the churches in San

However, Jean did get involved. And it was good! He took part in training organised by Tearfund’s local partner, Youth with a Mission Mali, which focused on ‘community change makers’. Research referenced in this course shows that ‘change is most effectively achieved by networks of people and organisations who take coordinated, joint and complementary actions to achieve a common goal’. Jean was so inspired by what he learnt that he has now become involved in promoting acceptance between local churches and in encouraging them to work together on projects that will benefit their town.

So far, these initiatives involving all the town's churches working together have included things like two community clean-up activities, a blood donation event and the facilitation of a government-initiated census of the Christian community.

Now, Jean is responsible for ensuring the consultation framework that has been set up continues to function in monthly meetings organised in the various churches in San. This framework, representing all of the town’s churches, has been a major factor in inclusion and in encouraging the beginnings of collaboration and acceptance between the Christian intra-religious communities in San.

Jean says, ‘It is by creating a favourable environment for working together that we will be able to…build unity between the churches.’

The church at the centre of community transformation

The local church is often perfectly placed to understand the particular needs in its community and come up with solutions that change lives in a long-lasting way. Our work aims to make this possible by providing training and other tools to empower people and leaders in the community, through the church, to bring the transformation that they need.

If you’d like to support people as they find ways to step out of poverty, you can donate here.

Please also pray for local churches around the world to step up and play their role in being the answer.

*Name has been changed for protection.