About The Vision

Welcome to the John 17 Interdenominational Bible Study.

I am Godfrey E. McAllister, a servant of God and an ordained Minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

Before enrolling in my first 4-year degree program at the Jamaica Theological Seminary  in 1972, all the Believers in Jesus who I knew were from the Christian Brethren Denomination. As far as I was concerned, all other Denominations were to be judged by the standards of my Denomination. And By that standard, all others were presumed to be inferior. 

Fortunately for me, Jamaica Theological Seminary is an Inter-Denominational institution of higher learning, and 90% of the students lived on campus. This fact I had overlooked when I was recruited in Guyana, the land of my birth. However, after just a few months at the Jamaica Theological Seminary, my religious conceit and bigotry was subsumed by the brotherly and sisterly love and camaraderie on campus, of which I was a part. 

It was during my journey at JTS that the Lord laid a burden on my heart to encourage and facilitate unity in the Ekklesia, the Body of Jesus Christ. One look at the condition of the Ekklesia today, riddled with Denominational fractures and distinctives, and it is obvious that the one thing lacking in the Body of Jesus Christ is unity. We are still striving for unity within some of our local churches. Interdenominational unity seems out of reach. 

But the reality on the ground does not alter the requirement that Jesus stated in his “High Priestly” prayer in John 17. He must have foreseen schisms and divisions in the Corinthian Church, and He definitely must have foreseen the proliferation of denominational divides in the 21st century that strike a crippling, or should I say a weakening blow to our ability to effectively take a stand in a morally bankrupt world, and to speak with one voice against all that flies in the face of God and Godliness. And with all this foreknowledge, His prayer that we be one, cuts through Denominational divides, and challenges the subjective what is, by the objective, what ought to be.

My vision of unity in the Ekklesia was rekindled recently after reflecting on what God was saying to me through a specific event. In July 2022 I was invited to visit an Apostolic on-line International Bible Study. On my second visit I was asked to sit on its teaching resource panel which requires me to comment and respond to questions during our weekly Bible Studies. Because of my non-Apostolic heritage, at first, I was amused… then amazed… then alert to what God was doing. He was credentialing me to challenge the Body of Christ to fulfil the desire of Jesus that we be one, even as He and His Father are one. 

I have accepted the challenge with the sobering awareness that by any standard, success in this ministry is possible only through the power of the Holy Spirit. The John 17 Inter-Denominational Bible Study is the first step. We will see how God leads as we study His Word with the objective of attaining to unity in the Faith as made clear by the Apostle Paul in Ephesians 4:13.  In supporting the desire of Jesus for unity among Believers, the Apostle Paul lays out the seven pillars that form part of the groundwork that underpins the vision for unity in the Body. These are easily identified by the common denominator, the word one. 

As the Lord makes His servants available, Bible Teachers from any Christian Denomination will be invited to contribute to and be an integral part of our Bible Study. I have God’s assurance that this will not lead to chaos or confusion. Instead, it will lead to a re-focusing on Jesus the Christ who redeemed us with his own blood… the only functional formula for unity. Remember, Unity does not require uniformity, neither does it require unification. Unity requires our fixed focus on the bloody price Jesus paid to redeem us.

The Lord has not shown me a blueprint of all the stages from start to completion. But He has commanded me to start. I invite you to be a part of, and play an active role in our John 17 Inter-Denominational Bible Study. 

I implore you to reach out to us if you are of like mind on this critically important subject. Jesus will soon be returning for His Bride – His Ekklesia – His spotless Bride… not fractured, but united in the Faith… When he returns – and He can return tday – He wants us to be one both positionally and functionally, even as He and His Father are One.  May God’s goodness and mercy continue to run you down and overtake you… in the Name of Jesus… Amen