Common Grace (www.commongrace.org.au) is an online community of almost 20,000 Australian people passionate about Jesus and justice.

Started in late 2014, the group seeks to celebrate the local church as it looks like Jesus in the world, to form people in faith as recipients of grace and obedient to Jesus’ call to be a blessing, and to mobilise Christians to be a faithful presence for God in a needy world. Common Grace has received seed funding through the National Council of Churches of Australia’s Glenburnie Programme.

This Holy Week, Common Grace has launched a new initiative in partnership with the Bible Society, a devotional series called ‘Love Thy Neighbour’. Concerned to emphasise the unity in the Australian church, it’s a series that puts together on one ‘virtual platform’ a variety of Australian church leaders. What does an Aboriginal Pastor, a Catholic Environmentalist, an Anglican Dean, a Uniting theological lecturer, a young Anabaptist changemaker, a Pentecostal worship leader and a Baptist missiologist all have in common? A concern to listen to the voice of Jesus as he calls us to love our neighbours!

Common Grace is aware that there’s no shortage of challenges and questions about being an Australian neighbour today. Challenges like: Who is my neighbour? How do we best face the injustices in our nation? Like those experienced by Australia’s first people? Or those seeking asylum? How should we love our muslim neighbours? What about future generations with a changing climate?

As Easter is a time to get re-centred and to focus again on Jesus and his great love, it’s appropriate we listen to his words. This Holy Week, Common Grace hopes people will be reassured of Jesus’ love as well as hearing again his invitation to generous, sacrificial love of our neighbour.

If you or your church would like to take part, sign up here for daily devotions, video teachings and blogs all meditating on what it means to ‘Love Thy Neighbour’.

The campaign begins by hearing from Louisa Hope, a committed Christian who was held hostage in the Lindt Café siege in Sydney. As Louisa says,

'Love is really where Jesus is at. You look to what Jesus did and how He behaved with people, and in my heart there was no choice but to say, ‘How can we get the good out of what’s happened in this circumstance? How can we encourage everybody to not fall into hate and fear, but to look to what Jesus said – to love our neighbour, even though it’s hard sometimes.’

Louisa’s experience has given her a passion for an Australia not divided by fear and hatred but of unity and grace. We hope the campaign will renew the Australian church in neighbour-love as we focus our hearts and minds on Jesus as he lays down his life for us this Easter.