Churches Know Best How To Do Church

In the past few months, I have worked with two churches on two different paths toward developing their global mission focus. 

One church started right off with an exploratory trip to a specific region of the world to find a national ministry partner with whom they might work together for training other pastors and leaders.  Now they are figuring out what their partnership will look like over the next three years as they plan and execute trainings twice a year together. 

The other church started with a careful year-long in-depth examination of their opportunities, putting in a lot of thought in defining their future three to five year partnership.  Now they are excited to get over there with a team and get engaged with the official partnership.

The first church found a reliable guide and went overseas to see what would happen, and now is working hard on defining the partnership.  The second church found a trustworthy consultant to lead them through the discovery process, and now is going overseas with clear expectations to maximize their ministry.

There are many other ways for churches to begin and to develop global partnerships that contribute to the growth of the church around the world.  There are multitudes of variables to consider, but church partners are more desired and more valuable than they often realize.

More Desired than Expected

Church partnerships are crucial and highly effective for church planting and leadership development around the world.  For many churches this is news to them.  They are simply used to supporting individuals or projects.  

But, those they send often dream about a church who would partner with them in the work itself.  Mission agencies and other parachurch organizations are looking for churches to become significant players in cross-cultural contexts.  And national partners long for relationships with healthy churches that can help them accomplish even more with the Gospel of Jesus Christ and for His Kingdom.

This is because the heart of the matter is relationships.  Individual missionaries can only do so much, even if they are part of a great team, and have deep relationships with those with whom and to whom they minister.  Agencies will relate at a different level and in more organizational ways, and they will be instrumental in a variety of unique contributions.  More is needed and it is something only churches can provide.

More Beneficial than Expected

National ministry partners might be planting new churches or strengthening existing ones, and on the side they are probably initiating a whole lot of other very good ministries.  What they so often need and want is a church, or two or three working together, to help them figure out their next ministry steps.

The most obvious reason is that a reasonably healthy and successful church must know how to do church well.  Resources and seminars are wonderful gifts, yet even more wonderful are relationships with other churches attempting the same things in their own context, who might be able to provide next level mentoring.

Church partnerships come with a lot of relationships:  pastors to pastors, leaders to leaders, members to members, men, women and young people.  Along with these ever growing number of relationships come more prayer, support, and encouragement from regular church people living regular lives.

Partnership takes on a much richer meaning because of these types and levels of relationships that crisscross throughout each of the churches and ministries involved.  This in turn makes all the training, coaching and mentoring all the more beneficial.  In addition, churches that make good partners are often well networked for access to further assistance.

When it comes to doing church, whether starting them, growing them or maturing them, churches know best how to do church.

How might your church develop a global mission focus, a partnership that will advance the mission in a less-reached area of the world?  Would such an approach capture the hearts and minds of your congregation?  In doing so, they will be launched into a previously unknown world of human need and the powerful working of the Holy Spirit.

Ephesians 3:20–21 ESV “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”