Biblical Church Partnerships

Our church (pictured above) was planted seven years ago. We’re a small team, with minimal resources, planting into a small, mainly working-class town where there hasn’t been an outward looking gospel preaching church for many decades. This has meant that partnering with other churches has been vital to our continued existence.

It’s also been one of the top joys (and at times, banes) of our time here!

Simply put: without other churches from very different backgrounds and communities to ours partnering with us, we wouldn’t still be reaching our town. Because of a lack of resources, yes, but also because their prayer, encouragement, love, and support has been vital to keep us pressing on.

Connecting Diverse Churches

It was a joy, then, to spend a few hours with others from very different places around the country thinking through how churches from diverse backgrounds can partner together in the gospel.

Connecting Diverse Churches was an opportunity to investigate and think through how effective partnerships could flourish between churches of very different sizes and areas, organised jointly by FIEC and Medhurst Ministries.

FIEC National Director John Stevens opened up Philippians for us to start the time, helping us see that partnership in the gospel is neither patronage, charity, nor a simple redistribution of resources. Instead, it is churches working together to genuinely mutually bless one other.

He also showed how the gospel kills any barriers to this genuine mutuality: such as exclusivity, superiority, or anxiety about whether we will have enough.

There was then an opportunity to hear from churches that had partnered together from across the country, hearing of encouragements, blessings, and challenges – but with the recurring theme that these encouragements, blessings and helpful challenges genuinely flowing both ways.

Ian Williamson, from Medhurst Ministries, also gave some background on the challenges and joys of ministering in, and supporting, churches trying to reach people with the gospel in some of the most forgotten communities across the north of England.

We concluded with an opportunity to talk this through and build relationships, and even potential future partnerships, over lunch.

Vital church partnerships

It was such a joy to see people interested in seeking to form partnerships with churches trying to reach out to forgotten communities like ours in Spen Valley.

Without this happening, churches like ours will simply not be planted into these communities. Neither will they continue to do the hard work of ploughing, sowing, and reaping amongst the folks I meet every day who have never heard the gospel, and are certainly not looking to travel outside their community for an opportunity to hear it.

You can see some examples on the resources below.

I pray that this day is just the start of many more flourishing partnerships, which the Lord would use to grow churches in diverse communities through them working together to make disciples in their respective areas.