Partnering Up

Parachute church plants have the unique challenge of building a launch team from the ground up.  Mother churches are not in the equation, so teams must be built from relationships made by the church planter in the community.  

It has been exciting to build relationships with people in our community, but it has been equally exciting to build relationships with pastors in our community.  We began praying early on in our journey of church planting that God would open the doors for us to connect with several local churches and the pastors of these churches. We knew that God was going to have to open the doors and pave the way if we were going to build relationships with pastors and ask them the hard question of how we might be able to partner with their church as we worked to plant our church.  

We learned quickly that when you are reaching out to pastors and sharing your needs with them, timing is critical.  There has to be a certain sense of trust that has been established before a partnership can begin between an existing local church and a church plant.  We are currently partnering with two local churches who are geared up to provide us with team members at the beginning of launching our church.  We have also been the recipients of financial support from our local church partnerships.  But this didn't come overnight.   We have spent time getting to know the pastors, their dreams for their churches and their vision for seeing the church community as a whole ignited with a passion for working together.   

Once relationships had been established with local pastors that shared the same vision and passions as we did, it came naturally for us to share our BIG needs for launch team members and volunteers leading up to launch.  We have made it very clear, and continue to make it clear, that we are not looking to steal sheep.  God has not called us to build a church from the overflow of other churches in our community.  He is calling us to reach into uncharted territory and connect with those who are not connected to a body of believers and our partnering churches in this community share this same vision. 


With this in mind, we are asking for our local partnering churches to send us missionaries for a season. This will help us get on our feet and move forward with momentum.  Once this season is over, we will lovingly send these missionaries back to their home churches and praise God for the territory that has been covered because of their partnership with us.  

We've also held to one other very important mindset during this journey of partnering with local churches.   A common question we receive from people in our community is, "Why do we need another church on another corner?"  We have been very careful not to disregard or talk against the work that is already being done by the existing local churches in our community.  We are not the church that "gets it" while all of the other churches are wandering around aimlessly trying to find purpose.  If we slide down the slippery slope of talking about what other churches aren't accomplishing in our community we are walking into the trap of self-promotion.  We want to build the trust of our fellow pastors in this community and that cannot be accomplished if we are focused on building up our church as the answer to people's frustration with their local church community.  

Don't miss the blessing of connecting with local pastors that share the same passions as you do to see the Kingdom of God established in your community.  The pastor of one of our local partnering churches made a statement that we hold on to as we grow our church in this community.  He looked at us across from his desk and said, "A win for the kingdom is a win for the kingdom."  Praise God!  He is exactly right.  It doesn't matter who gets the credit when someone comes into a saving relationship with Christ.  It isn't important what church receives attention when a part of our community is touched by the generosity of a body of believers.  You might have to spend some time looking, but keep looking until you find a pastor in your community that is passionate about seeing a new work begin.   Church planters need connections with the local church community.  Your church will experience momentum when local churches breathe life into the journey of launching a new work in their community.  Ask the tough questions, be real with the pastors you are connecting with and together go  impact your communities!  




Be encouraged today!

Location or Fixture?

Every church planter will walk through the journey of trying to find a location for their new church.  You find yourself making statements like, "That could make a great church" when passing by an empty warehouse or storefront.  Location seems like such a critical aspect of the church planting process.  Certainly a church's location can magnify their visibility in the community.


If you have talked about your church to people in your community, you have probably been asked this question, "Why does our city need another church on another corner?"  This question is very loaded.  It forces us as church planters to examine our motives and agendas for planting a new work.  The reality is, most of our communities don't need another church on another corner.  They aren't looking for a church that is simply going to be another location for people in the community to attend.


We have talked with so many church planters who have experienced great frustration when trying to find a location to rent.  The challenge is growing increasingly more difficult to find a school, place of business or theater that is open to renting their facility to a new church.  Pastors are forced to think creatively and out of the box in order to find a location that will meet their growing church's needs.


We have experienced the challenges of helping lead a baby church through the growing pains of existing as a "church in the box."  We hold fond memories of the days spent worshipping in a non-traditional setting.  We have experienced leading worship experiences in school gymnasiums, cafeterias, warehouses and performing arts centers.   We have also experienced the challenges of leading worship experiences in a church sanctuary.


We have discovered a common thread throughout the years between the people that experienced worship in very different atmospheres and locations.  The common thread is - people are hungry for connection!  The location can be great, but if the connection factor is missing, they feel as if their experience has somehow been cheated.


If a church's identity is wrapped around a location, efforts are spent on getting people to walk through the doors.   It's the, "Let's put a sign up and people will come," mentality.  Relying on location is dangerous.  We have the rare opportunity of planting our church in an existing building that is on a major 5 lane road across from an elementary school.  We know that we are blessed!  But we also know that we must keep our motivations and focus in check.  We constantly remind ourselves that people are hungry for connection, not buildings to meet in.  This doesn't mean we won't give our very best to make sure our building is relevant to our culture, however, our building isn't what makes us who we are.


We have walked in to the lobby of some beautifully decorated churches, and left 2 hours later feeling disconnected and unnoticed.  In the same respect, we have walked in to the lobby of some churches that were decorated comfortably and economically, and left 2 hours later feeling connected and noticed.
The point is, we can work to make our churches look beautiful inside and out, but if we miss the boat on connecting with our community and the people walking through our doors, we are just another church location for people to visit.  


When our church becomes a location, we open our doors to the community on our terms.  We open our doors when it is convenient for us.  We determine the hours of operation.  Our ministries are not developed out of the felt needs of our community, but rather, our ministries are driven by what we think will attract a crowd.


So the question becomes, "How do we turn our churches from being locations in our city to fixtures in our community?" We start by asking the same question Dino Rizzo asked in his book, "Servolution" -  "If our church closed down tomorrow, who would notice?"  If our church is a location in our community, the only people who will notice we have closed down are the people inside our four walls.  If our church is a fixture in our community, OUR COMMUNITY will notice we have closed down!

Matthew 5:14-16 puts it this way - "You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world.  God is not a secret to be kept.  We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill.  If I make you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you?  I'm putting you on a light stand.  Now that I've put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand - shine!  Keep open house; be generous with your lives.  By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven." (The Message)


Keep open house!  Be generous with your lives!  Open up to others and prompt them to open up with God!  God is calling us to be the city on a hill to our communities.  If we aren't meeting the needs of our community, opening our doors when it isn't convenient, we are hiding under our buckets!  Every single week church goers all over this great country will carry their lights into their churches.  The reality is, we're not called to light up our church buildings, we are called to light up our communities!  Hope and healing happens when we become the city on the hill that is providing light to our community.  When this happens, we are transformed from being a church location to a church fixture.


Be encouraged today!