So, Your Church Wants to Help Renew Other Churches?

Your Church Wants to Help? Great!
As my good friend Mark Hallock says; “We can’t do this alone, which is why a replanting movement must be made up of churches, pastors, and denominational leaders who practice humble, radical cooperation.”
Churches help renew, revitalize and replant other churches by sending people, resources, and sharing expertise. Increasingly we are seeing more formal and official partnerships like fostering, adoption and campusing which are aiding churches to experience new seasons of vitality and growth.

Even if you are not ready for a formal step, there are opportunities for a congregation of any size to help a sister congregation Before jumping in, answer these questions.


Have You Checked Your Motives? 
This step may seem less than necessary and unimportant but it is one of the most important first steps. I have seen partnership conversations breakdown because motives aren’t clearly evaluated. Are you engaging to help or rescue? Do you want to extend your church’s name or brand more widely?
If you want to help a sister church out of a genuine desire to enable Kingdom advance (read God’s Kingdom - not your church’s kingdom and influence) then you’re likely ready to take a step toward partnership. 

What Types of Partnership Are You Offering?
I love baseball, and one of the truisms is that every pitcher has to know his pitch. He can’t throw everything-he likely specializes in one or a couple. Do you know what kind of partnership God has equipped and called your church to provide? Some of the best partnerships are short term, Church Fostering, Coaching and Resourcing.  These are great ways to “test” out partnership before jumping into more permanent models like Adoption and Campusing. 

Are You Ready to Go Slow?
Declining and struggling churches are often fearful. They know they need to change but fear the potential impact any change could have on the few remaining attenders and members. This means they’ll likely have a zillion questions which they will need answered more than once. They’ll want time to think and pray, rethink and pray again which means helping churches have to hold to timelines loosely. Patience is key here and slow ends up being faster than you think.

Do You Need the Credit? 
The reality is simply this, when a church is renewed, revitalized or replanted the one who deserves all the credit is God. Sure, you may have been invited to play a part in the work of renewal but you didn’t renew a cold and callus heart-God did. You didn’t cause someone to cross the line between spiritual death and life-God did. You didn’t breakdown preferences, prejudices and traditions-God did. If you’re ready to give all glory to God-you might be ready to help a struggling or declining church. 

Can You Walk Away?
On average it seems that three out of ten churches who engage in some sort of conversation or renewal process actually end up experiencing renewal. That’s not great - but it’s also not bad. Sometimes a church has to make several runs at renewal before finally hitting the breakthrough point. If you aren’t ready to engage, experience resistance and push back and rejection, if you’re not read to disengage and walk away and allow a church to season and warm to the Gospel and change-you might not be fully ready to help.


Questions for Reflection
1. Why are you or your church interested in assisting other churches?
2. What does your congregation have to offer? How can you help?
3. Are you ready to go slow or even walk away if necessary?


Check out more principles on partnership in this resource: 
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