The Body of Christ: A Partnership of Congregations

[Reimagine Curator]

So You Want to Partner with Churches? In Meet The Need’s work with thousands of ministries across the country over the past two decades, their most common frustration is the challenge of getting churches involved in their work.  Often those ministries were launched by churches – but somewhere along the line a disconnect occurred.  The result is fragmentation of the body of Christ.  We tend to point to fragmentation around churches and denominations – the vast number of distinct congregations vying for attention.  We lament countless ministries working on the same cause in the same city – hesitant to collaborate for fear of diluting donor pools.  Yet the divide in the body of Christ widens even further as ministries struggle to get churches interested and active in Kingdom partnerships. Christian unity isn’t simply a mandate; it’s the only way to move the needle on issues plaguing a community.  Unity is essential to amass the scale necessary to make a measurable dent in Gospel saturation, homelessness, hunger, and child neglect.  Modeling compassion and unity in a divisive world would awaken society to the power Jesus’ love.  However, when ministries approach churches about working together, church leaders typically find theological, philosophical, or relational grounds for dismissing those opportunities.  Anticipating rejection, ministries make the mistake of reducing the ask to treasures (financial contributions) rather than time (volunteering) and talents (engagement).  What they don’t realize is an effective partnership request of a church must be a two-step process – conversion preceding collaboration. Origin of the Church-Ministry Divide Whenever someone starting a ministry comes to me looking for advice, if the first words out of their mouth are, “We’re going to work with churches to…”, my antenna goes up.  I would never discourage church collaboration but doubt most understand the prerequisite – the need for (and difficulty of) “conversion”. The 30 Theses for Contemporary Church Reform describe how growth models like Invite, Involve, and Invest have diverted most churches from their biblical mission.  Jesus’ mission statement made clear who He viewed as the target audience for His followers – the ailing, poor, and oppressed.  His choice of miracles – healing the sick and feeding the hungry – shows how deeply Jesus cares about those suffering, knowing the power of pain alleviation to impede or activate faith.  For roughly 200 of America’s nearly 250 years, churches followed Jesus’ lead, serving as the cultural, spiritual, and charitable center of town.  They were the first place the hopeless and helpless thought to go.  When disaster struck, they were the first responders.  When a family endured tragedy, the Christian community rallied.  When homelessness or hunger plagued the city, churches were on the front lines.  Few questioned the kindness and compassion of Christ-followers.  Their presence was palpable. Despite Jesus’ example and repeated commands to serve the materially poor, churches are no longer on the front lines of the war on poverty.  The seeds of division in the body of Christ were sown when “come” replaced “go” as the Church’s strategic imperative.  Emphasis shifted from equip and send (disciples) to attract and retain (churchgoers).  The leverage of Great Commission multiplication was largely replaced with invitations to institutional addition next Sunday.  The American Church’s break from Jesus’ Prayer/Care/Share model began in the early 1900s with the failure of the Social Gospel movement, the Great Reversal, and the New Deal era.  The Church abdicated its lead role in community support and transformation.  Gradually, the definition of the word “church” morphed from believers to buildings, people to pastors, and weeks to weekends.  The target “customer” of most churches transitioned from the “lost” in the community to the “found” in the pews. Challenges Impeding Collaboration Those megatrends contributed to the Church’s steady decline in growth, impact, influence, and perception in recent decades. Without reform, its light will continue to dim.  Restoring churches to their rightful place as a beacon of hope in a darkening society requires demonstrating the love of Jesus through missional relationships with the “least of these”.  That revival could and should begin with more (and stronger) partnerships with ministries doing work that tugs at the heart strings of a church’s members or most deeply impacts the welfare of its community. Ironically, most non-profits today exist to fill the gaps created by churches.  Churches once performed the tasks of the parachurch ministries they spawned.  If churches still occupied their biblical, intended role in communities, most non-profits wouldn’t be necessary.  Once churches outsourced charity and justice, they were no longer the glue that held society together.  Yet church is the ideal conduit for compassion to the spiritually, materially, and emotionally impoverished.  Only churches can attend to the whole person (mind, affections, will, and body).  Only churches can repair all four broken relationships (with God, others, self, and the rest of creation) by welcoming those isolated and alone into a church family.  Churches should be the lighthouse, first responder, and last line of defense for our culture.  Leaving those tasks to (often secular) non-profits has had dire ramifications for our nation and the Kingdom – missed opportunities to share the Gospel, transactional assistance that traps families in cycles of generational poverty, and government rather than Jesus positioned as “savior”. It’s hard to imagine churches reclaiming the lead role in compassion, particularly considering the dramatic shift in structure, budgets, and responsibilities needed to transform their orientation from growth to impact.  And there are cases where ministries are better equipped – with the expertise, resources, and manpower – to tackle large-scale, recurring social issues requiring specialists to develop and implement complex solutions.  With all that in mind, the most viable path to greater Kingdom impact and unity in America is increased collaboration between churches and ministries.  However, that’s unlikely to occur on a broad scale unless we see a mass “conversion” where the word ”church” is redefined to mean members and members become seen as Kingdom “employees” charged with pursuing the real “customer”.  Until then, as long as churches cling to internally focused, centralized definitions of those terms, they won’t care a great deal about your ministry’s work. Key to Collaboration is “Conversion” In other words, we won’t see wide-scale collaboration in America without conversion.  Each ministry looking to work alongside a church must help lead pastors across the “redefinition” bridge first.  Seeking collaboration before conversion has led to the frustration most ministries experience when trying to get churches to help accomplish their mission.  Most church leaders demand perfect theological and missional alignment or find another excuse not to partner.  There are many unspoken reasons for opting out: Lack of control over work being done, so they do it themselves or not at all Their event orientation is designed for seasonal compassion, not year-round Preference for transactional interventions, which create dependence Risk that members will start giving to the charity and less to the church Exposure to new ideas that may contradict church/denominational doctrine Engagement in charitable activities that could conflict with church events Members may meet people from other churches and attend there instead It’s not easy to overcome objections of a church predetermined to find an escape hatch during the meeting.  Before approaching church leaders to discuss partnership, we recommend laying the foundation for conversion through: Praying for the Lord to soften their hearts Sharing this blog post Forwarding our 10th anniversary article and two illustrative parables (#1 & #2) Having them read When Helping Hurts, Toxic Charity, or Crisis of Dependency Researching and sharing shocking statistics about local poverty, welfare, child neglect, literacy, homelessness, single motherhood, etc. in the city Encouraging not just giving money or donating items but getting hands dirty in truly loving their “neighbors” who may not look, act, or believe like them Then, follow up to see if the church has gone through these 10 conversion steps: Confess, repent, and pray for renewed conviction to follow Jesus’ model of meeting felt needs before telling them who He is (i.e. the Gospel) Seek to understand the key societal issues facing the city Begin proactively building relationships with other churches and ministries Determine the role their church could play in addressing selected cause(s) Assess applicable skills within the church for the tasks at hand Convince members they ARE “church” – Kingdom “employees”, not consumers Teach the congregation that the materially and spiritually “poor” are the church’s biblical “customer” Provide intensive, personalized discipleship and evangelism training Determine how to fully utilize the church’s skills and assets (e.g. building) Track, measure, and report on progress made on the community issue(s) A “converted” church will be genuinely interested in your ministry’s work, pay attention during meetings, look for opportunities to partner rather than excuses not to, and (on most occasions) agree to collaborate with those working on problems the church feels called to help solve. It’s Your Turn… How will this article change the way your ministry approaches churches about partnering?  Will it change how your church views ministries who want to partner? The post So You Want to Partner with Churches? appeared first on Meet The Need Blog. Read in browser »

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