We sincerely hope that you will be used of the Lord to stimulate others churches to be involved with your church in your strategic missions focus. The impact for all involved can be a great blessing. Your focus will get more prayer, more attention, and more resources. Your field-side ministry may get additional teammates, pastoral visits, and short term workers. The partnership churches will be blessed, encouraged, and challenged by the faith-stretching effort. Lord willing, your focus will be accomplished sooner with better end results. Interaction with partners will sharpen and complement your planning and management process.

Seeking church and other partners for your strategic focus may stimulate your church to enlarge its breadth of fellowship with others. Denominational affiliations, church associations and fellowships, pastoral fellowships, llike-minded church affinity groups and conferences, geographical or metro spiritual issue or ministry outreach forums, all these are potential recruiting grounds for your focus.

Your missions team will need to develop information and brochures or promotional materials explaining and presenting the needs, the rationale, the goals, the biblicial basis, and the plans for your focus. You will need to answer questions of partnership terms: who is in charge?, who makes decisions?, what rights and responsibilities do partner churches have for the resources they provide? how do the parties relate together on this side of the water?, on the other side of the water?

The benefits of seeking partners far outweigh the liabilities, even if there are no tangible results from other churches. Their awareness, prayers, and respect for your church’s strategic focus all have a positive impact. Your church’s preparation for promotion of your focus among other churches will, in itself, sharpen your case for support and refine your own thinking about your approach and your goals.

Go for it!