When forming a strategy to win a target population to Christ, it is imperative to acknowledge that you can’t do it alone. That’s why it is important to form healthy relationships with other entities such as businesses, government agencies, and other churches to complete your church planing impact team.
One may question a stategy that includes partnering with [...]
This is the final installment of a four part series designed to help churches develop a partnership agreement.
Procedures and Responsibilities (con’t.)
II. <Stateside Entity> i.e., Church, Association, or other
Enlistment and Orientation:
The <Stateside Partner> will enlist and orient volunteer personnel
The <Stateside Partner> will keep the <Overseas Entity> informed of the progress being made to fill requests.
When [...]
This is the second in a four part series designed to help churches with drafting a partnership agreement. In this section I will begin to go through a sample contract and add comments. The parts in italic represent what would be included in an actual agreement.
Partners
(Stateside Partner) i.e., Church, Association
(Overseas Partner) IMB missionary, national convention, or other entity
Naming the partners might seem [...]
The purpose of this guide is to assist potential partners in determining and discussing relevant issues before entering into a formal partnership. The majority of this document is not original with me, but rather is a compilation of earlier guides and actual covenant agreements that have served state conventions in this process. Here I am simply providing a practical guide [...]
10. Do everything for the glory of the LORD
And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Colossians 3:17
9. Forgive each other in order to nix conflicts before they get out of hand
Bear with each other and [...]
A Guide to Culture
If I speak with the tongue of a national, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
If I wear the national dress and understand the culture and all forms of etiquette, and if I copy all mannerisms so that I could pass for a national, but [...]
Here’s an idea from the “Embrace Baltimore” evangelism team: Good News Wagons! The trailers are made available to area churches packed with everything you need to provide food and fun for a great get-together and/or outreach.
Possible events include:
Outreach in apartment complexes
Outreach into manufactured homes complexes
New subdivisions within a church field
Inner city ministries
VBS preparation day or parent’s night
Preparations [...]
In order to carry out partnership efforts thousands of miles away it is always essential to have a key leader in the area receiving assistance. Most of the time this person is an IMB missionary. However, as we attempt to expand the influence of Kentucky Baptists throughout the world, it becomes increasingly necessary to rely on nationals [...]
One of the great challenges to short-term missions is known as “the language barrier.” I have found that many times, however, the fact that volunteers and nationals don’t speak the same language is really more like “the language bridge” as the creative, unusual, endearing, and sometimes down-right hilarious efforts made by both parties to communicate [...]
Top 10 Mistakes I’ve Seen Volunteers Commit:
#10. Call the female of a missionary couple “the missionary’s wife”
I actually remember a volunteer asking a female missionary if she would take a picture of him with “all the missionaries,” meaning all the male missionaries. The IMB appoints both husband and wife as missionaries, and they both truly [...]
