Partnership Engagement Methodologies

“Church planting movements among all peoples, the gospel to every person, every believer a full participant in the Great Commission.”

A. Entry-level Engagements:

An entry point for churches desiring to partner with missionaries on the field through a single engagement, which may or may not lead to a longer term commitment or partnership.

• Introduces Stateside believers and churches to missions
• Great for entry-level evangelism and opening doors in new communities or target areas.
• Specific objectives/ministry needs
• Often leads to partnerships
  

1. Mission Trips: A one time trip designed for a specific purpose such as evangelism, discipleship, leadership training, research, etc…

2. Entry-level Evangelism Strategies: Stateside partners working alongside missionaries, national churches, local believers and persons of peace to spread the Good News of Jesus Christ, to seek out and identify persons of peace and to begin new evangelistic Bible studies that will lead to new multiplying churches in a given target zone. Example: Gospel Advancement Project (GAP), Uruguay and Argentina GAP is a gospel saturation ministry designed specifically for an urban setting. Its goal is to place the Gospel of John (and/or other evangelistic materials) in every household in that target zone, and to provide a clear presentation of the gospel to these areas. This will be accomplished through the use of partners from the United States as they work in conjunction with missionaries, Baptist churches, and persons of peace in each of the target areas.

3. Strategic Support Teams (SST):
Teams or individuals that fill specific needs and/or roles within an established strategic engagement. Example: SST’s for REAP South (Mike Weaver)


B. Multi-Focused Partnerships:

3 to 5 year commitments to investigate, develop, and support Strategic Engagements that might develop into Strategic Partnerships or Strategy Coordinator Churches. The partnerships are with:

• State Conventions
• Associations
• Churches or Groups of Churches
• Student Organizations (i.e. BSM’s, BSU’s, etc…)
  

Example: Montevideo and Buenos Aires “Rio del la Plata Project” 5 year commitment with Virginia Southern Baptist Convention. Mississippi Baptist Convention Board with Peru “Priority Target Zones” (PTZ’s) are areas, people groups, micro people groups, population segments or geographic areas of Urban Centers with little or no evangelical witness in which the IMB missionary or team, through the leadership of the Holy Spirit, have determined would be best reached through Strategic Partnerships.


C. Strategic Partnerships:

A church or body of believers who through the leadership of the Holy Spirit Partners with an IMB missionary or team to assist in carrying out and implementing the strategies which have been developed by an IMB missionary or team around prayer, evangelism, discipleship and leadership training for the purpose of reaching that people group, population segment or Urban Center, resulting in multiplying churches.

Purpose of a Strategic Partnership: A Strategic Partnership allows Southern Baptist Churches the opportunity to partner with IMB missionaries and to assist them in implementing their mission strategy for a “Priority Target Zone” while living out the Great Commission.

Goals of Strategic Partnerships:

• Partnering with an IMB missionary or team to take the Gospel to a people group, population segment or Urban Center.
• Create an environment for prayer, evangelism, discipleship and leadership training that will lead to a Church Planting Movement.
• Allow Stateside churches the opportunity to be strategically involved with our missionary personnel in all aspects of the missionary tasks, thereby increasing the awareness of lostness, the need for evangelism, and the need for prayer and for support.
• Transforming and energizing the lives of members of local Southern Baptist Churches through an active role in taking the Gospel to the lost of South America. An Acts 1:8 approach.
• Strategic Partnerships potentially may lead to SC Church Engagements.
  

Current Examples of Strategic Partnerships:

• Pichincha Province Adoption Project, Quito, Ecuador
• Student Mobilization, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Peru
• Bogotá, Colombia
  
• Guayas Cantones for Christ Project, Guayaquil-Ecuador

“High Priority Zones” (HPZ’s) are areas, people groups, micro people groups, population segments or geographic areas of Urban Centers with little or no evangelical witness that are considered strategic, yet our mission personnel do not have the resources to reach within the next 2 to 4 years.


D. Strategy Coordinator Church:

A church or body of believers who through the leadership of the Holy Spirit have taken full responsibility for a people group, population segment or Urban Center by the development and implementation of strategies and plans that are biblically sound, consistent with Church Planting Movement methodologies and which are built around prayer, evangelism, discipleship and leadership training resulting in churches being planted.

Ken Winter, Vice-President of Mobilization, International Mission Board defines the SC Church this way: “It’s a church that is owning the task of taking the gospel to an unengaged people group. It is making a commitment that says, ‘We, under God’s leadership, are going to do whatever it takes to see this people coming to Christ, being discipled and churches being planted that will lead to other churches being planted’ and, ultimately, to a church planting movement.”

Purpose of the Strategy Coordinator Church: The SC Church allows Southern Baptist Churches the opportunity to own the task of reaching the lost within an adopted High Priority Zone and in so doing, living out the Great Commission.

Goals of SC Church:

• To take the gospel to a people group, population segment or Urban Center who do not currently have missionary personnel assigned to them.
• Create an environment for prayer, evangelism, discipleship and leadership training that will lead to a Church Planting Movement.
• Allow Stateside churches the opportunity to be involved in all aspects of the missionary tasks, thereby increasing the awareness of lostness, the need for evangelism, and the need for prayer and for support.
• Transforming and energizing the lives of members of local Southern Baptist Churches through an active role in taking the Gospel to the lost of South America. An Acts 1:8 approach.
  

Current Examples of Strategy Coordinator Church Partnerships:

• Churches Multiplying Churches (CMC), Brazil
• (REAP North and REAP South), among the indigenous in Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Paraguay, Chile and Argentina.
• Guayas Cantones for Christ Project, Guayaquil-Ecuador
• All Barrios for Buenos Aires (ABBA), Buenos Aires, Argentina.
  

E. Strategic Prayer Partnerships:

A church or body of believers who through the leadership of the Holy Spirit, partners with an IMB missionary, to take responsibility for a people group or population segment with restricted or prohibited access to the Gospel through strategic prayer, asking the Heavenly Father to break down the barriers that prevent the Gospel Message from being proclaimed.

“I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the GAP on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none.” Ezekiel 22:30(NIV)

Purpose of Strategic Prayer Partnerships: A Strategic Prayer Partnership allows Southern Baptist Churches the opportunity to partner with IMB missionaries to develop and implement a strategic prayer plan to reach, through prayer, areas that have restricted or prohibited access to the Gospel Message.

Goals of Strategic Prayer Partnerships:

• A Strategic Prayer Partnership allows SBC Partners to become involved in reaching those areas with little or no access to the Gospel.
• A Strategic Prayer Partnership means that the partner church agrees to investigate and research how they might intercede more effectively daily for the adopted restricted access areas.
• A Strategic Prayer Partnership means that the partner church agrees to a 2 to 4 year commitment to pray regularly for God to break down barriers that are preventing the gospel from going into these areas and ask Him to build bridges that will allow access to these areas.
• A Strategic Prayer Partnership means that the partner church will host periodic Church-wide prayer emphasis for the restricted access areas that: a) God will open the doors of access for engagement, b) God will reveal “Persons of Peace”, c) God will make His message of Hope know among these peoples.
• A Strategic Prayer Partnership means that the partner church, if possible, will work with field personnel to engage these restricted access areas.
  

Thinking out of the box with strategic use of volunteers...Will you pray about partnering with us in reaching ECUADOR and South America for Christ?

Check out more "Partnership Resources" and contact information for how you and your church can get on board to be personally involved in missions with us in South America:

www.TakingIt2TheEdge.org

The "prevenience" model of church

The following comes from an email received from John White, a house church coach in Denver, CO.

**********

I first learned the word "prevenience" from Eugene Peterson in his book "The Contemplative Pastor" (p. 65f). I was struck by what he had to say because it was immediately obvious to me that he was right. However, it was exactly the opposite of what I had been taught.

I knew how to be proactive. I knew how to "run the church" and get things done. I knew how to "make it happen". I had a lot of unlearning to do (I'm a recovering control addict).

Here's what Peterson has to say (with a few of John's comments in italics):

"In running the church (or the house church), I seize the initiative. I take charge. I take responsibility for motivation and recruitment, for showing the way, for getting things started. If I don't, things drift. I am aware of the tendency to apathy, the human susceptibility to indolence, and I use my leadership to counter it. (Isn't that what we have been taught that leadership is? If it isn't this, what is it?)

By contrast, the cure of souls (he means here the true work of a pastor or leader of a church as an organism) is a cultivated awareness that God has already seized the initiative. The traditional doctrine defining this truth is prevenience: God everywhere and always seizing the initiative. He gets thing going. He had and continues to have the first word. Prevenience is the conviction that God has been working diligently, redemptively, and strategically before I appeared on the scene, before I was aware there was something here for me to do.

...there is a disciplined, determined conviction that everything (and I mean, precisely everything) we do is a response to God's first work, his initiating act. We learn to be attentive to the divine action already in process so that the previously unheard word of God is heard, the previously unattended act of God is noticed?

What has God been doing here?
What traces of grace can I discern in this life?
What history of love can I read in this group?
What has God set in motion that I can get in on?"

I call these "the prevenience questions". Learning to ask/answer these questions is the starting place for the church each time she meets. This is the "prevenience model" of church.

With apologies to Steven Covey, we Christians were never called to be "proactive". We are called to be "reactive" to God. (Or, perhaps "responsive" to God is better.)

Ministry is...

Giving when you feel like keeping.
Praying for others when you need prayer.
Feeding others when your soul is hungry.
Hurting with others when your own hurt can't be spoken.
Keeping your word when it is not convenient.
Being faithful when your soul wants to run away.

~Author Unknown

Originally seen here.

Reggie McNeal on the Church and Kingdom

Reggie McNeal is one S. Baptist that always challenges my thinking. Whether through public speaking, or through his writings, Reggie has a way of pealing away the layers to get to the heart of the matter. In this video he is speaking about two themes close to my heart: the church and the kingdom. If you're not hooked in the first five minutes, you may be excused from the remainder. But I dare you to try and not listen to the whole thing!



I found this Feb/08 conference posted on PhilipEdwards Blog.

Healing

What follows is adapted from my wife's blog written May 2 along with an update of what has happened since arriving in the USA June 1.

Do you believe God heals today? I think a lot of people do and I'm one of them. However, to be honest, my belief is that God saves His healing power for others who are either more worthy than I, or more in need than I, or for whatever other reason. For some reason it's hard for me to believe that He would bring that healing power to me or my family. But now I think He has.

Approximately 6-7 years ago our daughter Anna was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder (among other things). She started on medication which helped to relieve the symptoms which were so destructive to our family. She was on medication for about a year when the symptoms began showing again and the neurologist changed her medication. For children who have Bipolar Disorder this is very common. As children grow and change the need for medication changes as well. For most families it's a constant struggle tweaking meds to find what will work only to have them outgrow the meds a year later.

Anna's medication was changed and they were very effective for about a year. At that point the strength of the medication was increased. Since that time (about 5 years ago) her meds have stayed the same with no change. A couple of years ago I called the neurologist thinking she might need a stronger dose or a change, but the doctor didn't agree and it was left as it was. I often wondered why we never needed to upgrade, as it were, her medication.

During all this time...we have prayed, and prayed, and prayed, then prayed some more. We wondered if it was indeed BP or was it spiritual in nature? That was a big concern of mine. I have encountered first hand people who were demon possessed. And to tell the truth, there isn't much difference in the manifestation of both. I vacillated between the two. Once we got a medication that worked I didn't spend a lot of time thinking about it. I just accepted it and went on to dealing with it in our daily lives.

Because of this diagnosis I think I spent more time praying for Anna than I would normally have done. Bipolar Disorder is not an easy thing to live with, for the person who has it and for the family of that person...At those times when praying for Anna I did so believing that God would answer in some way. I am just surprised when the answer is "yes" since it seems to be "no" most of the time. I have a hard time sometimes believing that God will. I know He can, but don't always think He will.

Upon arriving in the USA earlier this month, one of the first things we did was get our daughter evaluated professionally. After several consultations and testings both have concurred she is NOT Bipolar. She does have some manageable problems, but the dreaded BP diagnosis has been ruled out. While she evidenced all of the symptoms for Bipolar disorder, and had been previously diagnosed as such by professionals, this latest evaluation shows our daughter as being either: 1) previously misdiagnosed, or 2) healed. Since she previously had too many of the symptoms and behaviors of BP children, and now these are gone, we feel God has healed her. As can be imagined, this confirmation alone has made our short trip to the States worthwhile.

God is good. Of all the people we have prayed for healing and restoration over the years, it humbles us that He would now choose to reach down and touch our own dear daughter and heal her too.

A few thoughts on the SBC in Indy

My wife Linda and I just returned from the SBC in Indianapolis. After the convention we spent a few days in Indiana and Kentucky visiting friends and taking in some of the beautiful Indiana countryside.

Even though we were present for the entire meeting, almost all of our time was spent working the IMB booth in the exhibit area and were basically clueless what was going on next door in the convention sessions. Our only way of keeping up was to go back to our hotel room and read what others were writing!

My impressions? I can't comment much on what took place on the convention floor, but can affirm that Southern Baptists have a big heart for world missions. My wife and I greeted and talked to dozens of people who stopped by the IMB booth. We met many fascinating people who were genuinely interested in what God is doing in the world today and shared how they have been involved or plan to be involved in missions. Both of us were greatly encouraged in the high level level of missions interest held by so many.

It was great seeing again many former missionary friends from Ecuador: Stuart and C.L. Pickle, Randel and Sheila Trull, Gary and Terry Odom, Norma Whitten, Cary and Ann Hanks, along with Alan and Mary Murphy whom we were appointed with back in 1986. My wife was very pleased to finally meet Rebekah Naylor whom was influential in her own missionary calling back in the early '70s.

It was also fun to meet many of the bloggers whom we have been reading over the past couple of years: Wes Kenney, Bart Barber, Bob Cleveland, Tim Guthrie, Tim Rogers, and Les Puryear. We enjoyed lunch one day with Micah and Tracey Fries sharing with them our "Guayas for Christ" project hoping they will adopt one of the counties of our province as one of their ongoing missions projects. There were others present whom we would have liked to have met, but did not cross paths with during the week.

Of course, for me personally, the highlight of the convention was the IMB report shared on Wednesday night. As many who were there have affirmed, there seems to be an overall spirit of genuine repentance and wanting to get back to what was heard many times as a "Great Commission Resurgence". My own conversations during the week with many people seemed to confirm this. The "rank and file" are tired of battling each other and are ready to wage war against the real enemy of the souls of men.

Hidden in the jungle

C.S. Stanley is a photographer with the IMB who has done a thought provoking series of short videos for CommissionStories about the unreached peoples living in the Amazon Basin in South America.


Thanks to Pascal Stowell, IMB missionary in Brazil, for sharing this video in YouTube format on his blog RealNuz4Brazil.

South America: Reached? Not Yet!

My wife, Linda, and I arrived this afternoon in Indianapolis for the annual meetings of the Southern Baptist Convention. We will be spending much of our time in and around the IMB booth helping elevate awareness of the spiritual needs in South America.

*Many people think South America has been reached with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. But this continent holds some of the remotest, darkest places on the face of the earth with virtually no way for the light of the Gospel to penetrate. This unthinkable tragedy exists as near to us as a three-hour plane flight!

For example, did you know...

There are 699 people groups in South America. Of these 699 people groups, 411 are unreached people groups (less than 2% evangelical.) Of these 411 UPG, IMB missionaries work among only 48. Of these 411 UPG 200 have no evangelical presence of any kind.

Did you know there are 85 unreached tribes in the Amazon Basin that have no contact with the outside world?

Did you know that of the total 378.7 million population in South America, 355 million are lost? Nine out of ten who die today will die without Christ.

Are you aware that 77% of the region's people live in cities?

Did you know that besides Spanish and Portuguese, 433 other languages are spoken in South America?

That of the 699 people groups represented in South America, IMB missionaries have only engaged 87 of them?

Roman Catholics 79%
Evangelical 6%
Traditional Ethnic/Spiritist 3%
Non-religious/Other 12%

The unreached of South America desperately need our fervent prayers, generous hearts and going feet to unlock their spiritual prisons. Are you willing to go and tell them God's passionate message of love and salvation? Will you pray away these nearly impenetrable Gospel barriers? Will you give generously to support fellow Southern Baptist who are investing their lives there in obedience to God's call?

Before clicking away to some other read, please take a few seconds to view this very short video on the unreached of the Amazon Basin entitled Hidden in the jungle. And then: pray.

*adapted from IMB literature, also please see www.samregion.org and www.takingit2theedge.org or call (800)999-3113