Hitting the Target

How working together changed our churches' haphazard overseas ministries by Matt Dirks

CHANCES ARE, THERE’S A MAP IN YOUR CHURCH LOBBY, with pins staking out the territories your church has claimed for the gospel through the missionaries you’ve sent or supported. Maybe there was a Sunday when your church was able to put a pin on every continent, and on that day hearts surged with pride.

But does your church really know what’s happening in each of those pin-stabbed cities?

That’s what our district’s churches began wondering as we looked at our maps three years ago. We realized that we were spreading our money, energy and prayer for overseas ministry haphazardly across the globe, with little strategic thought. As we prayed together in late 2009, led by Hawaii’s district superintendent, Bruce Campbell, our group of pastors sensed God calling us to partner together in missions.

So we called in the big guns. Andy Krause from EFCA CONNECT* flew out to facilitate a day of meetings. As we compared notes, we realized that we were all engaged in ministry to one degree or another in Southeast Asia. Bingo! We had a target.

But there was one problem: We were all working with all kinds of different missionaries, from different agencies, with different ministry goals. Was there any possibility of straightening out this tangled pile of spaghetti into a cohesive strategy?

There was only one way to find out: get boots on the ground.

Bold Steps Forward

In early 2010, Andy led a team of four pastors on a whirlwind vision trip through Southeast Asia. Our goal was to meet as many of our ministry contacts as possible and look for ways our churches could partner in ministry there.

After drinking gallons of tea and coffee with dozens of missionaries and local church leaders in three countries, we watched as the Spirit began to clarify our thinking. Our objective would be “to multiply healthy churches across Southeast Asia.”

We see a great model for partnership in the first-century ministry of the apostles, who were diverse in personality and strategy but united in their goal of planting healthy churches across the Roman Empire. I believe our partnership is working well because we’ve adopted the apostles’ priorities. Paul describes them in Galatians 2:1-14:

Healthy partnerships are driven by the gospel (Galatians 2:2). We know we’re running in vain if we stray from the gospel of the kingdom and instead try to build our own little castles. A simple phrase helps us remember this: “No egos and no logos.”

Healthy partnerships include diverse ministry strategies (Galatians 2:9). God has given each partner unique gifts, people and priorities, and we celebrate that. We continue in our separate ministries in Southeast Asia, but we are much more proactive about collaborating. For example, when one of our church’s missionaries needed ESL teachers, we all helped find candidates. When another church’s local partner needed marriage counseling, we worked together to meet the need. As one national pastor commented, “American pastors and ReachGlobal staff have been helping us as mentors whenever we need advice for practical problems.”

Healthy partnerships include confrontation and conflict (Galatians 2:14). We are committed to confronting sin and disunity when we see it. This is particularly difficult in face-saving cultures like Hawaii and Asia. One time I made a financial promise to a local planter before I had cleared it with the rest of the partners. Two of them lovingly confronted me, helping me see how my impatience had quenched the Spirit’s work in building our partnership.

Partnerships are solidified when you’re in the trenches together, so we continually look for hands-on initiatives to engage in together.

Healthy partnerships find common ministry objectives (Galatians 2:10). Partnerships are solidified when you’re in the trenches together, so we continually look for hands-on initiatives to engage in together. On our vision trip, God led us to a young, passionate network of church planters in a closed country. We decided to partner with this movement and work together to provide pastoral training, seed money and short-term teams.

In 2010 we started sending young adults from our different churches to spend up to a year. These American ministry workers lead English clubs and do medical checkups to help local church planters make contacts with unbelievers in their neighborhoods.

“The local planters work unceasingly,” observes Natalie Wu, member of Harbor Church in Honolulu, after spending a year in Southeast Asia. “Sometimes this burden, coupled with the feeling that they are all alone in their mission, is unbearable. The support of the American churches provides a constant reminder that someone cares and that they are not alone.”

Andy Krause helped us recognize that this partnership would require a “champion”—someone (ideally not a senior pastor) who would lead the charge, guard the vision and keep us focused. It took two years, but God provided just the right person in early 2012.

The old church-planter’s axiom holds true when planting a new partnership: You’ll accomplish a lot less than you expected in one year, and a lot more than you expected in five years. We’re still learning new things every day about how healthy, effective partnerships work, and we’re loving every minute as we unite in heart and mind for the sake of the gospel.