Models for a Collaborative Church

The churches were asked to create a model that would model an externally focused collaborative church. The idea is to develop an idea that they could then take back to the leadership in their church.

Geyer Springs First Baptist Church saw their school program as a microcosm of the community. They plan to have an event to assess what it would take to meet the needs of the schools in which they are involved. Once they have assessed the needs, they will go to the other churches to ask them to share a part in meeting those needs. Glenn Barth suggested that they bring in the other churches during the assessment stage of this project.

Summit Church was focused on using their small groups to collaborate with ministries in other churches. The small groups would be mobilized to join their heart for a particular ministry to a ministry already operating in another church.

Pleasant Valley Church wants to be a church of influence involved in church community, government, etc. The focus would be on how well they can gather everyone in the community around an initiative. Part of this collaboration involves opening their facility to the community which they have already done to a large extent.

Fellowship Bible Church depicted a circle that represented the whole church with individual churches. Each church plays a part in the larger community as related in Nehemiah 2:18. As in Nehemiah 4:20 the church needs to be ready to rally to that point in a crisis.

Hoover United Methodist Church has identified twelve churches in the area with which they would like to join around a meal to build relationships. Hoover has already started work with the government and joined the Chamber of Commerce in their efforts toward collaboration. They want to work with other churches in their ministries and not just work on their own.

Second Baptist Church would like to build a racial bridge building relationships and developing one into an army. They would like to buy into other church's ministries.

PromiseLand Church has a challenge of needs that go unmet. PromiseLand wants to build a bridge between urban and suburban churches. At their nucleus is the Community Development Corporation and the church itself. They will use these tools to connect with other non-profits. They plan to create marketing and work on a non-competitive use of the Dream Center both receiving and giving.

The Guatemalan church El Shaddai does not have any collaborative community effort. The model was to build relationships with individuals which in turn would build the body of Christ which would affect society. They would share strategy with other churches and for the first time participate in Sharefest.