Kingdom collaboration: raising, maintaining and honoring partners

Anything Kingdom-sized in our lives and ministries will require Kingdom collaboration. While I have learned so much over the past twelve years of church planting, including four years of planting in New England, that one reality would be near the top of my list.

Though Kingdom collaboration has involved living and working in our community and watching God build His church, we have also had the privilege of spending a significant amount of time working with partner churches – located in Greater Boston, as well as the South and Midwest – who have invested in what God is doing in Charlestown. I’d like to share best practices we’ve learned over 10+ years working with Kingdom partners.

1. Trust God for your finances.

Don’t make people feel that you are using them or cheapening the friendship to get money. Remember that whatever God calls us to, He finances. Never ask people to give their money; invite them to pray and ask God if he would have them partner in what God is doing and invest Kingdom resources in that work.

2. Look at these relationships as true partnerships.

Refer to people who work with you as partners, never donors, regardless of how they give. Along the same lines, we refer to our incoming teams as partnership trips and not mission teams…they don’t need the pressure of thinking they have to be saviors of our community, and our neighbors don’t want to be thought of as projects.

3. Remind your partners you are grateful for them.

Tell them sincerely and often, “You are part of the team and now forever part of what God is doing in this community and church!” Write them notes randomly to thank them and send them swag you are giving your church.

4. Stay in touch even throughout the year.

Call your partners and ask for prayer or wisdom on a matter at times. Text them photos of momentous days — baptisms, launch days, small groups, and especially times where you are serving your community. (At the same time, remember that everyone doesn’t get equal input and feedback; choose wisely and listen to the Spirit lead you on who and how to bless as many bless and invest in you.)

5. Express your partnership in the context of God’s story.

Know the history of your community and our region, and frame their partnership inside that grand, redemptive story. We often send a postcard to partners with the John Bonner map of Boston from 1722 and tell them God was at work here before the map’s creation and in the 300 years since – and that they are part of that work! Hearing that $25 per month isn’t merely $25 but fuel for the Spirit’s continued movement is inspiring.

6. Remember that existing partnerships can be the sources of new partnerships.

Ask partner churches in other regions to help you find partners, if they’re willing; every Adoniram Judson needs a Luther Rice — it will save you time and, again, invite them into the partnership process; we asked our partner churches to write this commitment into our partnership covenant with them.

7. Cast a vision for multiplication in your partnership.

Share with partners that you are asking them to partner for 3 to 7 years, and at the end of that time you long for them to transition to a church planted out of yours or near you. We take every partner to a strategic spot and ask them to pray with us for Everett, Chelsea, North and West Ends of Boston and Cambridge Crossing, where we want to see Send Boston churches planted by 2030. These prayers start from the first trip and lay the groundwork to create a pipeline of Kingdom collaboration and giving in the “parishes” around Charlestown.

And in this year of pandemic, as we move to the end of a crazy year, I am more thankful than ever for Kingdom collaboration in what God is doing. If ever there were a year for a partner to tap out, it would have been 2020 – yet how many people and churches, as an act of love for God and us, have faithfully given during the pandemic? Let’s make sure they know how much we value them and their sacrifice!

JD Mangrum is the church planting pastor of Christ Church Charlestown in Charlestown, MA.