Cross-country partnerships between very different churches are helping grow the gospel in the UK, a conference has heard.
The Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches (FIEC) and Medhurst Ministries organised the event, Connecting Diverse Churches, so that churches from very different communities could consider what partnership might look like for them.
Medhurst Ministries exists to support churches in forgotten places, often on local authority estates or in urban deprived communities. The aim of the day was to encourage partnerships to be formed between Medhurst churches and those in more affluent communities.
One of the church leaders present was Graham Thomson, pastor of Spen Valley Church in Yorkshire. He said: ‘Our church was planted seven years ago. We’re a small team, with minimal resources, planting into a small, mainly working-class town where there hasn’t been an outward-looking gospel-preaching church for many decades. This has meant that partnering with other churches has been vital to our continued existence.
‘It was such a joy to see people interested in seeking to form partnerships with churches trying to reach out to forgotten communities like ours in Spen Valley.’
FIEC National Director John Stevens began proceedings by opening up Philippians, helping those present see that partnership in the gospel was neither patronage, charity, nor a simple redistribution of resources. Instead, it is churches working together to genuinely mutually bless one other.
‘There was then an opportunity to hear from churches that had partnered together from across the country, hearing of encouragements, blessings, and challenges – but with the recurring theme that these encouragements, blessings and helpful challenges genuinely flow both ways,’ Thomson said.
One the pastors who spoke was Ollie Land from Elmstead Baptist Church, explaining the relationship they have with Church on the Moor in a coastal community in Cumbria. The churches enjoy joint prayer meetings, and visit one another to offer help and support with each other’s ministries.
