Even beyond their ability…they begged…for the privilege of sharing in the ministry to the saints. 2 Corinthians 8:3-4 (CSB)
“We don’t even own a building, but we share a building.” Two SBC of Virginia (SBCV) congregations share space at a public school in Dumfries, Virginia. Three SBCV congregations worship together at a public school facility in Centreville, Virginia. These partnerships represent a unique approach to doing ministry and mission together.
While many English-speaking congregations are beginning to invite a congregation that speaks a different language to share the facility they own, other congregations may not have considered other partnership models.
Pillar Church of Dumfries (English-speaking) and Iglesia Bíblica Gracia Eterna (Spanish-speaking) lease space at Potomac Shores Middle School. While some of their setup and takedown responsibilities are similar (even in separate spaces), the rental burden is lessened by their shared partnership. Pastors Colby Garman and Jose Mazariego report that the partnership encourages them personally and enables the two churches to conduct joint community outreaches.
Twenty-five miles away, Calvary Hill Fellowship (English-speaking), Eleos Bible Church (Spanish-speaking), and Agape Chinese Christian Church (Chinese-speaking) meet at Providence Elementary School in Centreville, Virginia.
Pastor Robert Han of Calvary Hill Fellowship shared, “We started sharing our rental space a number of years ago primarily to serve and share our resources with other SBCV church plants. We saw it as an investment in ethnic churches and people groups that we ourselves could not reach easily on our own.”
The generous sharing is not one-sided. Pastor Robert and Calvary Hill list the benefits they have received:
“Regularly connecting with other pastors is a great encouragement.”
“We have engaged in various ministry efforts together in partnership that I believe God used to advance His Kingdom in ways our church would not have been able to achieve as easily on our own (e.g., a mission trip to Ecuador).”
A distinctive of SBCV churches is the core value of collaboration. God’s mission is too big to accomplish with solo or siloed churches. While God certainly has unique local callings for each local church, He often calls congregations to partner together to accomplish some portion of His mission. It’s possible that God may call your local church to share something it doesn’t even own.
“God is able to make every grace overflow to you, so that in every way, always having everything you need, you may excel in every good work.” – 2 Corinthians 9:8 (CSB)
Is your church partnering with another-language congregation?
We would love to hear how you partner together. We may highlight your partnership in a future issue. Email: mgregory@sbcv.org
