When Ministries Attack!

Ministries within churches battle each other for space and budget. If one ministry feels threatened, you need to be careful because they may attack yours.

One denomination cannot work with another, because one may have a better idea than the other. Churches cannot work with other churches because people will question, who’s budget is this coming from? what if our members leave and join the other church, or vice versa?

It is human nature to focus on the negative aspect of things, after all, we all have a sin nature. I want to share with you about a time that two churches, from different denominations, partnered to have a ministry that was blessed, that reached children and helped them grow in their faith.

Let me share how this all happened. We currently meet in rented facilities. A movie theater on Sunday mornings, and at one time a YMCA on Sunday nights for Awana, youth and adult Bible Study. As the “Y” expanded their programs, it increasingly became an option that was no longer feasible and we began to seek out another facility to rent/use on Sunday evenings.

That led us to another church in the area. One of our members contacted them and I took “the ball” from there. The beauty of this is that we were looking for a place to hold ministry, and the children’s ministry director at that church was looking to expand their ministries. I believe that it was truly a match made in heaven.

Yes, the usual concerns were heard, too far for people to drive, what if people “swapped” churches, etc… but instead of the concerns, we focused on working together to reach children from both of our churches.

Last year was a great Awana year with an amazing closing program. That couldn’t have happened unless both ministries were focused on reaching the children and working together. There were no egos, no need for credit, we were working together for a common goal. I’m not going to say that everything went perfectly, but we worked together to get past those times.

I am truly blessed to have worked alongside this other ministry and have made many friends and seen children grow in their faith. I was blessed to see several of the children baptized over the summer.

We are transitioning into a permanent facility and so we are not meeting there this year. We are both preparing to begin Awana separately this fall and I’m sure that we will continue to work together as we are able.

Have you had the opportunity to partner with others in ministry? Why or why not? Share your stories here…