I realize that to stick through ideas and to raise support means to begin with the shotgun approach and narrow down as leads go. Well this first shot is to the entire blogsphere and internet.

The Proposal:
Church and Ministry Networking for Community Development

Mission: To network local churches and parachurch ministries together to impact the community.

Vision: That all churches and parachurch ministries in the San Gabriel Valley would be linked within a local networks caring for the poor and the outcast within their community.

Many complaints against the church stem from its fragmentation and seemingly inability to address local social concerns. As the Body of Christ neither of these need be the case to the extent that the Church exists today. Churches often have valid complications with other churches and ministries, be they doctrinal differences or member competition. Often the focus is so inward, that the Church begins to overlook the local community in which they reside.

The goal of Church and Ministry Networking for Community Development is to bring local churches and ministries together to address local needs. Reconciliation between churches will come primarily through positive interaction and service with one another. It seems that as churches focus solely on themselves, they become irrelevant to the local community. Church and Ministry Networking for Community Development seeks to provide a place of dialogue and assistance for churches to come together to gain strong partnerships in the local mission.

Many churches have ministries to the local community that are underfunded, understaffed or lacking in knowledge. If churches would begin pooling their resources in this area, striking reconciled partnerships in service to the local community, the effect of the local mission would be exponential.

Church and Ministry Networking for Community Development would consistently seek guidance from local leaders such as government officials, local teachers, local pastors and congregation as well as voices from the poor and oppressed. Church and Ministry Networking for Community Development would assess the expressed needs and work to build partnerships between local congregations to address these needs.

Partnership building would include an assessment of congregational demographic and specific call to mission. As data is compiled, Church and Ministry Networking for Community Development would seek out ministry leaders to foster workable partnerships to advance the ministry.

Church and Ministry Networking for Community Development would also seek out resources for ministry development within each local community. Such services would be researching different funding organizations, hosting conferences surround a specific ministry and publishing a directory of congregational involvement.

As people bed down tonight in Northwest Pasadena, Azusa or Baldwin Park, they need the help of the local churches. Together congregations can change the face of their local community, following Jesus' regular call to love the suffering and the poor and to preach the Gospel of Good News.

As I vision this ministry, I see the need for a full-time position to be continually assessing local communities and creating networking opportunities between pastors and ministry leaders. The financial needs would be enough to sustain the full-time coordinator living in Southern California and some funding for directory publication. All in all the operating cost could rest comfortable around $33,000.

I have not approached any church or organization to be under non-profit status, but I'd be happy to do so if anybody wants to make a contribution.

Again this is a shotgun effect, with small readership, but if you have any leads and see the same need I have, please feel free to drop me a line and pass on this post to anybody who might be interested. The most important thing would be prayer, so for anybody who has read this, if you would pray specifically for Churches to reconcile and for local communities across the globe that could be transformed by the local church partnerships. Thanks.

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