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A Partnership of Churches
Prayer Centered
Two years ago, Christian Standard reported on the Strategic Planning and Prayer Center named in memory of Don DeWelt and located in the heart of the Restoration Movement’s ministries in Joplin, Missouri (“Victory in Prayer,” October 23, 2005).
The center, built on the campus of Good News Produc-tions, International, has hosted monthly prayer meetings of parachurch leaders since its construction in 2001.
Recently, 15 Christian church and church of Christ leaders also began meeting at the center every other month for prayer and fellowship.
“After an area church split two years ago, I was convicted of the need for our churches to operate more as one body,” says Randy Gariss, senior minister at College Heights Christian Church and a leader of the bimonthly meetings. “We’ve always had a spirit of kindness for each other, but practically speaking, we were disconnected.”
A core group met in Gariss’s home for six months before scheduling meetings at the prayer center. Today the gatherings include ministers and elders from each participating congregation.
The group identified seven basic goals, most of them focused on building relationships, working together, and sharing resources.
“We now partner to advance the kingdom, and we accomplish more than we ever could separately,” Gariss says, citing College Heights’s “God’s Resort” project as one example (see “The Missional Emphasis of Emerging Churches” in Christian Standard, September 9, 2007).
The group also “coshepherds” the Christian church community in Joplin.
“Sometimes people migrate from one church to another,” Gariss says. “If there are problems, we can now perform church discipline in a collaborative way to prevent those problems from infecting another church body.”
A handful of the group members are currently working with a struggling church in the area to mentor its leaders and, hopefully, prevent another painful split.
“This group gives us the platform to help the hurting churches and benefit from the stronger ones,” Gariss says. “It’s one of the best things I’ve seen around here in a long time.”
www.chcchurch.org
Good ‘Time’
Martinton (Illinois) Church of Christ provides an after-school homework and tutoring program open to all elementary-age students. Though the congregation averages 65-70 on Sunday morning, the “Time In” program reaches 30 students!
Because Martinton collaborates with the local school district, students are allowed to ride the bus from school to the church. Volunteers greet them with snacks and fun videos teaching morals and character traits.
Afterwards students receive help with homework or play learning games on two donated computer stations. Chauncey Lattimer Jr., the minister, began the program in 2005 as part of his independent graduate study in education.
www.martintonchurchofchrist.org
Jennifer Taylor, one of CHRISTIAN STANDARD's contributing editors, lives in Nashville, Tennessee.
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