Initiative Joins Churches to Churches

A group of Christian Reformed Church agencies have developed materials for a church-to-church initiative that is known as iGPS - the Inter-agency Global Partnership Strategy.

The initiative that agencies developed provides a range of resources to CRC congregations interested in developing a "sister church" relationship with another congregation that is often based overseas.

The effort started about two years ago with Christian Reformed World Missions, whose representatives were increasingly hearing this question: "We'd like to be more involved in mission work. Do you have a sister church program?"

The question set members of the CRWM's team for education and engagement on a journey into uncharted territory.

The team asked itself, "How do we advise a congregation 'here' on how to connect with a community or congregation 'there', in a way that's healthy, reciprocal, and sustainable?"

The result of the CRWM team's effort involved developing a partnership with the Christian Reformed World Relief Committee, Back to God Ministries International, Partners Worldwide, a non-denominationally related agency, and ServiceLink.

All of these groups came together for a time to address the increasingly obvious reality that churches that had done short-term, overseas mission trips for years were yearning for a higher quality, longer-term relationship.

It also came to their notice that some churches in the denomination were already developing partnerships on their own, and encountering challenges and mistakes that missions’ agencies had dealt with in one way or another over the years.

Setting apart iGPSfrom the usual course of missionary support or project-funding is the up-front goal of forming relationships. Money doesn’t enter the picture until at least a year into the relationship, as it has the most potential to do harm as well as good.

The focus of iGPS is to deepen connections between Christians, educate each other on what life is like in a different country/culture, and become involved in each other’s efforts to move both communities closer to the vision that God has for them.

This requires the commitment of the North American congregation to also be changed and influenced by its sister church. In other words, global partnerships are a two-way street.

In a desire to assist churches, the CRC initiative developed a variety of resources which can be used by churches considering or engaging in partnerships. These iGPSresources, articles and training modules are all available on-line in two different locations.

Articles to help churches determine their readiness and next steps are available on the Global Mission site on The Network at network.crcna.org/globalmission.

Other resources and training modules are available at www.crcna.org/igps. The training modules help leadership teams in areas such as maneuvering cross-cultural communication, learning about poverty, handling issues surrounding money, identifying paternalism and sustainability, and more. These modules can also serve as stand-alone pieces for adult education classes.

The iGPS motto is of "All one body We."

"These resources (material, spiritual, emotional, relational, financial, and others) should be used for the greater good of God’s kingdom. We see close relationships between distant churches as a way to share the resources and knowledge that we have with each other for the building up of the body of Christ," says promotional material for iGPS.

--Trish De Jong, Christian Reformed World Missions, CRC  Communications