Collaboration

Excerpt from Ed Stetzer post:  Leadership Book Interview: Chip Sweney on A New Kind of Big

We talk a lot about how our churches can have an impact in their cities-- I am doing a series on how research can under gird such efforts here. Chip Sweney, Next Gen and Community Transformation Pastor at Perimeter Church has written a new book that addresses the issue. Perimeter Church has been doing a leader in all types of ministry for many years. I have been aware of (and impressed by) their work for a long time. So, I'm glad to share something from one of their team.

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The primary themes in the book are collaboration, relationships, mobilizing lay leadership, and developing a strategic plan. Collaboration is not just a nice buzzword but is a must in today's world if we are going to make the most impact for the Kingdom. Perimeter's collaborative focus has been in building relationships with non-profit organizations and other churches. As we launched Community Outreach in 2002, we made the decision that we would partner with existing ministries and organizations rather than starting new ministries to serve "the least of these" in our community. This turned out to be a wise decision. Our partners have empowered and equipped our people for serving in ways that we could never have done. We had a deep desire to see significant change in our community and city, and we realized that no one church can change the community. It must be about churches working together, and not just churches from the same denomination or ethnicity but a broad representation of the Body of Christ. We have been proactive in seeking to work together with any other Christ-centered churches who share a passion for blessing our community and city through the gospel. Through this approach, a network of multi-denominational, multi-ethnic, and multi-sized churches has developed called Unite!

Relationships are the foundation that drive, strengthen, and deepen church partnerships through Unite! As we work together on various initiatives we build deeper friendships, and this in turn fuels greater partnering. "A New Kind Of Big" also shares stories of how Perimeter has been able to mobilize lay people as leaders and servants in the community. Lay leadership mobilization has absolutely been the key to church wide mobilization.

"A New Kind Of Big" sheds light on Perimeter's strategic planning process, especially in how we launched our Community Outreach ministry, determined criteria for partnerships, and developed our vision, mission, and goals. It was a very intentional process that led to broad ownership among the Perimeter congregation. Our strategic planning process also includes a long term vision of "what could be" and then how to identify the practical steps of how to get where you want to go.  

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