Get Your Church Involved in Partnership

IPA Partnership Associates seeks to serve churches by raising awareness among congregations and church leadership of missions issues, consulting for more meaningful and strategic involvement, and providing connections to field opportunities. If you are wondering how your church can find it's unique niche in the wide world of missions involvement, you can do a few things to prepare.

Evaluate your current commitments in light of unreached peoples and the kind of coordination needed to reach them.

1. In light of your current commitments, begin a long-range plan to make unreached peoples a priority for your involvement and resources. While it is true that your church cannot possibly reach out to all unreached peoples, your church can play a significant role in reaching the specific people group(s) to whom God is calling you.

2. Pursue the wide variety of training available to churches that are willing to let the Lord use them in reaching unreached peoples for Him. Contact IPA Partnership Associates for information on upcoming training opportunities.

3. Plan to take a trip to the field to see partnership in action and to research the specific ways the multiple resources of your church might be applied. Numerous regional consultations and partnership meetings take place throughout the year, focused on a variety of regions. Contact IPA Partnership Associates for information about such trips.

4. Research which other churches are involved in your regions of interest. Discover what these churches are doing and how you might coordinate with and learn from them. Contact IPA Partnership Associates for information as to existing networks of churches with similar interests and/or how to begin to build such a network.

5. To encourage partnership efforts in the field, simply ask mission leaders, "How does your work fit into the effort by all churches and missionaries to reach the people of your region? In what ways are you cooperating and strategizing with others who have the same goal?"

6. Check on ways you can use your resources to encourage mission leadership to reduce duplication and maximize impact via cooperation.

7. Plan for your involvement to have a significant positive impact on your church and your outreach to those apart from Christ in your own city.

Support Partnership Development Financially

Ready to donate now? There are a variety of opportunities for giving, or you can designate your gift to be used where most needed. 

If you'd like to first get a better idea of where and how your gift could make an impact in the world, continue reading.

There are many benefits of investing financially in the partnership vision…

To world evangelization:

• Hundreds of ministries are touched -- enabled to work together in long-term, durable evangelism Partnerships rather than going it alone.

• Duplication of effort is avoided as field workers coordinate rather than compete in their Kingdom vision and strategies.

• Hope among field workers is raised as they see they are not alone but have the encouragement of many others working toward a common vision.

• Credibility of the message is increased.  The unreached see that the Good News, the Gospel of restored relationships is true -- not just words.

• An on-going, working forum is provided empowering Western, Non-Western, and emerging local believers to meet, plan, pray, and work together that has little overhead or administrative bureaucracy.

To you, the Kingdom investor:

• You strengthen the work of dozens if not hundreds of ministries from more than fifty nations around the world.

• You empower the Body of Christ to realize Jesus' John 17 command "that they may love one another so the world might believe that you sent me."

• You empower a holistic witness consistent with Jesus' life -- each Partnership sharing Christ while meeting the health, educational, and economic needs of the people.

• You know that your investments are "leveraged," or multiplied many times over as field partner ministries typically invest $65 -- $125 for every dollar needed to launch or sustain the Partnership.

• You know that Interdev Partnership Associates's administrative and financial development costs are low – 82 to 85% of every dollar goes directly to launch or sustain field Partnerships.

You can be assured that this is a "secure" Kingdom investment…

• Interdev has been in continuous operation since 1974.

• Interdev Partnership Associates's finances are audited each year by outside Certified Public Accountants who are selected by the Audit Committee of Interdev Partnership Associates's Board of Trustees.  The Trustees also review and approve the Audit firm's annual report.  (A copy of the audit is available on request.)

Donate now, and make a real impact in the world through partnerships among unreached peoples!

Prepare For Partnership

There is a combination of knowledge, skills and experience needed when we bring people and ministries together. Many do not feel confident in each aspect of the partnership process. Don’t let that hinder you from jumping in! Here are some places to start.

Learn more about partnership for mission

You can learn from the lessons we've learned, the experiences of others, and by spending some time with books and articles that have been written about partnership and collaborative experiences. Check out the collection of books we recommend.

Discover your ministry's starting point 

Partnership-friendly organizations:

• Understand the main objective and hoped for outcome of the partnership

• Support the cause of the partnership

• See that there is something in it for them

• Understand what their role will be in the partnership

Context and Conditions that Support Partnership:

• There is an identifiable core group of ministries that have a common concern and interest.

• People are open to change and to potentially doing things differently.

• There is a foundational understanding of what partnership is and what it seeks to do.

• There is a culture within the key organizations that can support partnership.

• The partnership ascribes value to the contributions of all partners.

Take a Readiness Assessment to better understand where you'll be starting from. 

Explore connecting points

Learn about the larger movement, find out who else is involved in the areas of your passion, and get help from Interdev Partnership Associates and others with experience.  Check out our forum for discussion groups in your interest area, or contact us with questions.