Sunday morning, “K” walked through the doors of our church with her grandmother for the first time. This was more than just a first-time guest moment, however; this was the answer to prayer and faithful laboring over multiple years here at River Church.
Over two years ago, “K” and her unbelieving parents came to our summer camp. This camp is one of the main ways we engage partners who support us and volunteer alongside us. It is a lot of work and preparation, but always worth it.
During camp, my wife Jacqueline prayed with K and led her to Jesus. We followed up with her parents, prayed with and for her, Jacqueline bought her a Bible, wrote her letters, reached out…But K and her parents never came to church. The following year, K came back to summer camp, thanked us for the Bible, and said she really wanted to go to church, but her parents wouldn’t bring her. We prayed for her, encouraged her, and engaged her parents again, but never saw her on a Sunday. Then this last Sunday, over two years after camp, K’s grandmother brought her to church!
K’s grandmother has lived in Frederick for over eight years and has never had a home church during that time. She said that K kept begging to be brought to River Church, and she finally decided that if K wanted to go to church, she would drive up from Frederick and bring her to River! They had a great time, connected, and said they would be back next week. Stories like K’s are why we’ve leaned so heavily into strategic partnerships…especially through our summer camps. This is what long-term Kingdom partnership looks like! Faithful sowing, shared labor, and God bringing fruit in His timing.
When River Church started, before we even launched officially, we began serving and investing in our community heavily. This isn’t a surprise for anyone in ministry; it’s an important step in engaging and sharing Jesus with people. One of the things we did from the beginning was spend serious time in prayer, and then follow the Lord when He opened a door for ministry. We simply said YES when He would open a door. If a door closed or something didn’t work out, we would usually try it one more time and then sunset it to put our energy toward things that were making a greater impact. Summer Camps in Loveland kept coming up as a real opportunity. There were some camps in the area, but most of them charged admission or capped registration at a smaller size.
As we prayed about it, we decided that while we have partners coming up on mission, we will do everything we can to wear them out for the Gospel! After much prayer, we set a scary goal; as long as we can afford to do it, we will not cap summer camps, and we won’t charge. We host two outdoor camps at the Loveland Sports Park every summer. It costs us thousands of dollars to host these camps. Every summer, hundreds of kids hear the Gospel, some of them multiple times, and their parents know they are safe and loved on! Because of this intentionality, our camps have grown year after year. Last July, we hosted 158 kids and 90 volunteers from partner churches. We saw kids come to Christ as we have seen every year, and we are already on track with registrations this year to greatly increase again this summer.
Our partners love the intentionality in these summer camps, but I tell every partner church that the volunteers who come out here aren’t just on mission; in many ways, they are part of the mission. I have had the opportunity to pray with, counsel, share the Gospel with, and walk through vision, mission, and calling with MANY of these partner volunteers over the years. My goal as a church planter isn’t just to use partners on mission for free labor, but to partner in the Gospel, encourage them, and send them back to their churches with a greater zeal and ambition for the Kingdom! Some of these partners have returned for years and built deep friendships with each other or with the campers and parents. Others have felt a call to ministry and missions locally and overseas. We even helped fund one of our partners from last year to go on her first overseas mission trip! Kingdom partnerships aren’t just one way.
As God has used River and our partners to reach Loveland, He has even drawn people in to serve at River Church. Two of our current staff members came directly from partnering on a mission trip, feeling called to River, and then raising their support to come out and serve with us! That’s not even counting former staff members and core team members that God has used.
I share all of this to humbly encourage you to consider a few steps as a church or church plant:
- Pray deeply for God to lead you to the right partners, and don’t worry if partners don’t choose you. You aren’t raising support or getting free labor; you are sharing the Kingdom vision God has given and asking Him to see it through. He wants to see it through!
- A godly mentor once told me regarding partnership:
- It’s our responsibility to share the vision.
- It’s God’s responsibility to lead churches to partner or not.
- It’s the potential partner churches’ responsibility to obey God, however He leads!
- A godly mentor once told me regarding partnership:
- Pray for your partners, include them in your battles and prayers regularly, and when they are here, see their people as YOUR people! (They are on a mission, but they are also the mission!)
- Celebrate early and often. This is one of the best pieces of advice another planter gave me when we moved here. Celebrate the small things, because the small things are the big things. If you create that culture, then your partners will see it, the community will see it, and everyone will appreciate it as they learn to do the same!
- Remember, this is a partnership for the Kingdom. We are often told we are the experts in our context, and while that is true, even people who might know their context well can learn from fresh eyes and honest feedback! We invite feedback AFTER our events have concluded through surveys we send out to every volunteer and every camp parent.
- We “eat fish” with these comments (take the meat, spit out the bones), but it has led to tweaks throughout the years that have helped our camps become better!
- Connected to the first one, but most important, honor people’s work, but give God the glory for what He does! Don’t underestimate the cumulative effect of faithfully following God and giving Him the glory for what He does!
I write this not as an expert on partnerships, summer camps, or even church planting, but as a co-laborer who has been deeply humbled watching God work in ways I never thought He would, or never expected could work. Me of little faith!
He has a plan. He builds His church. Our role is simple: trust Him, follow Him, and give Him the glory when He does what only He can do.
Josh Elliff is the lead pastor of River Church in Loveland.
