Start Now
UnityCT is a model for every church in an area to share with every other church in its area its need and ability for actions commanded by Jesus for the least of these. We recommend that every church begin immediately to gain experience using the model that currently exists. Over time UnityCT will spin off multiple UnityCTs. Anyone in the world can use our home model now to gain experience with it.
Other ways Churches act as One
Churches bring unity among us in our communities. They collaborate among themselves. Churches support and their members volunteer in collaborative parachurch Ministries. Many churches tithe financial support to Ministries.
The nearby page, City Gospel Movements, explains how Prayer, Service and Evangelism can be United, Holistic and Sustainable. It gives signs to indicate the maturity of the movement in our area.
Police Chaplaincy is a good example of Churches collaborating among themselves. The towns of Norwich, Waterford and Stonington each have four pastors who volunteer that one of them will be available 24/7 to respond to a request from the police department for pastoral counseling for someone in a trauma emergency.
Finding a Church
If you’re searching for a church, it might help you to know something about the outreach performed by its members.
Go to Church/Ministry Collaborations to see churches and ministries that work together.
You can also find outstanding examples of collaboration in this inspiring 30-minute video playlist of “Short Briefings by Directors of 12 Collaborative Ministries” that serve the “the least of these” and receive support from multiple churches. Please share this link with others who might like to know what God is doing and where they might like to connect.
Church Parachurch Partnerships
One of the biggest challenges for those who lead para-church ministries is how to connect the people they serve with a local church.
They need to join God’s people for corporate worship.
Volunteers from churches serve in the ministries. More than that, organizationally, the ministry and the church need to work together. Each plays an essential role in offering transformation.
Some ministries that are faith-based at their core obscure this fact thinking it might hinder fundraising or grants.
Fikkert and Kapic in their book, A Field Guide to Becoming Whole, quote theologian Leslie Newbigin: parachurch ministries “have power to accomplish their purpose only as they are rooted in and lead back to a believing community,” the community of the local church.
What can our ministries do to help the people they serve become full participants in a local church?
What can our churches do to welcome people served by the ministries as full participants in the life of the church?
Church Ministry Collaborations
This website is where churches can make known the ministries in which their members, in concert with other churches, take the service and love of Jesus Christ, and the Gospel, to the needy.
Go to a concise sheet called Church/Ministry Collaborations to see these partnerships and networks.
The sheet might be helpful to someone looking for a church that will be a good match with their interests to worship and serve.
Make sure that your church is listed if you have one or more members volunteering at one of these ministries.
Evangelism
After 55 years of Evangelism, the Luis Palau Association is interviewing Christian leaders across the country on the subject. These are some themes emerging.
A paradigm (theology) for evangelism is needed, not just programs. A strong theology of evangelism needs to be taught which is holistic, relevant, and multi-faceted.
Inspiration in evangelism is just as important as ongoing training. People need to be trained and inspired.
Christian leaders want cultural commentators to help them learn the questions society is asking so they can frame the gospel to speak to those questions.
Identifying, equipping, and empowering the evangelistically passionate lay leader could be a missing link. 50% of pastors know how to identify these individuals. 23% provide evangelistically passionate lay leaders opportunities to share their passion with the congregation. People may not know they are gifted in evangelism.
Luis Palau Foundation is brainstorming ways to get the word out about the best resources available for churches and individuals.
SMALL GROUPS & EVANGELISM
In their book “Breaking the Huddle” authors Don Everts, Val Gordon and Doug Schaupp, IVP Books, describe and build on the “five thresholds that individuals cross when they shift from being skeptics to being followers”. Everts and Schaupp described these earlier in “I Once Was Lost”.
The five thresholds are summarized on pages 13 to 16 as Trust, Curiosity, Change, Seeking and Follower.
“So often we have viewed evangelism as a purely individual effort and missed the fact that much of the evangelism in the New Testament took place in the context of community.” Dana S. Allin, synod executive, ECO: A Covenant Order of Evangelical Presbyterians
Promoting your Church
Tell us what ministries your pastors, leaders or members support . This could be any outreach that your church supports in collaboration with other churches, ministries, employers, schools, etc.
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