Pastor Hogan sighed as he leaned over his desk, whispering a prayer of frustration. It was Monday morning, and he had just received an email from a family who had visited his church the day before. They commented how much they enjoyed the service—the worship was modern and uplifting, the sermon was Biblical and relevant, and they noticed the recent upgrades to the 75-year-old building. They noted, however, that they would probably keep looking for a church home because they wanted to be somewhere with a vibrant children’s ministry for their three children. This was becoming a routine for Pastor Hogan. He had received this email a dozen times over the past few months. He knew there was potential for explosive growth in the church, but young families were unwilling to help the church build a children’s ministry.
Pastor Hogan was correct in his estimation of the church. Dirtroad Baptist Church* was founded in the most rural part of the county by just a few families after the Great Depression. These families never imagined that their tiny community would grow into a bustling suburb after the interstate split their county. Over the past ten years, most farmlands had been developed, and thousands of people had moved around the church. The church had experienced some trouble a decade ago, but Pastor Hogan had faithfully led the church back to health over the past five years. The church has quality, contemporary worship, updated facilities, and a healthy spirit. They have prayed and worked tirelessly to reach young families but have not seen any progress.
Dirtroad Baptist has potential and opportunity but needs a strategic partnership to reach its potential. In a conversation with the pastor that mentored Pastor Hogan, he mentioned this reality, and an idea was birthed. Perhaps Pastor Hogan’s former church would be willing to see the Dirtroad community as a local mission field, and they could provide the strategic assistance that the church needed. This would provide Dirtroad Baptist with the needed help and give the partnering church an exciting way to mobilize its members in local ministry.
Dirtroad Baptist has discovered one of our church revitalization strategies—fostering. A fostering relationship between churches is a short-term partnership in which a more vital church invests strategically in a plateaued church that has experienced some ministry imbalance. Ideally, fostering is mutually beneficial. The fostered church receives an investment of resources (people, strategy, discipleship, tools, etc.), and the fostering church is allowed to live out its mission by sending out short-term missionaries who desire to serve. This fostering church strengthens the Kingdom’s work in the community by replicating a ministry they do well in an area with a need for that type of ministry. Ultimately, both churches are stronger, God is glorified, and more people are reached through their cooperation.
After the initial meetings, these two churches met formally to draw up an agreement. If Dirtroad was going to receive help from them, the fostering church expected some oversight and control of certain aspects of Dirtroad’s ministry. The churches agreed on the level of assistance, the strategy for building the new ministry, and the approximate length of time. Several months later, families that visited Dirtroad Baptist found a growing, healthy children’s ministry. Some of the earliest families have joined the church and are being discipled to eventually become leaders in the ministry. The missionary members of the fostering church regularly share how God is working through this ministry, and new volunteers have been raised up in the fostering church. The fostering pastor was surprised to see that there were people in the church ready to serve once they had the opportunity. His initial concerns about sending good workers out were settled as God proved He would provide.
If you think your church could be a candidate for fostering or another type of church revitalization, or your church has a strategic strength to share with other churches in the metro area, please email joshc@bmbaonline.org or reach out to me in some other way. I am grateful to serve our churches and am always happy to share how you can be involved in church revitalization.
*The churches and people in this article are fiction, but their story could be the story of thousands of churches across the nation.