Networking

Networking with other churches, especially other ReadyChurches, is vital to the success of your ReadyChurch in your city. We’ll discuss some principles of networking as well as look at why it is so important.

For the last 70 years, since the end of WWII, people in the U.S. have grown less accustomed physically to keeping their pantries stocked, their tanks full, and their emergency locations known. In the spiritual arena, some experts now indicate that less than 17% of Americans are identifiably Christian. That is, their lives are not guided by Godly Christian principles with strong spiritual walls resilient to attacks of all kinds. Many Christians are hard-pressed to indicate five people with whom they work or see regularly that they are praying for by name or sharing their faith. The spiritual and physical “walls” of our country, our homes, and our personal lives are broken down and need to be rebuilt. Nehemiah presents a clear pathway on how to seek others to help rebuild our physical and spiritual “walls” personally, in our home, church, nation, and world:

1. Acknowledge our spiritual walls are broken

2. Pray for God’s help to rebuild our walls

3. Read God’s word and listen to Him for directions on how to rebuild

4. Seek the help of advisers and others who will help rebuild our spiritual walls

5. Determine the strengths and contributions of those who will help us rebuild

6. Ask our rebuilders to make a specific contribution to help rebuild according to ability

7. Covenant in writing with rebuilders so both can rebuild and stand in a crisis

8. Follow a long-range and resilience-rebuilding plan

9. Evaluate the rebuilding resilience progress

10. Account for what rebuilders are doing to rebuild resilience

11. Resolve any disagreement between rebuilders immediately without compromise

12. Celebrate each resilient-building step and give all the credit to God

Our task today as Christians is to first recognize our own broken “walls,” to work in unity with others who want to help us rebuild, to daily rebuild our own walls, and then to invite more people to come join us on our journey with Christ. Download the Memo of Understanding Agreement Template to sign a commitment with other churches to develop Biblical Readiness in your church and community.

Wouldn’t you agree we can do more when we work together?

John 17:21 records Jesus’ prayer for the unity of his disciples just before his execution.

“My prayer for all of them is that they will be one, just as you and I are one, Father – that just as you are in me and I am in you, so they will be in us, and the world will believe you sent me.” Unity is critical to the success of our outreach efforts.

The people of Israel resisted God and refused to prepare for what Jeremiah said was coming. They suffered. Mordecai and Esther stuck together, based upon an old covenant of care, and saved their people from ethnic cleansing. Nehemiah rallied a rag tag bunch of citizens of the destroyed city of Jerusalem and district-by-district rebuilt the walls, the homes, and the moral fiber of the people. Jesus demonstrated that a life of obeying God could prepare a person for the harshest of treatment. Paul crisscrossed the globe building churches and encouraging them to care for each other. Acts 2 describes how the Church grew as they met together, prayed, cared for each other, and shared everything they had. When persecuted, they turned constantly to God in prayer, and he rescued them.

Who is your church partnering with?

Partnering with at least one other church is required for the unity factor involved in true biblical readiness. In this section you will prayerfully assess your church’s Response Group area and begin the process of identifying and selecting key churches, media, businesses, or other Christian groups to partner with.

Here’s why:

1. Emergencies are best responded to locally. In disasters, it will be 72 hours to a week (and in some cases up to two weeks) before first-responders can even reach your area. ReadyChurches are the first on the scene.
2. Emergency managers won’t let you into a disaster area unless you have pre-agreements - signed memorandums of understanding (MOUs) regarding what your church or group of churches will do, by when and with whom in the community. Churches make ideal partners; but they often make the mistake of turning over their facilities without ensuring their mission is not compromised or letting others take resources and leverage off them, all while prohibiting churches from presenting the Gospel. Partnering with other churches strengthens what you bring to the emergency manager because they only want to work with a few, not hundreds of churches individually. Begin partnering with your CEN ReadyCity.
3. Crisis happens every day, far more than any church can handle. Agreeing to focus on areas of expertise expands the capacity of the greater church to respond. A church can spread out its support among many members and help more people than if every church is trying to solve every problem or address every crisis. Just as your church has selected an emergency focus, so should your partnering church, according to God’s lead.

Envision how you will impact your community as you join other churches to tackle current crises...and prepare for the unexpected. A ReadyChurch in Indiana was able to recently test their network capacity and their response plans. In November 2012, they had an explosion in a neighborhood. Because of their Biblical Readiness and networking with other churches, they were able to Biblically Respond.

You can read more of their story in the downloaded material, “ReadyIndy News Release.”

Partnering with other churches:

Who are your church members partnering with for readiness?

• Map the churches and Christian organizations operating in your church response group area.
• Invite them to a get-to-know-you meeting, or set aside time at a regular area pastors’ meeting to share the importance of being a ReadyChurch working together.
• Present the ReadyChurch campaign (Power Point, brochures, banners, fliers videos, sermon series).
• Select one church to be your partner church in the ReadyChurch campaign and encourage the other churches to pair up. Partner churches will encourage each other and hold each other accountable to the Biblical Readiness Standard.
• Identify all the ways each of you could offer help to other Christians or people in crisis and disaster.
• Sign an agreement with these churches to stand together in readiness, response and recovery stages, and agree to share resources locally which will help those in personal crisis.
• Form your ReadyCity.

Template

“Memo of Understanding” Agreement

We, as Christians and Churches, acknowledge that we agree to…

• Acknowledge our spiritual walls are broken
• Pray for God’s help to rebuild our walls
• Read God’s word and listen to Him for directions on how to rebuild
• Seek the help of advisers and others who will help rebuild our spiritual walls
• Determine the strengths and contributions of those who will help us rebuild
• Ask our rebuilders to make a specific contribution to help rebuild according to ability
• Covenant in writing with rebuilders so both can rebuild and stand in a crisis
• Follow a long-range and resilience-rebuilding plan
• Evaluate the rebuilding resilience progress
• Account for what rebuilders are doing to rebuild resilience
• Resolve any disagreement between rebuilders immediately without compromise
• Celebrate each resilient-building step and give all the credit to God
• Use the ReadyChristian and ReadyChurch training program to develop Biblical Readiness in our churches and community

Name Date

Name Date

Name Date

As we mentioned in an earlier training, churches are great at preparing for events. They plan an event around a holiday, an outreach objective, or a worship service. But what happens if something unexpected happens? The things needed to prepare for an event are the same things needed to respond to a crisis.

The only difference is that a crisis happens without being scheduled. CEN has found that the roles used in developing a Church Emergency Team can also be used in planning for events, effectively increasing the capacity of the church in times of disaster while strengthening the team dynamics for events. Once you’ve set up and established a Church Emergency Team, you have the foundations in place to use Biblical Readiness as Outreach. This is done primarily through the development of Prayer, Care, and Share Teams.