How Can Churches Across Town Partner Together?

I remain convinced that it is more important than ever for local congregations in the same city to partner together in meaningful ways.¹ In this short article, I’d like to go to Scripture to make a case for this claim, and then suggest a few practical ways for churches and their leaders to start working for closer local partnerships.

Why build and maintain local church partnerships?

Scripture gives us both a theological foundation and apostolic model for partnering with other local churches.

Our union together in Christ

Church partnerships begin with the recognition that there is one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church. By this we don’t mean the Roman Catholic Church or any particular denomination. Instead, we acknowledge, in the words of Ephesians 4,

there is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. (Eph 4:4–6 NIV)

Unless you think that your local congregation is the only true church in town, then you have to acknowledge this reality: Your brothers and sisters in the Baptist or Presbyterian or Bible church down the road are part of the same body of Christ. Assuming that they believe the gospel of Jesus Christ and proclaim that faithfully, we have a deeper unity with fellow churches in our area than we often realize. You share a profound unity and union with them because you are all joined to the risen and reigning Messiah Jesus.

This is no small thing. You share a closer union with the church in your town that may have different music, liturgy, and even language than with any of your own family members who may not know Jesus. Our profound union together in Christ is the foundation for our partnership with other local congregations. Once we see this objective unity, we should be compelled to flesh this out in local relationships.

Paul’s Jerusalem collection

But Scripture doesn’t just give us the theological foundation for church partnerships. It gives us a model. Paul’s ministry is an example of churches partnering to serve one another. Beginning with the agreement among the apostles to “remember the poor” (Gal 2:10), Paul organized a collection from the churches in Asia Minor, Macedonia, and beyond to help provide for the needy in the Church of Jerusalem.²

In 2 Corinthians 8, we get a window into the theological foundations and practical outworking of this partnership. Again, the foundation of this partnership is Jesus himself and the grace of God given in him (2 Cor 8:9). On the basis of their shared union in Christ, there is an opportunity for shared participation in the ministry to the saints (2 Cor 8:4). Paul encouraged the churches to band together to help address the needs of the poor saints in Jerusalem. He reminded the Church of Corinth how churches in Macedonia had made significant sacrifices to contribute to this collection, and he encouraged them toward the same giving (2 Cor 8:2–3).

When we understand the reality of our union together, our partnership with fellow churches is both a joy and an obligation.

Shortly before he finally traveled to Jerusalem to deliver this collection from the churches, Paul wrote to the Church of Rome, asking them to pray for his work and telling them that he was going to deliver this gift from the churches of Macedonia and Achaia. He says of this partnership, “They were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them” (Rom 15:27 NIV). The bottom line is that when we understand the reality of our union together, our partnership with fellow churches is both a joy and an obligation.

Once we recognize this, the question becomes, How can we do this well?

How to build and maintain local church partnerships

Many pastors have encouraged their congregations to “become who you already are,” that is, to live into the reality of your union with Christ. A similar encouragement applies to pastors within the same region: Become who you already are—together. Live out your union with each other in Christ.

Now, most pastors and church leaders won’t deny that it is a good thing to partner together with at least some churches. Some might even say they have a desire for this! But we don’t always know how to get these kinds of partnerships going.

1. Pray for other churches

Before he reminded them of the collection for Jerusalem, Paul assured the Church of Corinth that they participated in and helped his ministry by their prayers (2 Cor 1:11).

The first way to start partnering with other churches is to pray for them. Before you ever meet anyone at the church across town, you can partner with them by praying for them! So if you are serious about partnering with other churches, begin by regularly praying for them, both privately and publicly.

2. Pursue relationships

Even though you can partner with other churches simply by praying for them, it’s difficult to know the best ways to pray without knowing them. And it will be even harder to build significant partnerships without that relationship. You cannot partner with someone whom you don’t trust. But in order to build that trust, you’re going to need to spend time together.

So if you are a pastor and you don’t currently have significant relationships with other pastors in your community, make this your starting point. If there’s a pastors’ fellowship in your area, prioritize attending. If there isn’t, consider starting one. Beyond that, invite other pastors to lunch or coffee. Have dinner with their families. Build friendships beyond a quarterly pastors fellowship.

As pastors and church leaders spend more time together, they will often be able to invite their congregations into those relationships. If you have a special service, you can invite pastors and other key leaders to attend and get to know others in your church. For example, during Holy Week, our church has services on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. We often invite pastors from other churches, especially to the Thursday and Saturday services. At our Easter Vigil this year, we had pastors from at least four other churches present! Through these services, we’ve seen not just friendships build between pastors, but even now friendships among other church members are starting to grow.

3. Pay attention to opportunities

As you build trusting and long-term relationships with other pastors and churches, you will likely start to see missional needs in your community. Most fruitful and lasting church partnerships don’t begin with the partnership itself. Rather, they grow out of an already-existing relationship.

Recently, the Hawaiian island of Oahu, where I live, experienced its worst flooding in over two decades. We got hit with back-to-back “Kona low” storms, which is basically a storm that comes from the opposite side of the island. The wind normally blows and can often bring a lot of lingering rain and wind. The North Shore of Oahu was hit especially hard. One of my friends up there told me that most of the houses in his neighborhood flooded, yet most of the people did not have flood insurance because they’re not in a flood zone. Except when they are. After the news cycle moved on and the flood waters receded, we were left with the clean up.

Most fruitful and lasting church partnerships don’t begin with the partnership itself. Rather, they grow out of an already-existing relationship.

As the clean up began, I had a phone call with a pastor on the North Shore who was looking for help. The next day, he sent out a text to a handful of pastors coordinating clean up. I drove up to see how our church and local pastors network could help, and I ran into friends from five or six other churches who showed up on the North Shore ready to help clean up flood damage. Over the next week, we saw churches across the island partner together to help their brothers and sisters on the North Shore.

After over a decade of friendship and ministry on the same island, many of us already knew each other. We had seen both the importance of connections across churches and the need we have for each other. Because of this, we were prepared to partner together to help meet some of these needs when they arose.

4. Prioritize the gospel

Over the years, I have seen church partnerships come and go. Some of these partnerships ran their course because they met whatever need brought them together. Others have fallen apart in less-than-ideal ways. Partnering together is not always easy or simple. Theological differences surface. Different philosophies of ministry or church polities cause friction. Personalities clash. Sinners sin against other sinners.

Let’s not be naive. There are going to be relational problems. The complications of working together will be just that: complicated.

However, if we enter into these relationships with the commitment to keep the gospel central in our partnerships with other churches and not let our secondary differences drive us apart, they will have a greater chance of long-term success. As problems arise, run back to the gospel and remember the foundation for these relationships.

Even when partnerships come to an end, if we remember that we are united in Christ and hold on to that, the door will remain open for new partnerships in the future.

Share your thoughts

How can nearby churches build partnerships? Join us in the Word by Word group to share your thoughts.

Chris Bruno’s suggested resources

• Jensen, Peter. “The Partnership of All Believers.” Churchman 133, no. 2 (2019): 99–106.
• Sweeney, Michael L. “The Pauline Collection, Church Partnerships, and the Mission of the Church in the 21st Century.” Missiology 48 (2020): 142–53.

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• One, Holy, Catholic & Apostolic: The 4 Marks Explained
• What Is Friendship—& Can Pastors Find It in the Church?
• 5 Steps to Starting a Prayer Ministry in Your Church
• Want to Build a Pastoral Internship? 4 Steps

1. Over a decade ago, my friend Matt Dirks and I made this case in a book called Churches Partnering Together: Biblical Strategies for Fellowship, Evangelism, and Compassion. Though much has changed in the church and the world since 2013 (including my own life and denominational affiliation), that conviction has only deepened.
2. In our Churches Partnering Together, Dirks and I trace the ongoing partnership among the churches that Paul planted across the Mediterranean.