[1]NORTHERN AFRICA (BP)–In 1999, members of a small church from Houston were at work in Northern Africa long before Mike and Molly Turner* set foot there.
In Houston, the church had met in homes instead of a church building, and God used those gatherings to draw many Texans to Himself — and imparted a desire to try the same ideas on a global scale.
The church began partnering with Southern Baptist missionaries in the city but those workers soon moved elsewhere. The church, however, stayed and began looking for and meeting needs. On volunteer trips, they taught English, hygiene and AIDS awareness classes. God used those projects to introduce them to potential church planters.
When the Turners became strategy coordinators for the city, the Houston church partnered with them. In fact, the Turners consider the church their co-strategy coordinator.
“When we have strategy meetings, they’re at the table with us,” Mike Turner says. “The pastor and his wife sound like strategy coordinators. That comes from years of experience and multiple trips.”
As many as half of this small church’s members have visited Northern Africa. The congregation prays and fasts for the city, missionaries and volunteers they send. The church’s vision statement even includes reaching the city.
[2]Small churches often are valuable partners for strategy coordinators.
“When you’re smaller, it’s more effective to do what we’re talking about doing,” the pastor says. “You have the ability to be fluid. It’s easier to turn around a tugboat than a battleship.”
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*Names changed for security reasons. For more information on how a church can begin a significant partnership with a strategy coordinator, e-mail [email protected] or call 1-800-999-3113.