56. Church Partnership 5 (mini series)

In the final episode of the church partnerships miniseries, we explore building deeper, non-transactional relationships with churches. We discuss the roles of sending and caring in church support, emphasizing koinonia (biblical fellowship) that integrates financial, emotional, and spiritual partnership. Local churches offer proximity for volunteering and direct ministry involvement, while out-of-area churches provide unique opportunities like mission trips. The three levels of partnership—participate (financial support), engage (personal care), and own (active advocacy)—are outlined, with tips to deepen connections through storytelling, hospitality, and shared mission. 

[1:00-3:00] Role of Churches: Corrie outlines churches’ roles in sending (financial support) and caring (emotional/spiritual support) for missionaries, stressing that partnerships should extend beyond transactions to foster accountability and engagement.

[3:00-08:00] Impactful Stories: Corrie shares how a disciple’s testimony deepened her church’s connection, while Andy recounts a coached missionary’s rapid funding due to a church’s prior investment in her family, highlighting long-term relational impact.

[9:00-14:00] Local vs. Out-of-Area Churches: Local churches enable volunteering and direct ministry involvement due to proximity, but in sensitive areas (e.g., closed countries), partnerships avoid drawing attention to local churches to protect them.

[15:00-20:00] Opportunities and Challenges: Out-of-area churches offer mission trip opportunities but face “out of sight, out of mind” challenges, requiring creative updates. Local churches risk volunteer burnout and may expect missionaries to serve locally.

[35:00-39:00] Koinonia in Partnerships: Corrie explains koinonia as fellowship, partnership, and financial contribution, seen in New Testament examples, urging missionaries to view partnerships as shared missions, not just funding.

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Transcript

Heather Winchell: [00:00:00] Welcome back to our last episode in the church partnerships miniseries. Many ministry workers rely on church partnerships for financial support, but what if these relationships could be more than just transactional? In this episode, we explore the opportunities and challenges of partnering with local and out of area churches.

How can ministries build deeper long-term relationships that go beyond funding? What are the different levels of church partnership and how can missionaries and ministry workers nurture them effectively? So today we want to discuss strategies for strengthening these connections, navigating expectations, and fostering a true sense of kuia, a biblical fellowship that brings churches and ministry workers together in mission and purpose. So that's what's before us guys. Today. I have with me again, Corey and Andy. Hello. Welcome back, guys. Yes, hi.

All right. So we're just gonna go back and set the stage [00:01:00] again. Every episode we wanna just really emphasize why church partnership matters. So what role do churches typically play in supporting missionaries and ministry workers? And is it important, or why is it important to see these relationships as more than just a financial transaction?

Corrie Mckee: Yeah, I think this is something that we've covered throughout. But I think to wrap up, since this is our last episode, I would say it really falls into two categories, what churches do for missionaries, send and care. A lot of churches only send, and not necessarily the care part, which we can talk more about today.

Some churches are able to care but not necessarily send financially. So I would say it falls into those two categories 

Andy Brennan: and it feels like, I think it's pretty clear that all are called to a certain extent. We just don't know the distance or the proximity or where we're called. Not everybody is called to go, but I think everybody is called to be a part of the [00:02:00] great commission and therefore a part of missions.

Heather Winchell: Mm-hmm. 

Andy Brennan: And we need the church to make that happen. 


And I think in answer to your second question, I think most donors want to be more than a checkbook. And, and the money, I honestly think that the money and the investment is maybe just a way to get people's attention, sometimes to get them to pay attention.

Heather Winchell: Mm-hmm. 

Andy Brennan: Because if it's just, here's an update from the field, from our workers, our members abroad, well that's interesting information. That's an interesting report. But when it becomes a report on something that I am personally invested in, I think that instantly piques our curiosity a little bit more.

Heather Winchell: Mm-hmm. Yep. 

Corrie Mckee: Yeah, I agree. If church members know that that's where they've been giving their money, they want to see what God is doing through their giving and their prayers. 

Heather Winchell: Yeah. And I mean, practically, I think that in stewarding the congregants funds, the ministry workers at a church bear the responsibility of like giving [00:03:00] updates based on where money is going.

So that will just naturally bring the missionary into those updates in a way that they wouldn't otherwise perhaps. Mm-hmm. 

Corrie Mckee: It's part of accountability. 

Heather Winchell: Yeah, for sure. Could either of you share a personal story or example of a church partnership that had a deep impact on ministry?

Andy Brennan: On my ministry? 

Heather Winchell: Yeah. Or if somebody you've coached. 

Andy Brennan: Hmm.

Corrie Mckee: Okay, so my story is about my church that I grew up in and they supported me for nine years. And I really saw the partnership take off about halfway through that decade. And that was when I brought someone who had come to Christ through. My ministry and who is now ministering to others. So [00:04:00] she was, a true disciple who was receiving and then giving back out, making disciples.

And so she shared her story and she shared about the work that she was doing in the ministry, and that's when the church just really got on board and people started asking more about what was going on, in the ministry. And they wanted to know how this , student was, they wanted to know how her work was going.

And then true disciple maker, she introduced the church to others, in her sphere of influence who were doing ministry. And then the church started supporting them and they were supported. So it was just like a domino effect that really brought the people in the church into a more. Tangible relationship with the ministry because, this student, I was in campus ministry at the time, but this student ended up writing, handwritten letters to the church and to the missions committee.

[00:05:00] Mm-hmm. And they just really felt like they knew her and loved her. And I in turn felt like they knew and loved my ministry and me. 

Andy Brennan: That's awesome. Very cool. Do you still 

Corrie Mckee: keep in touch with her? Yes, in fact, I went to Japan to visit her and she's come here to the US and China to visit me, so.

Oh, I love that. 

Andy Brennan: Very cool. Well, I do have a story. It's not my story, but is it this one that I am borrowing from one of the young ladies that I coached, I'll try not to go into too much detail 'cause there's a lot packed into this person's story.

This is a story about a young lady who became a believer recently, I'm gonna say she's a Christian for maybe two or three years when I met her and started coaching her. She kind of grew up around the church, but it wasn't really a part of her life. She had a difficult childhood. She had, parents who were pretty impoverished.

They had different issues, they had different traumas, but, she could remember always [00:06:00] receiving gifts from the local church around Christmas time. So being part of that operation . christmas child. So because of that connection the church had with Operation Christmas Child, they, that family was always on the periphery and always , in orbit around that church.

And eventually the parents became believers and started attending there. And so this individual that I coach, the daughter, was also tangentially connected as well. So she becomes a Christian. She goes to school, she feels the Lord calling her overseas and I start coaching her.

And so she circles back around to this church. Her home church hasn't been there for a while, has been going to college in another state for a long time. Circles back around and shares her story. And she only has like five minutes. To cast vision, you know, as part of like a Sunday morning thing.

But because that church had poured so much into her and into her family over the years, they [00:07:00] responded unbelievably. They gave, I'm gonna say three gifts between five and $10,000. 

Heather Winchell: Wow. 

Andy Brennan: And she was fully funded within a matter of like two months. And that came at a moment when she was like, I don't know if I can do this.

I got so much going on. I'm in my, I'm in my senior year of college. Um, but that connection to that ministry, like everybody was like, we poured into this family and they felt that connection and they was like, yeah, of course we want to send you. 

Heather Winchell: That's so cool. Okay. And not at all to diminish the difficulty, it would be to live in the circumstances where your family is on the receiving end of.

Operation Christmas child or something. Right. Like that's, I don't wanna bypass how difficult it is to in be in conditions of like great need. But I remember something we said earlier in this season where you just said like, what if your lack is actually about somebody else? Hmm. [00:08:00] The reality that that family was in need and that church provided at that point totally set the stage for the long game of God's provision for her.

Right. That is like mind blowing. Like sovereignty and that's the God 

Andy Brennan: we serve. 

Heather Winchell: Omni rationality. Yeah, 

Andy Brennan: yeah, yeah. Wow. Yeah. It's easy to get lost in like the day to day or even like the year by year when for us it feels like this is taking forever. What's the Lord doing? But he, he's omniscient.

He has the bigger picture. He has generations 

Heather Winchell: right. 

Andy Brennan: Of the narrative in mind. 

Corrie Mckee: Wow. That's so amazing. It is. It reminds me of like, don't grow weary in well doing, because at the proper time you'll rip a harvest if you don't give up. 

Andy Brennan: Yeah. So good 

Corrie Mckee: whole story. That is beautiful.

Andy Brennan: Well let's talk about some of the benefits maybe of partnering with a local church versus, maybe a more distant [00:09:00] out of the area Church.

Corrie Mckee: All right. So I wanna first to just define what I meant by local versus out of area churches. So for local churches, that would be churches that are located in the same city as your ministry and mission. So an example of this would be you're in college ministry and there's a church near your university campus and that church wants to support your ministry.

Another example would be like, you work in homeless ministry or something like that. So, you know, you could have volunteers from that local church in your ministry, in your town, out of area that would really relate to most of our overseas missionaries, ~um, ~because that church is outside the city of your ministry location.

So it could be in another region or area of the US or it could just be across the world, you know? So the main point is that out of area churches do not [00:10:00] know practically and tangibly what's going on in your ministry. Mm-hmm. Unless you tell them about it. 

Andy Brennan: Gotcha. Yeah, that makes sense. So what's one of the benefits then of working in a church that, that knows your ministry just by proximity.

Corrie Mckee: Yeah. So I think the first one is that you can send the people that you are reaching out to, to that church. Hmm. So like if it's college ministry, you can invite your students to go there. Or if it's a homeless shelter or an addiction recovery ministry, you can send the residents there to the church. And you also have a huge volunteer base from which to mobilize. So people in the congregation can bring their talents and their skills to invest because that's right there in their city. Like they can bring mills, they can show hospitality, and they can do so much more than just finances and prayer because they're right there.

And I think they can see the work [00:11:00] real time. 'cause they might just see examples and fruit of your work while they're out and about around town. You know? Right. They see you meeting needs in the community. So that's really special. 

Heather Winchell: Yeah. I guess I have to say one thing that comes to mind for me, just because I'm aware that we all worked in a country where actually there were some really unique considerations about having alignment with the local church.

What would you say, Corey, or how would you caution people if they're in maybe a country or an area where partnership with the local church could actually be detrimental to the presence of the local church? Does that make sense? 

Andy Brennan: Like if the church isn't necessarily legal? 

Heather Winchell: Yes. Yeah. Or if drawing attention to it.

Yeah. Or it's counterproductive. Yeah. 

Andy Brennan: Yeah. 

Heather Winchell: And maybe we're just acknowledging that sometimes happens. 

Corrie Mckee: Right. I mean, when I was serving in a closed country, [00:12:00] I did not consider the local church there to be a base for my support. 

Heather Winchell: Yeah. My 

Corrie Mckee: financial support. So, so it would, the way that I viewed those churches was very different than the way that I viewed my mm-hmm.

Supporting churches back home. But I would still send the people that I was ministering to. I could send them to those churches, but I just wouldn't partner with them necessarily, because I wouldn't wanna draw attention and get them in trouble. 

Andy Brennan: Yeah. Well, and sometimes they're, I'm speaking very specifically, there could be an underground church and there could be an aboveground church.

And obviously as a very obvious foreigner, it doesn't make sense to bring, let's say, a student to an underground church because you're getting everybody, you're, you're really drawing too much attention. But if it is legal to go to an aboveground church, we did that. We brought our students with us and I think they just wanted to improve their English and hang out with us, but they got to see, wow, there are people in my community [00:13:00] that are just like me that believe this and they believe it passionately.

So it's not a financial partnership, but it is like, hey, we're, we're kind of all on the same team here. 

Corrie Mckee: Yeah. That's great. So I think maybe the next thing we can look at is the challenges ~Yeah. ~Of partnering with local churches. I think when you really want to make sure that you're not burning out volunteers.

If you have lots of volunteers in a local church, I know that when I was in campus ministry, we had a group of ladies who would bring dinner every Friday night for our fellowship, and that ended up being a lot for them. I think it's important to just be cognizant of raising up new volunteers who can always learn from and take over from those who've been serving for a while.

And think about just expectations, of those volunteers. 

Heather Winchell: Hmm. 

Corrie Mckee: Consider expectations that the church might have of [00:14:00] you. Because you are in that city and you are maybe going to that church, they might want you to serve in the church. Teach in the church, have weekly ministry responsibilities.

This is something to really talk about with a missions committee or with a pastor there about what you can handle on top of your regular ministry load. 

Andy Brennan: Be clear about the expectations. 

Corrie Mckee: Yep. 

Andy Brennan: And let's also recognize that a church identifying and mobilizing volunteers is a perpetual struggle.

Heather Winchell: Mm. 

Andy Brennan: It seems, especially for children's ministry. Right. Like, we hear it, you know, month after month. I don't think it's isolated to our church. I think that's probably a perpetual issue. So if you have somehow crack that nut, then that's amazing. Please share it. But that is, that is a reality.

Heather Winchell: Mm-hmm.

What about opportunities out of area churches? How do those have some unique opportunities that local churches may not? [00:15:00] 

Corrie Mckee: Yes, I think there's a lot of pros here out of area churches. So again, these would be churches that are outside of your city of your ministry or your mission. So these folks are not used to seeing you around, so it's really special when they do get to see you.

So it's an experience for them when you come to visit because. Oftentimes it's a missions conference or it's a missions focused Sunday, and you are, a little bit more free in that you don't have obligations ~to, ~to teach or to serve weekly in that church. But you can come and you can contribute to the church, ~uh, ~seasonally.

Yeah. When you are in town. You can also use your mission field as a base for that church to send a team to. Oh yeah. So they could do a building project, they could run a camp, they could do a VBS.

So, you know, those are some opportunities for that church to still be [00:16:00] involved with their ministry, even though they're out of area. 

Andy Brennan: That seems like the, the bullseye, that seems like the golden standard that we should shoot for. Mm. Is the church actually like sending more humans to the field to get their feet on the ground and to experience?

Because there is something different about, oh, I saw where you walk and where you buy your groceries and I saw the people that you're working with versus just reading about it on the page and then they bring that back and they can encourage everybody else that didn't get to go. 

Heather Winchell: Mm-hmm.

Andy Brennan: But that does seem like a challenge as well. Like it is, compared to the local, it is significantly harder to get your home congregation involved in international. Ministry, just, you know, this is more expensive, it's more timely. There's a lot of other obstacles there. 

Heather Winchell: Mm-hmm. Yeah. 

Corrie Mckee: Oh yeah. That is definitely a challenge.

And I think that because it is out of their region or on the other [00:17:00] side of the world, a lot of times you have to fight against that out of sight, out of mind thing. 

Andy Brennan: Totally. 

Corrie Mckee: And so you have to do more explaining of your mission field. You have to be more creative in how you share your updates. So you wanna provide more videos, more pictures.

More interesting stories that make them feel like they're there, feel like they know the people that they're praying for. 

Heather Winchell: Hmm. 

Corrie Mckee: And then you have to decide if you have capacity to receive a team, if they wanna send a team, you know? Sure. Yeah. Yeah. That's 

Heather Winchell: a good point. What about expectations? How would you say that expectations differ when working with local versus out of er churches?

Corrie Mckee: So like in local churches, you want to understand what are the expectations of the volunteers, what are the expectations of the church and how you will be involved in their church and what they will want you to do in giving back to the church.

And then in out of area churches you wanna explore, [00:18:00] if, if you can. If you have the capacity to receive a team, if they're expecting to send a team,

Heather Winchell: okay. So let's move on to the three levels of church partnership.

In the curriculum, we identify those as participate, engage, and own. So let's just maybe briefly explain what each level looks like. 

Corrie Mckee: Yes. Okay. So some of these have a little bit of overlap, but they are different. So let's start with participate. So the participating church is the one that writes the check every month and they see their role as sending you financially, and they are mainly interested in your ministry, the stories, the results, what's going on on the field.

So they may not see their role yet as missionary care. They may just see their role as a [00:19:00] sender, and that's okay. I did have several churches that, like, they just wrote the check and they just wanted me to give updates and that was it.


So the next one is engaging churches. So the Engaged Church churches are partnering with you both in your ministry and. As a person. So they're the ones that wanna know about you and your family.

They're the ones that remember the birthdays. They remember the anniversaries. They wanna be on your list for specific and personal prayer requests. They wanna know, if you've had a hard week or a hard season of ministry. So these are engaging churches. And then finally owning churches. So these are the ones who are actively involved in perpetuating your ministry.

Like they are sending volunteers, they're advocating for you. They're putting together [00:20:00] prayer groups. They're matching up, people in the church who will be your, partner. Like we at our church. We have, partners that continually pray for missionaries and, catch up with them on a weekly or monthly basis.

Cool. Nice. So that would be like owning. Mm-hmm. I love that. So these churches also take on a large, they could take on a large percent. 

Heather Winchell: Mm-hmm. 

Corrie Mckee: Financial support. 

Heather Winchell: I would say that both of us had an experience of a church that really owned that partnership. Would you agree? 

Andy Brennan: I think maybe there, like Corey said, there's some overlap and I feel like maybe it was somewhere in between.

Engage and own. Mm. Okay. Fair. I think there's still room to grow. It feels like in my anecdotal experience that there are. The percentage of churches that are owning a ministry versus participating in a ministry are, are pretty low. 

Heather Winchell: Mm-hmm. 

Andy Brennan: Like a lot of churches are comfortable with. Yeah. We can participate in that.

Heather Winchell: Mm-hmm. [00:21:00] But we also have our 

Andy Brennan: own, we also have our own stuff going on. 

Heather Winchell: Sure. 

Andy Brennan: Yeah. Like the daily shepherding and feeding of the local body. 

Heather Winchell: Mm-hmm. 

Andy Brennan: And it feels like the missions is on the second ring. 

Heather Winchell: Mm-hmm. 

Andy Brennan: Yeah, 

Heather Winchell: that's true. 

Andy Brennan: But so if you have a church that owns your ministry, don't take that for granted.

That's special. Yeah. I would say absolutely. Yeah. So if I have a church, this is my experience. I had one really solid church and they really sought to do their best. And I had another church that was, not local to where I was. It was where my wife grew up and at one point we were coming home for the summer and we said, Hey, we'd love to come and swing by and give an update.

And they're like, oh, we had you slotted for next year. Oh, wow. So we were willing to do that, but they, it just in their cycle like, well, no, we have our missionaries that come every other year. I was like, okay, whatever you want. That's great. 

Heather Winchell: Interesting. 

Andy Brennan: So that definitely felt like more of a we're participating in something Right.

Versus [00:22:00] engaging even. 

Heather Winchell: Right. 

Andy Brennan: Yeah. 

Heather Winchell: So what would be some. Pointers you would have for people if they find themselves with a lot of churches that are participating, but they really desire to move that into more of an engagement or ownership kind of partnership.

Corrie Mckee: I have several ideas on this. So if you are overseas and then you're home for a significant amount of time, maybe you have the summers off or you're on a furlough you can ask that church if they would like for you to visit a small group or do a Sunday school class, that could really benefit from a topic that you could share.

This would be sharing, God's heart for the nations, like an overview, biblical basis of mission, something like that. Or how to make disciples, how to share your faith or, learning more about world religions. 

Heather Winchell: Hmm. 

Corrie Mckee: And then giving specific examples in your admissions [00:23:00] context within those, topics.

So I think that could be super helpful to the church because it could take something off of the plate of the pastors at the local church. Um, it could give you a way to meet new people in the church, and it gives the people a way to learn about your ministry in maybe a different context than just hearing a missions update.

So it's a win for everybody, I think. 

Andy Brennan: Yeah. 

Heather Winchell: Mm-hmm. That's a great

Andy Brennan: well, I guess I have a question like Corey, you had 12 churches, ~like ~how many of those were owning churches and is our goal to get to the point where every church owns the ministry? Or does it make sense to say, well, I have a lot of participating churches, but really I only have one church that, or two churches that really has taken ownership of me and I feel that connection to them as well?

Corrie Mckee: I think I had one or two churches that owned, and both of those were in between [00:24:00] engage and owned. Yeah. They never sent somebody overseas to visit me or Yeah. But they were very involved in knowing what was going on and garnering up more support. I don't think it's normal to have a lot of churches that own your ministry.

Heather Winchell: Yeah. 

Corrie Mckee: Most of them are gonna be, participate and engage. 

Heather Winchell: Yeah. I was just thinking about how it would honestly probably be a little bit overwhelming if you had several churches that wanted to participate to that extent. We, we are limited in our capacity and, I'm just even thinking of a book I read, not related to ministry work or fundraising, but just related to like building community and how in community you, you only have so much capacity for like really deep relationship.

Right. And then, you know, as you kind of go out from that, there's more and more capacity. And so I think the same would be true in this kind of, in these kinds of relationships. 

Andy Brennan: ~I, ~I feel like I've heard a stat somewhere, that we really only have the ability to know like a hundred people.

At a certain [00:25:00] level ~of, ~of familiarity and like friendship. 

Corrie Mckee: Mm-hmm. 

Andy Brennan: So, I don't know, maybe, the world of social media has kind of diluted that and gives us the impression that we know so many more people. But in reality, maybe it's just me, like my mind can't hold more than that many relationships.

Heather Winchell: Yeah. 

Andy Brennan: Far fewer than that. 

Heather Winchell: Right. 

Corrie Mckee: Right. Yeah. So speaking of relationships, this brings up a little life hack that I did when I was on the field. And I think now in the digital social media age that we live in, it would have to look different. But back in the day, churches used to have church directories and print everybody's picture.

I used to ask for church directories. From every church that supported me. And so then I would ask somebody that was my advocate or on the missions committee to go through and star every family that was involved in [00:26:00] missions, had a heart for missions, would be interested in my ministry, and then I would make sure that I connected with those people.

And that every time I would visit that church, I would let them know, Hey, I'm gonna be in town and speaking at your church. And then those people became my prayer partners, my donors, some of them. So we invested in that in a friendship. So I think now it would be like, maybe I could add those people on Facebook or follow them on Instagram or whatever.

But, yeah, that was a really good way to develop those friendships within the churches. 

Andy Brennan: Well, and the fact that those, those, um. What do you call those documents? ~Oh,~ 

Corrie Mckee: directories. 

Andy Brennan: Lost the word and the fact that those directories had their pictures allowed you to identify them before, like you could just like do a crash course study before you pull into the church parking lot.

Okay. Who are the faces I need to pay attention to? I think it's a great idea. Um, yeah, I brought 

Corrie Mckee: the [00:27:00] directories with me when I would go to the church. 

Heather Winchell: It is a great idea and I wonder if it's far more difficult to do that now.

I'm even thinking about our own church directory, which isn't printed. It's online. Right. And I'm even thinking about how I have been really reticent to put too much information into that because it can be accessed by people. That hack into it or honestly, our church is a size now where I don't necessarily know everybody that would have access to the directory.

And it's just like, sadly, it feels really vulnerable in our given world to give. Yeah. People that kind of access to like knowing your children and Yeah. You know what I'm saying? 

Corrie Mckee: The world has changed, 

Heather Winchell: right. So I'm not, so, I guess maybe listener, I'm just saying like that is a fantastic idea for churches that do that.

And if you find yourself coming up on a lot of obstacles trying to get one of those, that probably makes sense in our current world. 

Corrie Mckee: Yeah. 

Andy Brennan: So 

Corrie Mckee: true. I don't know any churches that do directories anymore. 

Andy Brennan: Yeah. Or, [00:28:00] or they are online like Heather said. Yeah. So maybe there are just some unique like digital permissions that you have to navigate if you're not a member of that church.

Right. For example, even like a smaller church, ~like ~you might have to have somebody on the inside who says, okay, here's some pictures I'm gonna send you. 

Heather Winchell: Right. 

Andy Brennan: Of the people that you need to know. Like again, it's speaking for the benefit of an advocate 

Corrie Mckee: Yeah. 

Andy Brennan: Locally. ~Mm-hmm. Yeah.~ 

Corrie Mckee: Or just have your advocate be prepared ahead of time when you come to that church maybe for the first time and just say, Hey, introduce me to the missions minded people, or let's get lunch afterwards.

And, you know, something pretty organic. 

Andy Brennan: So in my work group, we're going through this book where we're going through a series of videos and kind of teaching on, the idea of being unreasonably hospitable. Have you heard of this book? Mm-hmm. Yeah. It's the story of this, entrepreneur, restaurant here, in New York City.

I think he's like the number one, restaurant in the world. Something crazy, like they've been super popular, super busy, super successful. Long story short, what they did is they took [00:29:00] every interaction across, somebody's dining experience and they mapped it and they said, this is a positive experience.

You're getting your food, you're getting your appetizer all the way back to like the, the most negative experience. Here's the bill. And one of the negative experiences was you walk into a restaurant and somebody is standing there behind a podium and they have a list of people that have reservations and they ask you for your name.

And instantly you are wondering, is my name on there? Did I make the reservation? Did I do everything correctly? Is there a chance that I messed it up. And so there's a little bit of tension and anxiety. So what they did is they eliminated the podium. They eliminated the reservation book and they had their hostess go on Facebook and find the people who had made reservations and identify their faces.

Heather Winchell: Wow. So 

Andy Brennan: that when you walked in, Mr. And Mrs. Winchell, so nice for you to join us tonight. Your table is ready. They walk you right in bananas. Right? So they do this on all different levels and it's been [00:30:00] wildly successful. So when you talk, talking about, I'm gonna memorize people's names and faces before I walk into that church.

Corrie Mckee: Yeah. It's very similar. 

Andy Brennan: So that's healthy, I think, to think of like, how can I show these people how important they are to me and to this ministry? 

Corrie Mckee: I, that's so good. And on that note, I think that. One of the ways we can show that hospitality is by thinking of our donors and our churches while we're overseas, especially if you're overseas.

~Um, ~what are some gifts that are unique that you can fit in your suitcase, like jewelry or bookmarks or Christmas ornaments or something like that. Handmade cards, from your country of service or asking one of your new believers, new disciples to write a thank you note to them. Like really be thinking through those things that would

show up as like you said, Andy unreasonable hospitality, where your donors may [00:31:00] not be expecting that. 

Andy Brennan: Yeah. And I think in a lot of people's minds, they think, well, ~I, ~I want to do this, but I also want to be efficient. But I think you could make an argument that efficient doesn't always mean effective.

So it's definitely not efficient to ask your hostess to look up everybody's face and research them on social media for all their guests every day. 

Heather Winchell: Mm-hmm. 

Andy Brennan: But it is effective. So we might wanna do a social media blast or just a really quick email update, and that's pretty efficient. But the effectiveness comes when I think about this person, like you said, Corey individually, and I say like, I send them an individual text like, Hey, I was at the store the other day and I saw this and it made me think of you.

I hope you're doing well. That feels fantastically personal rather than just, I get kind of this mass text where it says, Hey friends. 

Corrie Mckee: Right. For me, both the [00:32:00] efficient and the effective. 

Andy Brennan: Yes. 

Corrie Mckee: And that was, so I used to work for InterVarsity Christian Fellowship.

Mm-hmm. And so we have InterVarsity Press. They have all the great books. And we had a discount and there were several books that really meant a lot to me and affected me in my spiritual life. And I thought they would be great for my donors. So I bought like boxes of those books and I gave them to my donors, sent them in the mail with a thank you note explaining why I wanted to give this book to them.

And it was effective 'cause it was personal, but it was efficient because it was like. You know, a box of the, of the same type of book. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And like, I was able to send it to everybody. So, a lot of missions organizations have, they are led by people who are authors. So you could find out if somebody in your organization is an author and then get a book.

I'm, I'm thinking of Surge with, Jack Miller. The Heart of a Servant Leader. Just thinking of books that have shaped [00:33:00] your mission's organization, you could send those to your donor. Hmm. 

Andy Brennan: Great idea. I love that.

Heather Winchell: Okay. So in the vein of just things that can strengthen relationship, I know that storytelling can really be a key factor in that, and I'd love to hear you speak to that. 

Corrie Mckee: Yes. So my church does a monthly mission. Lunch after church, and anybody can come to it. Anybody who's interested in learning about what's going on in our missionaries, we have a handout with prayer requests from all of our missionaries, and then we sit in a circle tables and we pray for our missionaries by each table.

And so have two stories from that event. So the first one is some missionaries in Southeast Asia. They were ministering to a family for years, and they kept putting this family in front of us on our integrate lunches, missions, prayer requests. And so every month we [00:34:00] saw this family as a mom, dad, and a

teenage daughter and we kept praying for them by name. Hmm. And then last year they all came to Christ and they got baptized. And Wow. We got to share in their joy because we knew the names of those people. Like we felt like we knew them because Yeah, they had been so close. They'd been studying the Bible and asking questions and they're on the other side of the world.

But when they came to Christ, it was like we, we really felt that. And then the other story, this is kind of wild, this isn't a closed country. So these missionaries that we support, they had, national believers from that country who had been put into jail. And they were currently in jail and they asked us to pray at the monthly integrate lunch.

So everybody prayed for these brothers and sisters who were in jail. And then we found out. That they got [00:35:00] released. Wow. At that same moment that we were having the luncheon. Many hours time difference on the other side of the world. 

Andy Brennan: Right. 

Corrie Mckee: Were released. 

Andy Brennan: Wow. Book of Acts. 

Corrie Mckee: It was right there. So cool.

Andy Brennan: Wow. 

Heather Winchell: Mm-hmm. ~Yeah.~ 

Andy Brennan: That's fantastic. Wow. 

Heather Winchell: And it sounds like it wasn't just the storytelling, but it was also the consistency, the longevity. There was a lot of like, it was like a long term engagement. 

Andy Brennan: Hmm. 

Heather Winchell: Yes. Absolutely. 

Andy Brennan: Yeah. That's great.

So we mentioned the idea of koinonia or koinonia. You may have heard it pronounced in church partnerships. I'm wondering how this biblical perspective shapes how we think about even just fundraising and financial support.

~I,~ 

Corrie Mckee: so it might take me a little while to get used to how to say this. Yeah. It's kind of a hard word to say. But I realized in my research that Koinonia has a broader definition than [00:36:00] what I had always assumed. Hmm. I used to think that it just meant fellowship. But after I looked at strong concordance, I saw that this word means, yes, fellowship, but also partnership and contributory help or benefaction.

Participation in sharing in and communion. So then I looked up in scripture where this word is used and it's all over the New Testament and in the letters, but we see this word used both in fellowship, devotion and sharing and relationship, but also in financial giving. Hmm. So it, we see some examples, in acts.

The early church devoted themselves to fellowship Acts 2 42 In Philippians one, the church had Colonia participation in partnership in the [00:37:00] gospel. And then the Macedonian brothers and sisters, they're actually pleading for the favor of. Caronia, financial support. Yeah. And so then Paul commends the Corinthian church for their generous caronia financial contribution.

So in all of these instances, that word is used, but also in, like in second Corinthians 13, 14, the same word is used to describe our intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit. 

Andy Brennan: Wow. Mm. Cool. I think we, I think we miss it in English, right? 

Corrie Mckee: Mm-hmm. I think we do, we, we 

Andy Brennan: miss the depth, the robustness of that word, or reminds me of Michael Card's book Hesed, where he talks about all like, man, we try to pronounce it and we try to explain it in so many different ways, but it's all those things put together.

That's fantastic. Mm-hmm. That's a good encouragement. It's so, it's 

Corrie Mckee: so integrated. Like it's almost in the New Testament, it's almost hard to extract when the church [00:38:00] is being involved in financial partnership and when they're being involved in like fellowship and deep spiritual ties. 

Andy Brennan: ~Hmm. ~They're one the same, they're, they're integrated.

That's a great word. Integrated, right? Yeah. 

Corrie Mckee: Integrated. Yeah.

Andy Brennan: So how do we do this as from our perspective as ministry workers? How do we facilitate and foster a sense of shared mission with our supporting churches? 

Heather Winchell: I think one of my initial thoughts is that you just really internalize and live out the conviction that it's not just your ministry. Mm-hmm. Like, I think people really need to, to have that be a conviction and not just kind of have that be the way that they pitch something, right?

Because.

I think that there's some ways that partnership can feel like a little bit of a pretense. 

Andy Brennan: Sure. Right. We've heard it before, right? 

Heather Winchell: Yeah. ~And ~I just think it's [00:39:00] foundational that you have a conviction. Like, no, really this isn't just me doing this and you guys are like how God is providing.

I'm the one that raised my hand to say, okay, God, I'll rally the troops and now other people are joining in that, not just funding that. 

Andy Brennan: Yeah. Start by changing your possessive pronouns. 

Heather Winchell: Yeah. 

Andy Brennan: It's not my ministry. It's our ministry. 

Corrie Mckee: Yeah. There you go. It's not my money, it's God's money.

It's all of our money. 

Andy Brennan: Yeah. Yeah. We might be the tip of the spear as it were, but 

Corrie Mckee: Right. 

Andy Brennan: Somebody's launching that. 

Heather Winchell: Mm-hmm. 

Andy Brennan: Yeah.

Corrie Mckee: Any other thoughts, guys? Hmm. One of my favorite passages of scripture is Romans 11. From him, through him and to him are all things. And you know, it says who's ever given to [00:40:00] God that God should have to repay them. I love that because ~it, ~it just puts the perspective in order. Hmm. We are created by him and designed by him and we are.

Designed for his glory and we depend on him. And because of that, we depend on others. Yeah. And that's how God has designed this whole thing to work. 

Andy Brennan: Yeah. And I've said this before too, and I, but maybe it bears repeating here at this moment with this particular question and how we as ministry workers can foster community and shared mission.

I think that you acquire community through shared mission, on the field. You're placed together with people from different backgrounds and you don't have any control over who you're with. And you might think, well, these aren't people that are different from me. If we went to the same church, maybe we wouldn't even be in the same circles, but because [00:41:00] the Lord has put us together on mission, we instantly have community together.

Heather Winchell: Mm, mm-hmm. 

Andy Brennan: I think we can model that for the church too, and we can bring that into the church and say, Hey, we're all on mission together. And I think community will be an outflow of that mission together. 

Heather Winchell: Mm-hmm. 

Corrie Mckee: So true. I think another thing that stood out to me, especially serving overseas, is that as a missionary, it can feel so isolating.

Because you don't know a lot of people in your context who speak your language or are from your culture. And so when you have those churches who are really caring for you and getting in touch with you and, asking how things are going, wow. It's a game changer. I don't think that people in churches understand how much of a lifeblood that is.

Keeping missionaries on the field. 

Andy Brennan: Yeah. 

Heather Winchell: [00:42:00] Mm-hmm. 

Andy Brennan: Yeah. And I even think about the importance of, this isn't exactly what we're talking about, but the importance of like an international church, where you have people that are pulled together outside of their homes and they're all thrust together and they're like, man, I'm just starving for some ionia, I'm starving for some community.

And that's why you have people from, in our international church, I think we had, at one point, like 70 to 80 nations represented in our, 

Corrie Mckee: amazing, 

Andy Brennan: in a small room. And so it was like, there's a handful from each nation. But like we are worshiping together and we are friends and we are on the same page.

And maybe there's a little bit of doctrinal differences or emphasis, but we're doing potlucks, we're enjoying all the foods from these different places and it's a picture of the body of Christ. 

Heather Winchell: That's beautiful. So guys, as we wrap this up, any final encouragement we would want to give to missionaries or ministry leaders that are looking to deepen church [00:43:00] partnerships?

Corrie Mckee: Yeah, so I would just say, this verse sticks out to me. First Thessalonians two eight. It says, because we loved you so much, we were delighted to share with you not only the gospel of God, but our lives as well.

And so sometimes we use that to refer to the people that we are reaching out to and discipling on the field. But I think it also applies to our churches, because we are sharing with them how the gospel is spreading, but we're also participating in life with them. They're sharing it. So it is not just about the money, it's a spiritual transaction, and it's a social and emotional transaction as well.

Andy Brennan: Yeah. I think any way that we can encourage the members of a church to get engaged in ministry and to have [00:44:00] some outflow right? To not be stagnant, to not just be consumers of truth every Sunday, but to express and to experience ministry, even if it is just through finances.

I think that's helpful. I think it also kind of broadens the vision and the horizons of the church members to, I, I feel like there are, so, there's so much going on in our communities and even in our nation where we're like, I can't handle the drumbeats of doom from my media outlets that seem to say everything is like falling down around us to hear a report from what the Lord is doing globally and that, well, I'm a part of this in this little rural church in the middle of middle America.

I think that's important. I think it's important to give vision, to everybody in the body of Christ to help them to see what they're a part of. 

Heather Winchell: Mm. Mm-hmm. So true. Well, great. Well guys, thanks so [00:45:00] much for joining for this miniseries. And Corey, thank you so much for all of the work over the years of work that you have put into the church partnerships curriculum and into this podcast miniseries.

Corrie Mckee: Yeah, it's my pleasure. 

Heather Winchell: And listener, our hope and prayer for you is that in listening to this, you have been encouraged and given vision for what it can look like to partner with the church, that you've been practically equipped to do that well.

We encourage you to check out that curriculum when it's available so that you can. Go deeper. Go deeper. 

Andy Brennan: And it might not be easy, but I hope that you have in these series of talks that you've learned that it is so, so worth it and it's so important. 

Corrie Mckee: Yep. I think a lot of people don't even realize that they can have churches on their ministry support team.

So hope that we've shown you that it is possible and doable. 

Andy Brennan: That's right. 

Corrie Mckee: All right. Thanks guys. 

Andy Brennan: See you next thing. Bye.