Karen and I are blessed. Specifically, after more than thirty-five years in ministry, we have dear friends scattered across the country and around the world. When our kids started driving we’d tell them, “No matter where you are in the USA, you’re no more than an hour’s drive from someone who loves our family and will help you change a tire.” It wasn’t an exaggeration.
It’s on those cross country trips that you especially see the value of friends. Not long after we moved to Nebraska I was driving home from a meeting in Topeka. Stopping overnight in Salina, I got up early the next morning, started up the motor on that old Ford Taurus wagon, and prepared to hit the highway. But when I put the car into gear, nothing happened save the sound of my engine revving. The transmission was shot.
After a few calls I had the car towed, diagnosed, and was told it would be a week before my car was ready. This was Saturday. Since I hadn’t planned on spending the week in Salina, with my family back home and a church expecting a message the next day, I called my friend on staff at First Baptist Church. We were not close, but we served together on a state convention committee. We were partners in ministry, fellow pastors on mission for the Lord. And with that connection, after a few phone calls, I had a way home, a temporary vehicle, and had it all wrapped up in time to preach the next morning.
Now if you’ve never been stranded alone in a strange place with limited resources, this may seem trivial to you. But through this experience the Lord reminded me of the blessings both of having friends and being a friend.
Well, I believe the same is true of local congregations. Churches do not exist in a vacuum. Just as individuals do, they have the opportunity to relate with like minded churches for fellowship, cooperative ministry, and most certainly to lift up those who might find themselves down.
In coming weeks I’ll introduce you to the report of a strategy team that’s been working on a proposed road map for ongoing ministry through GTBN. But I’ll let you in on something now: the best we have to offer partnering churches rests within our partnering churches. Your church may one day need that help. You will definitely be in a position to help another. That’s the value of network relationships. It’s why we’re better together.
Blessings. I hope you are off to a great summer.
Bro. Jim