Over the last few years, a group of churches from our local network has started making a winter retreat to Monadnock Bible Conference in Jaffrey, N.H. an annual, joint event. It started with two of us going together in 2010. Each year since we have had another church join us. There are already conversations about a fifth joining us next year! Through this simple partnership, we have seen a number of really awesome benefits to our ministries, students and our network.
First, partnering has allowed small churches to experience a "big" feel. I know, we all argue in ministry over the value of "numbers." Having a big group doesn't mean a successful event in itself. However, more students do mean more energy and the benefit of feeling part of something much bigger than themselves. Alone, none of our churches would take 40-50 students, but together we were able to bring 70+. And that number has continued to grow each year. This has created an environment and event that our students have even more excitement about because of the community atmosphere that partnering has created.
Second, partnering has helped us connect with our students better. One youth pastor can't do it all and can't connect with every kid. But when we share our students and don't have a competitive mindset, it has helped considerably to make sure students are being reached. Here are three examples of this:
- One of my students loves this event simply because he goes to school in a town where one of the other churches is located. Even though he has developed friendships with the teens at my church, it has been even better for him to develop friendships with teens at his school that share his faith.
- On Saturday night of the retreat, students who want prayer or to talk are dismissed to another room to meet with leaders. This year, there was a young man from one of the other churches in our network who obviously wanted to talk, but for some reason wasn't able to meet with his leaders. So I sat down and talked with him. It turned out that he was the son of the church's youth pastor, and the conversation I had with him was much healthier for him than if he had been talking with his dad.
- All four of the churches that went have a handful of kids that we jokingly argue about "which church they 'belong' to." They have been to all of our programs at different points over the years. This partnering event has allowed us to check in with students like this and share the responsibility of making sure they are plugged in somewhere.
Third, being the body of Christ really does have power! Every year that we have done this retreat together, we have watched God do something deeper and deeper in our students. And it is because we are together. One student from one church shares something, which then provokes a student from another church to share, which then prompts another - and so on. Every year we marvel at what God does through our students, and we know without a doubt that if we had been on the retreat individually, the event would still have been good, but there would have been a huge piece that would be missing.
Fourth, and last, this has helped spur our network to do more together. This past year, our students had such a great time together that it launched a student-led night of worship that we plan to do once a month. In our first night together, we had a worship team that incorporated a student from each church, and those students could not have been more encouraged afterwards. We're currently planning some activities over school break together. We're exploring partnering in mission trips. We also have developed an annual service retreat and a day of service event over the last couple of years. None of these would have worked or gained traction on our own. But because we did it together, things have started to take off, challenge our students in new ways and grow all of our ministries. We truly are better together!