Multi-Church Partnership Covenant

[Wilson Deaton]

Many of you know that here in Kenosha we are involved in a building project for a new facility that will be shared equally by my congregation (Kenosha Family Church--A Church of the Nazarene) and our local Spanish-speaking congregation (Amigos en Cristo Church of the Nazarene).

To clarify, this is not a multi-congregational church, but rather two independently organized churches sharing the same building. (To avoid the landlord/tenant issue we asked the district to hold title to the property and they agreed.)

Thursday evening a small delegation from each congregation will be meeting as a joint committee to take a major step forward in the preparation of our formal convenant agreement to define our partnership. We have already developed a rought draft to work from. It includes the basics such as defining why we are sharing a building, the financial issues, scheduling events, handling facility maintenance and security, decorations, etc.

If any of you have some words of wisdom, suggestions, warnings, that you think would be helpful to us, I'd love to hear it!

A recent shot of our building's progress:

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Wilson

[Jim Franklin]

Make sure there is accountability for the keys that are issued. That there is full agreement on the insurance contract. Notify your fire department as to who is to be contacted if there is any reason for their services and who is to be called by a patroling officer if lights are left on that are not normally part of the night light configuration. That there is a second contact person in each case should the first contact person be indisposed. Seek a bonding of the two congregations through joint events and services.

[Craig Laughlin]

Wilson, although I followed the progress of the building somehow I missed that this is a shared building. I am deeply impressed with the courage of both congregations and leadership. I think you need to give it a few years and then write a book. I think the rising cost of buildings and the exploding multicultural nature of our country will lead to more congregations seeking these sorts of creative solutions. Two things I can think of off hand and you may well have already picked up on them.

First, remember these are two very different groups of people culturally. Sometimes when you think you are all on the same page you are going to discover that you are not. It has nothing to do with being honest or dishonest just difference in the way cultures approach things and understand things. I think there will be some significant challenges. (Thus the reason for writing the book and helping the rest of us out)

Second, have a predefined and extremely clear process of conflict resolution within the congregation and outside the congregation for when it is needed and use it. The more you use it the more it becomes a normal way of resolving issues rather than a "crises" way of resolving deep conflict.

I look forward to hearing the reports.

[Jim Franklin]

Pastor Craig, Five Mile Nazarene here in Boise shares their facilities with a non denominational Russian church. Their hymnals and Bibles are in the pew racks right along with the Ehglish ones and there is never a day when that facility is not being used by various groups in the community such as AA and others.

[Jeremy D. Scott]

Wilson - Maybe I'll think of some advice late in the night tonight, but for now, I just want to say that I think this is awesome.

[Craig Laughlin]

Pastor Craig, Five Mile Nazarene here in Boise shares their facilities with a non denominational Russian church. Their hymnals and Bibles are in the pew racks right along with the Ehglish ones and there is never a day when that facility is not being used by various groups in the community such as AA and others.

Cool. Do they have joint ownership like Wilson's church?

[Oliver Phillips]

http://www.missionstrategy.org/missionstrategy/Portals/0/pdf/mmpdf/StateUnder42007.pdf

I have attached A Statement of Understanding