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Are You Competing or Collaborating?

The natural bent is to become a ministry silo.  With the pressure to build your ministry area, it just happens.  Ministries compete for resources, volunteers, calendar dates, budget, and space.   But the competing model has its limitations.

A better approach is the collaboration model.  The collaboration model takes intentionality.  Ministries bond together to build the ministry as a whole.

Collaborating means you…

Enlist volunteers together.  Ministries work together to enlist volunteers and place them in their sweet spot…even if it’s not in their “ministry area.”  That means if you enlist a volunteer for Children’s Ministry, but as you interview them you find out their passion is student ministry, you encourage them to serve in student ministry.

Plan together.  Instead of competing for calendar dates, ministries sit down and plan their calendars together.  They are careful to space ministry events and programs out to compliment each other.

Strategize together.  Ministries work together to create an overall strategy for discipleship.  Birth through senior adult ministries sync up with the strategy.

Serve together.  Ministries partner together often.  Children’s Ministry jumps in and helps with Adult Ministry events.  Student Ministry serves in Children’s Ministry.  Adult Ministry helps with events like Fall Festival.

In the competing model, Children’s Ministry only focuses on children, Student Ministry only focuses on students, and Adult Ministry only focuses on adults.  In the collaboration model, ministries focus on the family as a whole.

Which model do you use?

What other benefits have you seen in collaborating?

What have you done to collaborate with other ministries?