Goal
To provide full support for new overseas missionaries, so they may begin service within one year of their application.
Who?
PartnerTeam is a cooperative effort of five evangelical missions-active churches formed in November 2002:
First Congregational Church (Hopkinton)
Grace Chapel (Lexington)
The Fellowship (Easton)
Trinitarian Congregational Church (Wayland)
Westgate Church (Weston)
PartnerTeam seeks a total of eight member churches.
Why?
Our Vision: It is the vision and goal of PartnerTeam churches to work in a close voluntary partnership to carry out the command of Christ’s Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20). We are committed to the mobilization of our resources (prayer, monetary, and human) for the primary objective of reaching the unreached peoples of the world for Christ.
Our Purpose: It is the purpose of PartnerTeam to raise up and send out new missionaries from our own churches. We seek to provide the major percentage of these missionaries’ prayer, financial, and pastoral support. Missionaries can then be cared for on the field and during home assignments (furloughs) spent mainly with Consortium churches for mutual edification, encouragement, and greater effectiveness.
Our Strategic Emphasis:
A PartnerTeam applicant’s intended work should support evangelism, church planting, Bible teaching, Bible translation, or other direct gospel-sharing ministries including health care, relief/development, and leadership development, all designed to help create indigenous, multiplying churches amongst the unreached people groups.
Consortium Benefits:
- PartnerTeam churches can stand behind their homegrown missionaries with significant overall commitment, including spiritual and emotional support, field visits, furlough housing and transportation, etc.
- Sharing missionaries between PartnerTeam churches results in wonderful cross-pollination, enriched missions programs, and healthier/ growing churches.
- Meaningful fellowship between PartnerTeam churches will result, in part, as they support each other in times of difficulty, share speakers during missions conferences, coordinate short term missions projects, etc.
- PartnerTeam forms a partnership with the missionary and mission agency that includes accountability and responsible stewardship.
- Due to less travel requirements missionary children will be more secure and able to identify with their home church, as well as a geographic home away from the mission field.
How?
- PartnerTeam will accept for support one missionary candidate per calendar year, who meets the criteria of PartnerTeam's Strategic Emphasis. A candidate must be an active member involved in ministry in a PartnerTeam church for at least three years. Young adults brought up in a PartnerTeam church returning from schooling or ministry training will also be considered. A candidate must agree to the PartnerTeam Doctrinal Statement and must be accepted for full-time long-term missionary service outside of the USA by a non-denominational mission agency with low overhead and recognized by the ECFA (Evangelical Council for Financial Accountability).
- Member churches sign the PartnerTeam Doctrinal Statement, New Missionary Support Policy, Church Agreement and Covenant. Copies are available upon request from the chairman of the Consortium Committee at PartnerTeam@comcast.net.
- The candidate’s home church provides at least 20% of the missionary's support.
- The missionary candidate raises at least 10% of needed support from friends, relatives, and the spouse's home church primarily to broaden their prayer support base.
- The remainder of PartnerTeam churches equally divide up to 70% of the missionary's support needs with no church expected to provide more than 10%. The goal is for eight PartnerTeam churches to raise 90% of the missionary's support requirements.
- The home church takes the lead role in interviewing, approving, and nominating the missionary candidate for Consortium support and forwarding to all members of the Consortium Committee the completed PartnerTeam Support Application by October 1st of any given year.
For more information, contact the missions office of one of the churches listed above, or contact PartnerTeam@comcast.net.
