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Church Partnerships

1. Partnering for Mission in Burkina Faso

The Burkina Faso sahel is a completely Muslim area, largely unreached by the gospel, and the poorest part of the country. But God is using the church to bring spiritual and social transformation there. Pastors and churches there are working more effectively than westerners ever could (see here for more details). However, they lack the resources to do all they would like in mission.

Partners in Mission

I am looking for churches in the west to partner with these churches in northern Burkina Faso, to pray, encourage, and serve them in their mission to the unreached of the sahel.

Such a partnership is an opportunity for western churches to engage in mission in a meaningful, biblical, and relational way. However, the western church does not initiate, own or run any project, but supports the Burkina Faso church in its own mission, by:

Through such partnerships we have already supported the local churches in many activities, such as:

  • helping re-build homes following the Gorom-Gorom flood (2006-7)
  • joining local churches in running a childrens camp, (2007)
  • we are currently building a Primary School for Gorom-Gorom
  • drilling wells in needy villages (planned for Nov 2008),
  • enabling pastors to start small businesses to support themselves,
  • supporting evangelism and aids awareness campaigns by local pastors.

Partnership with the local pastor-missionary

The pastors in northern Burkina Faso are, in effect, missionaries - men from other regions and people groups in Burkina, sent to unreached Muslim areas to bring the gospel. They often struggle simply to gain the basics of life, but are committed in faith and prayer. Good local missionaries of this kind can most often be more effective than western outsiders: (Read more here)

A western church can join with a gifted local pastor in his missionary calling, through a partnership of prayer, encouragement, visits, and specific well-targeted giving. We do not want to create dependency by having pastors supported on a regular financial basis by a western church. Instead, the partnership should empower the pastor-missionary in his ministry. Some ways this might work are:

    Set-up: Help a new pastor-missionary to set up by helping him get land, a house, and a means of transport.
    Support: Help the pastor-missionary start "tent-making" activities by which he can support himself and his family financially.
    Serving: Praying, writing, encouraging. Visiting to spend time and work alongside in practical service.

Partnership in church mission activities.

The church in northern Burkina often has vision to reach out to its community, but is limited in the resources to accomplish what it wants to do.

The western church could partner with the Burkina church to help it fufill its mission vision. There is no fixed "model" for what this might involve. The local pastor-missionary identifies the vision and needs of the community. As these priorities are identified, the partners would seek together through prayer and the direction of the Holy Spirit, to see how the skills and resources in the partner church might match with those needs. Possible examples might include:

    Education. A pastor wants to help with the education needs of his village. The western partner encourages church members to help fund schooling for children in the village.
    Evangelism: The church want to start regular evangelism in an unreached village, but have no place to start the work. The partnering church helps them buy land and send a team to work alongside the local church in building an outreach centre.
    Poverty relief: Famine hits regulary, and traders push grain prices up. The pastor wants to stock grain to sell cheaply. The partnering church pays for a cereal bank to be built.
    Business: A pastor wants to support new converts by starting a small business. Businessmen travel out to look at the situation, brainstorm business ideas, bring training in accounts etc, and help provide start-up capital.
    Water: The pastor sees the need for better water supply in the village. The partnering church arranges for a well to be drilled.
    Justice: The pastor sees that western agricultural subsidies are driving villagers out of business. The partnering church campaign with western governments for fairer trade practices.
    Sport: The pastor wants to run a sports camp to attract the youth. The partnering church helps finance it, and sends a group to take part and bring sports kit.
In this way, the partnership draws in the whole church. Practical people as well as traditionally "mission" people get involved, with small teams forming to explore the different areas. The partnership will remain church-centred, but potentially could expand to draw in the surrounding communities (eg schools, businesses, health services), and thus also become a new mission opportunity at home.

Thus, the partnership supports mission activities, identified and owned by the local pastor-missionary, through prayer, skill sharing, visits, and giving.