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Become a Partner Church
Freedom In Christ Ministries is looking for a small number of churches around the country who share its vision to prepare the Church for revival. We believe that the Lord wants to put the issue of freedom back on the agenda and encourage His Church in the UK that we really can turn converts into fruitful disciples, no matter what their past issues are. Our job will be done when the Church is teaching "freedom principles" as a matter of course and the majority of Christians are walking in the freedom that Christ has won for them. At that point we really will be ready for revival!
What does it mean to be a partner church of Freedom In Christ?
On a general level:
Above all, partner churches will have a heart to equip other local churches. They will be outward looking and ready to look beyond their own needs in order to impact the nation. FIC will regard them as very much part of the team, key players in its task of equipping the Bride of Christ.
Partner churches will be centres of excellence for helping people find freedom. They will not only wish to use the FIC approach themselves, but will have a burning desire to help other churches get started too.
You don't need to be a "big" church or even to be "church" in the traditional sense (as long as there are appropriate accountability structures in place).
On a practical level:
There will be a two-way flow of support:
FIC will support you with specialist teaching and by giving you top priority when it comes to advice that you may need in difficult areas. For example, the type of support we could provide to partner churches might be:
• running in-house teaching events for your team
• facilitating a Setting Your Church Free retreat for your leadership team
• running a Setting Your Marriage Free retreat for your members
Partner churches will support the work of FIC by:
• being a local centre of expertise where local leaders can learn
• supporting FIC by sharing resources and, usually, making a regular financial contribution
• being prepared to run freedom appointments for people that FIC will occasionally refer to them (but you do not have to accept every request for a freedom appointment - in fact we would like to see you concentrate on equipping leaders rather than taking "all comers")
What are the qualifications?
We are looking for churches who have embraced the FIC approach and are able to share it with others. We would, therefore, expect you to have a working "freedom ministry" and a leadership that is committed to being used to help other churches get up and running. We would expect partner churches to have the following features:
• leaders who have a vision for working with and equipping other local churches of all Christian denominations and streams
• leaders who have had their own personal freedom appointment
• a sufficient number of trained and active encouragers and prayer partners (if not in the partner church itself, in a local network of churches)
• a named person to co-ordinate between church and FIC, ideally on the leadership team
• a commitment to use our standard material and approach: eg UK Steps To Freedom, material in the Freedom Fellowship binder.
Is there an unlimited time commitment?
No. We understand how busy most church leaders are and we do not anticipate adding substantially to the burden. We will agree with you the parameters for your involvement and will not ask you to do more than you are comfortable with.
How do we get started?
Please contact us for an initial discussion. If you want to take it forward we will then want to draw up a 'Road Map' with you as to how we can serve your church and back up your activities.
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