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Sister Church Partnership Update / Starfish Strategy Introduction
- 2. The Starfish Strategy 5 Points of Strategic Impact for Sister Church Partnerships
- 3. What is the Mission of the Church?
- 4. The “WHOLE” Gospel Approach
- 6. The Starfish Strategy Five Points of Strategic Impact (POI): Evangelism Discipleship Education Social Compassion Community Development
- 7. The Strategy in Action
- 8. The Strategy in Action
- 9. Evangelism Open air meetings Door-to-door evangelism Film presentations Resource provision (tracts, books) Lights and/or generator Coleman lanterns PA system Musical instruments VBS Church benches
- 10. Evangelism Opportunity LaviJezi – The Life of Christ in Pictures and Haitian Creole Can be used as a resource for the children in the church as well as a tool to witness to children in the school and community
- 11. Discipleship TEE Student Sponsorship Leadership Seminars Men’s meetings Women’s meetings Bible studies Construction of church addition Construction of parsonage Marriage (using donated dresses & suits) Awana Preaching & Teaching VBS
- 12. Discipleship Opportunity Global Leadership Summit for Pastors and Lay Leaders coming to Cayes, Haiti. Goal for each US Church to provide for at least 5 leaders to attend from their Haitian Sister Church 2 Follow Up Seminars to help pastors apply principles in context of Haitian culture
- 13. Education Hope for Kidz TEE Secondary education School supplies Sports Construction of school buildings or benches Home economics training Vocational school sponsorship HIV/Aids education
- 14. Education Opportunities $250 Hope for Kidz Sponsorship Provides: School annual tuition School entrance fee Books for the year One school uniform One pair of shoes Daily hot lunches *(in some areas)
- 15. Social Compassion Meeting the needs of: Widows Orphans Hunger Housing Clothing and shoes Disaster relief Medical assistance Clean drinking water
- 16. Social Compassion Opportunities Pre-Positioning Food Relief: NOAA predicting abnormally high hurricane season RMI wants to be on the ground, ready to provide 270,000 meals
- 17. Social Compassion Opportunities Homes for Haiti Provides: 200 Sq Ft of Living Space A sturdy concrete foundation 2 locking doors 2 windows for light and air flow A front porch A Haitian Bible Hope for the future
- 18. Community Development Wells for clean water Agriculture Animal husbandry Microfinance Small business seminars Management seminars Leadership seminars Construction of Home Economic Centers Construction of security walls Construction of storage building for food & goods Partnering with local government officials to help with: Fixing government buildings (paint, etc.) Medical facilities (training, supplies, medical teams) Public schools (training, supplies, paint, repairs) Public sports areas (develop, repair, sports camps)
- 19. Community Development Opportunity RMI Haitian Staff Support Over 30+ staff to facilitate Sister Church trips, build Homes for Haiti, distribute Food for Haiti, and help with the Hope for Kidz program. RMI’s ministry is dependent on them! It costs RMI over $4000 per month to keep them on staff.
- 20. Starfish & Sister Church Partnership
- 21. Continued Discussion Sister Church Conference tentatively planned for February…stay tuned! We’ll be sending out more information in the VERY near future!
- 22. Questions?
Editor's Notes
- A question that gets asked frequently of churches and agencies is, “What is your mission?” For many that statement would consist mainly of “preaching the Gospel”! This mission would encompass evangelism and some discipleship endeavors and that would be about it. I believe that if you were to survey most evangelicals as to what the Gospel is, you would get some combination of these two concepts. However, I would challenge you to ask the question this way. Why did Christ come to the earth? What was His Mission? You see, His mission should be our mission! What is interesting is that the church has put a very narrow focus on a mission that Christ indicated was very broad. Most churches is interested only in the spiritual dimension, and often only the evangelism part of that dimension at that!
- However, if you look at the mission statement that Christ gave Himself in Luke 4:14-21 you will see that He cares for the “whole” person, not simply their soul. This is the “whole gospel” as many call it. I think Richard Stearns in “The Hole in Our Gospel” has it right when he states that Christ’s mission statement “means much more than evangelism in the hopes that people will hear and respond to the good news of salvation by faith in Christ. It also encompasses tangible compassion for the sick and the poor, as well as biblical justice, efforts to right the wrongs that are so prevalent in our world. God is concerned about the spiritual, physical, and social dimensions of our being. This whole gospel is truly good news for the poor, and it is the foundation for a social revolution that has the power to change the world. And if this was Jesus’ mission, it is also the mission of all who claim to follow Him. It is my mission, it is your mission, and it is the mission of the Church.” (Page 22)As two churches engage together in a Sister Church Partnership through RMI, this is the gospel that we want to proclaim together. In Haiti, we want to make sure that our relationships are interacting in a holistic fashion that will embrace the “Whole Gospel” concept.
- When we pondered on what this would look like in a Haitian context, we formulated a strategy that will enable our Sister Churches to be able to contextualize Christ’s mission. The “Starfish Strategy” got its name from the familiar story of a child on the beach that is lined with starfish that have washed up. He goes down the beach throwing as many as he can back into the water. He can’t throw them all back but he makes a huge difference in the lives of those he does throw back in. In the same way, RMI cannot help all of Haiti, but we can make a difference in specific churches and communities.
- Just as a typical starfish has 5 arms, RMI’s Starfish Strategy has 5 Points of Impact (POI). These are: Evangelism; Discipleship; Social Compassion; Education; and Community Development.These 5 strategies for impacting a local church and community embrace all that Christ came to do on this earth. His desire for the church to minister to the spiritual, physical, and social dimensions of man is reflected in the Starfish Strategy. By engaging together in these 5 POI’s, Sister Church Partnerships are able to encompass a holistic ministry into the national church and their community, thus preaching the “whole gospel” as proclaimed by Christ. The Starfish Strategy will enable Sister Churches to have a strategic impact on their Haitian church partners. It will take the guesswork out of what the next team’s project will be. RMI wants each partnership to make sure they are engaged in some way in each of the 5 POI’s. To that end RMI will sit with both Sister Church Partners, Haitian and American, to devise 5+ year plans for each POI. These plans will be tailored to the needs of the national church but matched to the resources and capabilities of the US Sister Church. This will enable better planning by each church as they move forward together to accomplish each year’s steps toward the long range goal for each POI. Having a common strategy that both sides are working through will result in a deeper, richer, fuller relationship. Essentially it will take it from being “1 dimentional” to being “3 D”. It fleshes out what it means to accomplish the mission that Christ gave us.
- Our desire is to see the church and community through Christ’s eyes. His first desire is to change their eternal perspective. He came to save those who are lost. He wants all men to be born again. So Evangelism is our first and main priority. However, once saved He wants us to grow in knowledge and understanding of who He is and how He wants to interact with us in a personal relationship that will change us forever. So Discipleship builds on the Evangelism base. From there comes the opportunity to minister to the whole man, his immediate needs such as food, shelter, clothing, medical needs, etc. As we minister to these needs through exhibiting Social Compassion, we see the Love of Christ reaching out to those in often desperate need through us. As we meet these immediate needs, we see the long range need for education, dignity, being able to care for oneself and family, vocational needs, self-sustaining help, training in Leadership, better business, agriculture, animal husbandry, etc.: the Education and Community Development POI’s. These last 3 POI’s interact together through this active demonstration of Christ’s love to bring the lost to the Cross and a realization of their need for a Savor bringing us back to our first priority.
- What does this mean for you, the Sister Church Coordinator, Hope for Kidz Coordinator, or maybe even team participant. How will this strategy affect the way you minister to and with your brothers and sisters in Haiti? Many of you have already been engaged in ministry on the various 5 impact points. Hopefully this will help you to more strategically think about how you want to proceed in ministry in the future year, 5 years, and maybe even 10 years. While we will be giving you suggestions, please know that these suggestions are just to get your mind rolling. Your Sister Church may have other needs that are not listed. While we want each Sister Church to engage in similar planning methods, each of you should come up with very different plans and outcomes.
- This is not a complete list, this is just a list of possible opportunities for engagement in this POI.
- $1 Per Booklet. RMI would like for each church to purchase at least 250 to minister to the children in their SC community.
- This is not a complete list, this is just a list of possible opportunities for engagement in this POI.
- When God wants to begin a new work in the world, He almost always starts by speaking into the heart of one person. Drawing up the courage to listen, obey, and share the vision with others, these are the people we call leaders.In the future, RMI would like to implement a stronger emphasis on leadership development. One way we are going to do this is through bringing the Global Leadership Summit to Cayes, Haiti. Hosting the GLS in Cayes will provide for a closer location for pastors in the Southern Part of Haiti to come together to participate in the GLS. In addition to attending the seminar, RMI will be holding 2 follow up seminars to help break down the material and make it applicable for pastors and leaders IN Haiti. We would like for each church to send at least 5 leaders at $100 per person (churches are welcome to sponsor as many leaders as they want…5 is just a minimum). The follow up seminars will cost $85 per person/per seminar. We would like to have 2 people from each sister church district (who attended the initial GLS seminar) attend these follow up sessions.
- This is not a complete list, this is just a list of possible opportunities for engagement in this POI.
- Exciting things ahead for Hope for Kidz…This year for the first time, we will be feeding more children than we have sponsored! New Resources for Hope for Kidz CoordinatorsPostcards – send to your church mailing list to promote the programPress Release – use Hope for Kidz to promote your church and the good your church is doing in your communitySocial Media – use Facebook, Twitter, blogs, etc. to promote Hope for KidzFundraising Suggestions – engage your entire church in Hope for KidzPowerPoint for Children’s groups to teach them about Life for Children in Haiti. I will be uploading it to my SlideShare Account and letting you know when it’s available. We want to hear from you – what resources do you need or would you find helpful in getting the word out and improving the Hope for Kidz program in your churchIf you run into problems, let us know! We are here to help and want to know how we can better serve you. Emphasize importance of getting sponsor information back to RMI – we are getting checks but not getting sponsor registration forms. At the very least we need names and addresses. Preferred with addresses and phone numbers. In 2012, we will be moving to a monthly payment plan for Hope for Kidz. We need as many current sponsors as possible to commit to starting in January in order for this program to succeed.
- This is not a complete list, this is just a list of possible opportunities for engagement in this POI.
- Last month the NOAA, a division of the National Weather Service, released their 2011 storm predictions for the Atlantic Basin. They are predicting an above-normal hurricane season consisting of anywhere from 12 to 18 named storms, of which 6 to 10 could become hurricanes including 3 to 6 major hurricanes (Category 3, 4 or 5). Imagine what one of these storms could do to the already hurting country of Haiti!RMI needs to be able to PRE-POSTION FOOD RELIEF in the event of a catastrophic hurricane hitting Haiti. We need YOUR help to ensure that adequate food and provisions are on hand to serve to those in need IMMEDIATELY following a potential disaster. As we know from past experience with the earthquake in Port-au-Prince, getting a container into the country following a disaster is often very difficult, if not impossible. With this knowledge, we would like to have enough food on the ground in Haiti to be able to provide 270,000 meals to individuals and families in need in our Sister Churches on a moment’s notice. Are you prepared to help stock our Food for Haiti Disaster Relief Pantry? Each donation of $25 will provide 216 nutritious meals designed to help those who are in desperate need for food relief. Before we can order a container and have it ready when the need strikes, RMI needs at least 700 individuals and families to step forward and commit to donate at least $25. Encourage your church to sponsor at least 50 to 100 cases of food so that we will be able to quickly meet our goal and get the container ordered and on its way.
- General Homes for Haiti Update…
- This is not a complete list, this is just a list of possible opportunities for engagement in this POI.
- Christ’s Mission. Our Mission. Reaching out to minister together through our Sister Church Partnerships to the whole person with the Whole Gospel using the Starfish Strategy. This is what RMI is all about. This is how we are going to impact Haiti. One partnership at a time enabling evangelism, discipleship, social compassion, education, and community development to shine forth Christ’s love into a church and community to bring all those that will come into a saving relationship with Him and providing spiritual, physical, and social hope today and into eternity.