Ivor & Jakki Lewis lead Trinity Christian Centre in Victoria, the capital city of British Columbia, Canada. They have led the church for the last eleven years and have been on the NCMI translocal team for six years.
Phil 1:4&5 ‘... I always pray with joy because of your partnership ...’
· The Philippian church is considered one of the most successful church plants of the New Testament.
· A key is found in the opening chapter – ‘partnership’.
· In Colossians 4 we see a number of partnerships that God has given us to build successful church plants.
Col 4:2-18
1. Partnership with God
Verse 2 ‘Devote yourselves to prayer...’
· Our most important partnership is with God.
· He has positioned us to be completely dependent on Him.
· Without Him we can do nothing that counts for eternity, but with Him anything is possible.
2. Partnership with an apostolic team
Verse 3 ‘Pray for us …’
· The ‘us’ is an apostolic team this church is in partnership with.
· God has positioned local church leaders to need input from an apostolic translocal team.
· Eph 4:11-13 ‘It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, 12 to prepare God's people for works of service …’
· This partnership is needed to fully equip God’s people.
· It is not a hierarchal relationship though.
· Paul opens the letter with prayer from the apostolic team Col 1:9 ‘... we have not stopped praying for you...’
· Then ends the letter asking for prayer for the apostolic team.
3. Partnership with the gospel
Verses 4&5 ‘... that we may proclaim the mystery of Christ … Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders …’
· We are all called to share the gospel – the apostolic team focused to the regions beyond and the Colossian church more focused to their city.
· We need to recognize that it is not our cleverness that saves people but it is the power of the gospel. Rom 1:16 ‘I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes ...’
· We are partners with the power of the gospel.
· Every time we share the simple gospel it is a seed planted in a heart that will produce fruit in its time.
4. Partnership with the grace of God
Verse 6 ‘... be always full of grace ...’
· If God saved us by His unmerited favor He can save others and use them for His glory.
· He calls us now to be full of that grace in all of our dealings with one another and everyone we meet.
5. Partnership with leaders sent to you
Verses 7&8 ‘Tychicus … a dear brother, a faithful minister and fellow servant … I am sending him to you ...’
· Paul as team leader recognizes who on the team would be helpful to this church and sends Tychicus to them.
· Not just a faithful minister and fellow servant but first of all a dear brother. We will need that kind of relationship to build strong teams.
· This is the quality of leadership that gets released producing the same character in local church teams.
· We are partners with an anointing to release strong leaders.
6. Partnership with those failed in past
Verses 9&10 ‘... Onesimus, our faithful and dear brother... Mark, the cousin of Barnabas ...’
· Two characters are highlighted to us – one who failed before coming to Christ and the other who failed after coming to Christ.
· God wants us to build strong churches with both of these.
· Onesimus was a slave of Philemon who stole something from his master and fled – which would have been considered a very serious infraction in that day.
· Onesimus must have come to Christ and into relationship with Paul who is now recommends him to Philemon in that letter and here to this church.
· Whatever you may think is the most horrendous crime today God wants to build His church with just such people and we must be willing to receive them.
· The second character is Mark the cousin of Barnabas, the same man who as a Christian leader let Paul down, as recorded in Acts 15.
· Mark must have repented and proved his character because now Paul is recommending him.
· We cannot define people by their past whether before the cross or after it, nor allow them to define themselves by their past. If God forgives and forgets then so must we.
· Look around... this is who God has called us to partner with in building His church.
7. Partnership with leaders from among you
Verses 11-15 ‘... Epaphras, who is one of you... sends greetings. He is always wrestling in prayer for you… he is working hard for you …’
· We are not just partners with leaders coming to us but with leaders sent from us.
· God has called us to plant base churches that will resource leaders to go out from us.
· What an example Epaphras is – always wrestling in prayer and working hard.
8. Partnership with other local churches of same values
Verse 16 ‘... see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans and that you in turn read the letter from Laodicea.’
· Although these letters from Paul were to specific churches they were meant to be passed around to other relating churches.
· Paul was laying a pattern of not just Godly character and doctrine but also of how to build strong churches.
· As we build relationship with other local churches of common Biblical values we are able to create a greater synergy for impacting beyond our own regions to the whole earth.
Before his closing salutation Paul includes an exhortation to ‘complete the work you have received’
We do not just want to start the race that God has called us to but to finish the race well.
Working with the partnerships that God has given we have a far greater prospect of being successful in all that He has called us to in church planting.
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