Think Tank focuses on relationship between the church, school, and missions agency.
As part of the Conference on Global Engagement, Calvary held its first-ever Partners in Ministry Think Tank. The Think Tank was geared to address the question of how the church, mission agency, and school can work together in training missionaries for the field. Josh Paxton, Director of the Burnham Center for Global Engagement, organized the event designed to bring local pastors, Calvary leadership, missions agency representatives, and students together around the idea of, “How do we do this better together?”
The event took place Friday, January 31, with “around forty-five people in the room, including twelve pastors, missions reps, and a handful of students and some faculty members.” Paxton said, “We had some great discussion on partnership between the church, the agency, and the school.” Think Tank sessions covered the state of the world, the obstacles that hinder partnership, and the varied roles of the church, agency, and school in missions. After lunch, attendees discussed possible solutions to the complex problem of forging healthy partnerships. Paxton shared about Synergy and learning contracts as a couple of solutions for partnerships, and some other ideas were developed.
Paxton said one theme of the conversation “was definitely mentoring: with the pastor, with the mission agency, and at the school level.” Another significant topic was communication, “keeping open lines of communication, which of course requires relationship… There needs to be a system in place for ensuring those relational connections, because they don’t happen naturally.” Attendees discussed ways to forge stronger relational links between the three entities.
Terry Glidden, pastor at Grace Bible Church, said the Think Tank “was well worth the time … because of the opportunity to interact with and be introduced to like-minded men and women who have a heart to achieve reaching the world with the gospel.” Calvary staff member Jolayne Rogers said she and her husband “serve on our church’s Missions Committee and I picked up some really useful ideas from the Think Tank that I shared with the committee. They sparked some great discussion that I think will enhance our relationship with the missionaries we support.”
Josh Paxton, Director of the Burnham Center on Global Engagement, led a Think Tank in connection with the Conference on Global Engagment at Calvary University.
The 2020 Conference on Global Engagement at CU included a Think Tank which brought together local pastors, Calvary leadership, missions agency representatives, and students around the idea of, “how do we do this better together?”
