Posted by Anthony Adams

The last in a series of questions about world mission, posed to me by Stephen Murray, church planter in South Africa.

6. What would you suggest to the many small local churches interested in mission, who are firstly, financially unable to structure an effective foreign missions programme on their own, but secondly, don’t wish to align themselves with para-church organizations for fear of losing the centrality of the local church in mission?

I’d say, give me a call and lets talk! That’s one of the key elements in Radstock’s thinking - that we can do more through being a network of churches, than operating on our own. Sometimes people ask why a church should even consider connecting into the Radstock network, when they are already connecting with other churches in other places, and our answer is that you should be willing to share your expertise and know-how with others. And probably discover some stuff you didn’t know in the process. ‘Share what you know, learn what you don’t’. Big churches can often be very self-sufficient in this way, but how much better if they were able to share in a network of churches where smaller churches who could never send a big team somewhere, can join in some of your projects, even if they only have two people and limited know-how. For myself, I am looking at having another mission trip from our church in a few months time, and I would love to invite some people from another church to join us, who may not otherwise be able to do something like this. Church-twinning is something that people are increasingly familiar with, but church-networking brings additional benefits, especially for churches who are smaller but would like to directly get involved and take up the privilege and responsibility of mission for themselves.