Thinking about church partnership?
It may seem a bit of a puzzling concept in today's times, but it really just means you're excited about becoming a part of our New Hope family and ready to journey deeper into your faith. It's like saying, "I get what New Hope is all about, and I'm ready to play the game!"
Pastor Ken has put together a bite-sized 15-minute video just for you. He'll walk you through what it means to be a partner at New Hope, why it's a fantastic step to take, and how it helps us all find new hope through Jesus.This will help you see how church partnership can help your spiritual journey and everyday life.
We recommend giving this video a watch after you've attended our "Get to Know Hope" class, especially if you're feeling the pull towards partnership.
One of our friendly board members can't wait to follow up with you! They're excited to introduce themselves and answer any questions you might have about our church, mission, programs, or partnership. It's all part of making sure you feel completely at home as you consider this exciting step. If you haven't indicated you want to be a partner at a Get to Know Hope class shoot us an email at hello@newhopegilbert.com
We're really looking forward to having you on board!
After watching if you have said you wanted to be a church partner. Someone from our board will contact you to answer any questions and introduce themselves. Here's some reflection questions in the meantime:
After hearing the explanation about church partnership, how do you feel about the concept of "commitment" within the church?
How important is it for you to be a part of a spiritual community that emphasizes not just worship, but active participation in church activities and ministries?
Do you agree with the church's mission of helping people find new hope through Jesus? What does this mission mean to you personally?
Can you see yourself putting the interests of others above your personal preferences in the context of the church community?
How do you view the idea of giving your time, talents, and tithes to the church? Are you comfortable making this kind of commitment?
The church sees partnership as an active role, with expectations of regular attendance, giving, and serving. How does this align with your expectations of church partnership?
How do you view the idea of serving others and making the gospel your priority, following the model of Jesus Christ?
What are your thoughts on the church's requirement of praying and following the leadership of the church? Do you see yourself being comfortable with this level of commitment?
Considering all these aspects, can you see yourself becoming an active partner of New Hope Church, contributing to its mission and participating in its community?
Script:  Thank you so much for, watching this video. I just really want to put this video together because we want to spend some time on just really what church partnership is, and I'm just gonna be reading through this but also just offering some feedback. And this should be a pretty quick video but just wanted to make sure that you understand, hey, what partnership is because I've been talking to a lot of people and I didn't personally grow up in church.
And so partnership is kind of a new thing for me, even though it's been around maybe in the American church history. And so I wanna share with you what partnership is at New Hope. And really what partnership is it's just a commitment because oftentimes, especially in this day and age, it's so easy to not commit because we have so many things we commit to.
I mean, if you've ever done a a wedding before or, or tried to rsvp, typically those RSVPs don't show up until very last minute. People just don't like to commit. For us as a church, especially if we see the Kingdom as a big important thing we see that partnership is important because it's commitment, but more importantly it's commitment to our mission together.
And that's pretty much what partnership is. It's people who are banding together. As a team people are saying, "Hey, I don't want to be a bench warmer. I don't want to go sell hot dogs on the stands. I wanna play in the field. I want to be on a team together." And our team as New Hope is pretty much saying, Hey, you want to be a partner? And also do you want to help move the Kingdom forward? So that's why our mission is: we help people find new hope through Jesus. And with that as just like any, any team sports, it's important to kind of have the same rules. Cause otherwise people, if they have partnership and different ideas of what it is to play on a team all of a sudden we just, everybody's running in different directions instead of being solely focused on the important thing, which is Kingdom first mentality. And so I will be reading through this and then I'll follow along and I'll comment as we go. And again, like I said, this should be just a few more minutes. So the first thing is if you're a partner, you're committing to worshiping here. So I worship the one true God with others, at New Hope Community Church for as long as I'm able to.
And the goal of my regular weekly worship is to give God glory. And so that's what we want for everyone is to, hey, it's, it's great to really, if you wanna see a difference in your life if you wanna see a difference in your family is come to church, attend church. It's just one day. And not only that is that when there's people in there as we're worshiping together, it's a taste of what heaven is.
And so make church a priority and there is no greater influence on your family and even on yourself and really the community around you. When you model what you want. And so attending church we definitely see is a is a big thing.
So, hey, you're gonna be growing spiritually through regular involvement in groups and classes at New Hope. In addition to regular personal devotion times, I understand the purpose of these groups and classes to build community with other believers in holding each other accountable. So we are a church That is small group oriented, which is we, we think it's so important for your spiritual development to be with like-minded people.
And so there's small groups you attend to get to know hope which is really important as well. All these different things are avenues to help you spiritually grow. First the second part is of course, is that you're gonna be around incredible fun people. Hopefully they're fun. If they're not fun, then don't join that group, right?
And so you want to be around people that you could be fun yourself around that you could be truthful around. And so not only in small groups, but we, we want you to be committed in just making friendships and making this church not just a place of church, but a place of community for you and your family.
The other thing too is hey I will serve Christ through mission work of New Hope. I'm created to serve others through good works. I am commanded by God to make disciples of every nation, try people and languish through the local church. I'll support the church's mission to go to the ends of the earth to share the Gospel.
And that's important because our church, we're Gospel centered, gospel oriented, we're Kingdom-minded. Which means is, is this, is that we want to see more and more people go to heaven and not to hell. And we want more and more people to know Jesus than not know Jesus at all. And so with that, that is our purpose.
So we're not a social club. We don't do sports leagues or anything like that. We're solely focused on just helping people know Jesus. And that's, that's really our mission. And so there are other people who may be coming to this church with different minded things and but, but that's, that's, that's maybe on our lower priority, our first top priority and all the decisions are made through helping people know Jesus.
Hey. I will give abundantly and joyfully recognizing God as the owner of all things. And I'm called to be a good steward of His things. Giving my tithe, talents and time to God brings me closer to him. So these are our sacrifices. Romans 12 talks about that we are called to be living sacrifices. I would say especially as a culture we worship our time and we worship our money. We believe if you put that towards God in His kingdom, that you're gonna see incredible fruit. Now we're not a a name it and claim it that type of church or anything, but, but we do know that God is faithful. And we do know that when you invest in the Kingdom, you will see lives changed in your family and also people around you. And so that's, that's what we're called to do. And so time, talents and also your tithe.
And you're gonna seek unity with other church members. I recognize God's design for the church is unity in diversity, and I'll put the interests of others above my own personal preferences.
I'll guard the reputation of the church and submit to discipline for any sin problems in my life. That's something that even as I'm studying scripture and everything for this next series that we're beginning be going through you just, you just realize that sin causes issues not just for yourself and, but really others around you, within your family, within your community and of course within, within church as well.
So there are sin issues. For all of us, we're gonna seek unity with other church members because we definitely believe, again, as salvation in Jesus is our top thing. There's so many different denominations in so many different ways to see the minor issues in the Bible that, that we kind of say, hey, let's put all that aside.
Let's be unified together. Again, people, people people don't enter heaven because they have the right view of Revelation, right? People enter heaven and have a relationship with Jesus through Jesus alone. And so all that stuff is a personal preference. And hey, with that just know that unity together is more important. And so, hey, again, that's why that main thing is really true which is we're Kingdom first and Kingdom minded. Hey, I will pray and follow the leadership of New Hope. I will pray privately with the church corporately and I'll pray for people to accept Christ. I'll pray for more disciples to grow.
Prayer is so important, and we would love for you to pray for you, for your family, for God to do amazing things. But also be praying for myself, my family, the staff and their family. For the church, for people. That is a prayer we pray. Every single week is for hearts to be softened and for God to be moving through people's lives.
And so we would love for you to join. One of those other things is you will pray and also follow the leadership of New Hope. And then also the time before that, and I didn't mention this discipline for any sin problems in their life. Hey, one thing as a church partner as well is what you're kind of saying is, " We trust in the leadership, we trust in the church to help me grow spiritually." Sometimes helping grow spiritually it's to help really accept some feedback. Now that is not something obviously, that we do all the time in, in saying, hey, here's a weekly follow up and checklist for your spiritual life. But if we see sin in life, if we see that, hey man, you, you might have an a drinking issue or man, it looks like you're lusting we will say, hey that's not gonna be good for your marriage. That's not gonna be good for your family. And, and really being a partner is saying, hey, we trust the church and we trust really myself and, and, and the leaders here that we have your best interest in mind spiritually. And some of that are some difficult conversations.
Hey, when you gossip like this it's really hurting people around you. Hey when you say these things, it's really hurting the reputation of the church, which we shouldn't do. And so that's why we say, follow leadership and also submit to sin issues or sin problems in my life. And then the other thing too is, hey, the last one.
I'll sacrifice by serving first, following the servant model of Jesus Christ, I'll make my attitude that of Christ and through humility, make the gospel my priority. And really, again, what that means is this there is this healthy tension of grace, of mercy, of love. And of course of truth. And you see that oftentimes through the Bible.
But more importantly you see Jesus as he's modeling that he always puts kingdom first. And so one story that, that I've been sharing a lot this week is you see how, how Jesus went against all cultural norms as a Jewish man talking and, and went. Through Samaria who is a hated, hated, hated, hated some people will call it a race, a, a culture.
Jews do not associate with Samaritans is what scripture says, but he took the shortcut to go. Out of his, his own way, out of his culture's way to go talk to who A Samaritan woman in scripture says, A Jewish man doesn't talk to a Samaritan woman. There's some culture wars and all that. But then what did he do?
He showed love and compassion by going there and then he spoke truth. Why? For the Gospel. And so you, you see that the attitude there's serving first following the servant model of Christ. Here's Him sacrificing culture, His own reputation to go help someone. And then additionally though He does gentle in a gentle way, knowing the person shares about.
Jesus shares about himself, about God. And then lives are changed through that. And so what is that? It's serving first, following the servant model of God. And it's through humility, making the Gospel our priority. My priority, your priority. And that is important. And one last thing is this, is that, hey, we believe that partners need an active to be active in to participate in their life.
Mission and purpose of the church is stated above. They're trusted influencers, leaders, disciples, and workers for the harvest. I I just want you to know, when you're a part of this church, you are an influence. To others. Then that's really important, whether you believe it or not. And as such, if a member is not active in giving, serving and or attending at least two of the three in three months, then they're automatically considered inactive members.
I think in our bylaws it actually says six months. Three months is, is here. Because, hey, if you're not attending church for three months that's 90 days of, of just outside influence of we're just gonna assume you're not connected to a a community. There's no accountability. And you're just not growing.
And, and probably when we see that, we say, because you're such an influence, because you are a leader, . partnership isn't a once saved, always saved thing. That could be a salvation thing, right? But partnership, it's, hey, for the church and for the health of the church.
If you don't want to play on the field then, then we are, we're gonna pull you off the game. And so that's really important as well. And so we would love for you to give, serve and attend at least two of the three. And really there's a lot of grace in that, right? And if you really, really want to go around everything and keep your partnership alive give a dollar a week and serve once every three months, right? And then you're all set. So there's a lot of grace in that, but we just want to share, hey, this is what we think is active participation. It really helps our church recognize, Hey, who is our leaders? Who is our members? And we bring unity together. Why? Because we see the Gospel in our mission as a priority.
And then also the next page just shows you just some quick FAQs of what partnership is. And you could read through that. I'm here for you. And just know that if you ever want to, to talk, grab coffee, grab lunch we could schedule around dinner. We could do whatever you want. Just, just really here for you, for your family.
And so and additionally, I just want you to know this is that after this email, we're gonna have a someone from our board just give you a call, introduce themselves check up to see if you have any questions to see you, you know, for you to confess your deepest, darkest sins. No, you're not, you're not doing that.
Really, it's just a friendly way of saying, Hey, we, we would love for you to continue to connect with us and we want to connect to you. With you and get to know you better and better. So excited about you joining membership here. Remember, it's really just joining a team and just excited about that.
Again, if you have any questions or anything shoot us a text, give us an email. Give us a call just here for you. So I just wanna pray for you and and we can end Lord Jesus, say so. Thankful, thankful, thankful for people who just are so interested in. In church, so interested in committing to what church is about.
And so, Lord God, will you, will you just bring this relationship together, Lord that this person is making an incredible decision to commit to new hope. And will you just bless them for that? Will you protect them for that? Will you allow this to be a right decision for them? And will you allow our church together to see.
A legacy be made to see generations changed and to see our community change. Not for our sake, but for your kingdom. And so, Lord God will you bless, will you provide will you just continue to move and we pray this in your holy and mighty name. Amen. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to watch in this video.
If you made it through this far, that means that, that's incredible. So just really thank you for that. So thanks for being involved and look forward to talking to you.
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