Leaders of five organizations had initiated GACX in September 2011. These were the leaders of The Timothy Initiative (TTI), Dynamic Church Planting International (DCPI), Northland Church of Orlando, Florida, Christ Commission Fellowship (CCF) of Manila, Philippines, and Global Church Movements (GCM) of CRU. Since that small beginning in 2011, we have seen how God loves and blesses the unity of His Body. As of today, over 150 churches and mission agencies as well as regional and national expressions of GACX are part of the GACX vision, which is to be a catalyst for planting additional five million multiplying healthy churches and missional communities. But what motivates us to partner with one another in the Body of Christ? Why do we care about joining others, instead of making our own contribution? What is the heart behind this conviction, passion and commitment to partner with others? Here are five important reasons I thought to share with you.
As GACX members, we know that what God is doing through each of our organizations is good. We are confident that we are making our unique contribution. But at the same time, we believe that God’s Kingdom is bigger than our individual organizations. The bigger picture is our priority. Therefore, we are willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done.
There are over five billion people in the world who have not yet experienced the love and forgiveness of our God through Jesus Christ. These people have not yet seen the true light the prophet Isaiah spoke about – “the people walking in darkness have seen a great light” (Isa 9:2). Unless they come to the light through the Good News, they will be walking in darkness for eternity. We believe that by working together we can rescue as many people as possible from eternal damnation.
By being a part of a network like GACX, we can inspire, encourage, and challenge one another to do more and better. As we journey together in the spirit of partnership, we learn from each other – from successes as well as challenges. In the past four years, we have seen significant progress in terms of learning and application. For instance, many organizations have made shifts from adding churches to multiplying churches, from organizing training events to practicing outcome-based training processes, and from the attitude of “What is in it for me?” to “What can we do together for the glory of God?”
A long time ago, the wisest king of Israel spoke about partnerships, “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work” (Ecc. 4:9, NIV). Since the launching of GACX, some of us have experienced this truth. For example, by working together and by sharing cost, leadership, and strategies, TTI and GCM have helped to plant over 1,300 churches in six countries in the past three years. Similarly, DCPI and GCM have seen hundreds of church planters trained in three countries. Indeed, two are better than one.
Finally, we are motivated by the desire to increase our effectiveness, to go to places where there are few or no churches, to go to cities where the church is not growing, and to give hope to the millions of hopeless young people in major urban areas. Each one of us believes that there are places we can’t go by ourselves but we can go together. We are powerful when we are united, our impact is bigger when we work together, and our assets are greater when we bring our unique contributions together. God our Father is happy when the prayers of His Son in John 17 are answered. It’s a joy for the GACX leadership team and me to work with you in furthering God’s Kingdom! If you have any question or comment, please write me at Bekele.shanko@ccci.org