I am occasionally approached by organisations wishing to expand their reach and engagement. Sometimes they are looking to partner with us in something, other times they are looking for us to do something for or with them. I am generally sympathetic to seeing what can be done. Such as (on the face of it) their ministry has some gospel value, I am absolutely ready and willing to have those discussions.

Unfortunately, many of those discussions don’t get very far. There are a set of things that I wish any organisation engaging our church would do before it looks to effect a meeting with us. We are all busy and have finite time. There is little point meeting when it should be readily apparent we are not credibly going to do much together. So I thought it might be helpful to give you a handy guide on what we would appreciate from you if you are going to seek a meeting to discuss this kind of thing.

Read our statement of faith

First port of call should be our statement of faith. It should be evident to anyone with any sense that if you happen to deny, reject or decry any of the core things we believe as a church, it is deeply unlikely we are going to be engaging in mission with you. You might be doing some wonderful social works, but if you reject the trinity, deny the inerrancy of scripture, do not believe in salvation by faith alone or denounce basic gospel ethics, we just aren’t going to work with you. You might do some gospel work, but if the people you send to do it reject large chunks of scripture, we probably won’t be doing it alongside you. It pays to check our beliefs – the things we consider an essential bottom line – before asking if we will partner together.

Consider our demographics

Some organisations have particular criteria for their own ministry. I may or may not be sympathetic to those criteria, but that is irrelevant. You can place whatever criteria you like on the ministry you are doing for whatever reasons you deem fit. But if you are going to put criteria on serving in your ministry, check our demographics before looking to engage with us.

I am reminded of the time I was approached by one organisation to run an evening on the “problem of Islam” that they hoped we would host and advertise locally. Even if I was sympathetic to the aims of what was being offered, it didn’t occur that such a thing might be detrimental to our ongoing witness in our predominantly South Asian Muslim corner of Oldham. Given those same local demographics, it should be relatively obvious that if you are particularly into mission to Jewish people we might not be the most natural mission partner. Not that we don’t want to reach Jews, but demographics dictate we’re not likely to be much help in expanding your mission. I have similarly been approached by those who will only work with professional men, begging the question who, exactly, they were hoping we would send them and why they thought we might be the place for them? We have, likewise, been approached by those with courses trialled among high-earning city professionals believed to be useful for our context without any clarity on how they reached that particular conclusion.

Some of these things I may be more or less sympathetic to in principle. But it is worth saying, if you want to work with us, you really need to think about our demographics. Do a bit of work finding out who we are, who is here, what our area is like and then tell me – based on what you have discovered – how partnership with us would credibly be useful and beneficial.

Think about how you serve the church

One thing we’ve had out of whack for a long time is that parachurch ministry is there to serve the local church, the church is not the servant of the parachurch. I do not think parachurch is inherently bad, wrong or evil. I think there are good and bad examples of parachurch ministry. But in my view, the best parachurch ministries supplement, support and serve the local church and certainly don’t undermine it.

What that means in practice is, when seeking to partner with us, parachurch ministries need to think carefully about how they serve the local church. There are all sorts of possible ways they might do that. They may have reach that we don’t, they may have skills we don’t, they may be able to enhance and supplement what we are already doing to make it more effective. These are all good things to think about and talk through.

What is less helpful is coming to tell us all about the mission you do with no sense of how it might advance or enhance what we are already doing through the local church. If you want us to support your mission, explain to us how it expands what we are doing or reaches into areas we cannot reach ourselves. If you want to work alongside the church, explain to us how your ministry can serve us and improve what we are already doing. If you think this partnership would be a good one, explain to us what you perceive to be the things that make our church and your ministry a good fit together. If you do work we already do, explain how you can help us in it and why you won’t detract from what we’re already doing. If you do work we don’t already do, explain how it is work that our church could serve in and why we would be well placed to do it. Having some grasp of why this particular partnership will be valuable needs to have a prominent place in our discussion.

Don’t be condescending

This one should go without saying, but it seems it might need to be said. It is a mite embarrassing when people come to tell us all about the fantastic work they do, that we need them to help us with, only for them to discover that we actually do a whole load of work they have found virtually impossible to get going. It is awkward to have people tout themselves as experts with expertise we desperately need only for them to find we are doing much of what they offer already without their help.

Now, don’t mishear this point. There is definitely a place for coming and seeing whether there are way we can work together and if your organisation can help enhance or improve what is already happening. That is a discussion well worth having. All I am saying is, don’t head into a meeting with a sense that we are in desperate need or couldn’t possibly be accomplishing much apart from your ministry. Rather, per the above, do the research, check out what is going on already and look to highlight the good work going on but, more importantly, how you might be able to help advance and enhance it.

If you can do these things, you will vastly increase the chances of our working together. If your position is that you are looking for us to help your ministry (and that is absolutely okay), explain how and why we in particular might be able to do that for the sake of the kingdom. If your position is genuinely that you think you can be a help to our ministry (and that is absolutely okay), explain how and why you in particular might be able to do that for the sake of the kingdom. Give us some indication that you’ve looked into who we are, what we do, where we are and those relevant things and you think there may be something to be done together for specific reasons.