Westside Alliance and Mission Creek Alliance church have been involved in a ministry partnership for over one year now and are headed toward a decision as to whether to formally and permanently join forces. Westside members will vote on October 14 and Mission Creek members will vote on November 11.
Regardless of how the vote goes - whether to become interdependent or to renew autonomy, I think we have already won. For the past year we have modeled Christian values of love and bearing one another’s burdens. We have tried to think beyond the borders of our own church walls and we have sublimated our corporate egos. In a time of struggle at the Westside, I have been proud that as sister churches we have tried to do something rather than sit back and do nothing!
Should we decide to proceed together, I think there will be advantages for both sides. Westside receives a mature and vibrant church vision and a sustainable pastoral team. This enables a wider range of ministries to offer to the increasingly urban neighborhood. Mission Creek receives a strong like- minded ministry on the west side of the lake, additional opportunities for service and the potential to expand ministry offerings as a result of a larger congregational base.
I do think that we as partner churches will experience more advantages together. Things like economy of scale as we represent two churches and not one and maintaining unique personalities yet being intertwined. Together we can do more than we can do apart (for example, we could together hire a counselor or a church planter, which would be a remote possibility as a solo church). The Westside has enough property that we could together construct facilities to provide a revenue stream to help us address our long term ministry longings (helping out at our camp at Eagle Bay, giving toward our bible college campus in Calgary, helping to plant additional churches in the Okanagan).
However the vote goes, we will always be glad we had this opportunity to explore what I believe is the future of the North American church - cooperation, becoming bigger by becoming smaller, sharing and interchurch vision.
Pastor Throness