COVER STORY 25 october 2024 www.goodnewsfl.org Good News • South Florida edition things showing love. We have this unique moment in a divided and a contentious world to be that countercultural example Jesus set thousands of years ago.” The vision of Church United is to see an awakening or sustained move of God in our region that is bigger than one church, leader or donor. “It’s going to take all of us being ourselves as part of the story. This is why it’s called Church United and not pastors united,” said Copeland. “We believe you start with the spiritual shepherds. A revival of the shepherds always precedes any move of God. Which is why we park on healthy leaders. Healthy leaders will lead to thriving churches that go on mission and focus on evangelism, awakening the people of God to connect Sunday to Monday and to understand their calling and the power of their influence.” This is why Church United is tied to the National Christian Foundation South Florida, Copeland explained. “To see an awakening and revival in South Florida, you’re going to need best in class marketplace ministries. You’re going to need patrons who understand that every great move of God is fueled by gospel patrons and gospel proclaimers partnering together to further the Kingdom of God. So why would we not put this under one ecosystem at the National Christian Foundation? Different governance, different kind of networks, but we all share the same table.” HEALTHY LEADERS Moving from a mindset of competition and isolation to one of collaboration and co-laboring requires a healthy soul and intentional relationships. So the foundation of Church United is essentially built on Soul Care. Soul Care Brian Brookins, lead pastor at Riverside Church and a member of the leadership team at Church United, recently wrote a Soul Care Handbook that will be the guide for Soul Care Cohorts. Entitled Living by Grace, the Handbook is designed to help Christian leaders grow spiritually, so they can lead with resilience and a sense of purpose. “It's mostly focused on your personal wholeness and health, starting with emotional health, mental health, and spiritual health, the condition of your soul. It has ramifications and application to family, marriage, finances and physical health but it's more focused on the heart because that’s the beginning of life,” said Brookins. “A part of what we try to do in our cohorts is to create self-awareness and situational awareness so you can start to identify the signs that this may not be the best version of me or if I'm not careful, this could quickly go in the wrong direction,” said Brookins. While he cautions that Soul Care is a long game because there are no quick fixes, he believes there is significant cause for encouragement regarding the health of the Church. “I personally am so much healthier because of what we're doing, the relationships, the cooperation, the strength we find from one another is really amazing. It is working and there is a significant core that is leaning in, participating and benefiting. Even if you look at the two churches that previously experienced moral collapse, today they're very different. They're flourishing. They're amazing churches.” Soul Care Cohorts are building relationships and trust that foster greater unity. “Scripture tells us when we unite together Christ is displayed,” said Brookins. “The world is looking at the church with a certain cynicism that will only be removed when we genuinely love one another. However, I would say what we’re experiencing in the area of unity is the most significant move of the holy spirit I have seen in 35 years of ministry.” There are currently 16 soul care cohorts for senior pastors, executive pastors, worship pastors, youth pastors, pastor’s wives and women in ministry; however, Church United expects to offer more than 20 cohorts this year, including an expansion of cohorts for women in ministry. Allison Hix, program and relationship lead for Church United and women in ministry lead at The Avenue Church where her husband Jon Hix is executive pastor, helped coordinate the pilot season of Soul Care Cohorts for Women. She explained that meeting monthly with other women in ministry allowed pastors wives to share the sacred questions they can’t necessarily share with everybody and sometimes resulted in the women doing ministry events together causing friendships to blossom. What she wishes people knew about women in ministry is “that even though we're surrounded by people all the time, ministry can be a really lonely and isolating journey. We're sharing Jesus and we're with people all the time, but I could be in a woman's Bible study at my church and still have the weight of ministry upon me. These cohorts provide help with that.” Elizabeth Mitchell, of Boca Raton Community Church and the wife of coaching pastor Bill Mitchell, described the Woman’s Soul Care Cohort she leads as “a safe place for pastors’ wives to work together and to remind each other why we're doing what we're doing. We all recognize that to have a healthy marriage is the best thing any pastor and his wife can do for the entire congregation. As we allow God to strengthen our own souls, we can be more of a positive influence on our husbands and on the ministry that God has called us to.” Church United recently received a $35,000 grant from StrikeForce 421 to help fund Women’s Soul Care Cohorts and Hix said the funds will partially be used to help pay for counseling for women in ministry who may need additional healing or who are struggling in their marriages. They are also planning to launch a Professional Development Program for Women in Leadership online. The Backstage To strengthen spiritual leaders, Church United holds an annual Soul Care Conference annually. This year’s one-day conference, entitled The Backstage is being held in Southwest Florida on October 3rd at Summit Church, University Campus in Fort Myers, and on two separate dates in Broward on October 4th and 5th at Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale. Expanding beyond lead pastors, the Backstage will have special breakout sessions for pastors, pastors’ wives, church and ministry leaders, and governance boards along with featured speakers such as Rita Springer, a gifted worship leader and musical artist; Bryan Loritts, teaching pastor at The Summit Church; Guy Wasco, a church planter and certified Lifeplan facilitator, as well as Brian Brookins. The Call to Action for the Backstage is “Don’t do life in ministry alone. Join a Soul Care Cohort.” Pastor Relief Fund Thanks to the generous support of donors, Church United has established a pastoral relief fund to help meet practical ministry needs or provide counseling for pastors and their families. “When a pastor who is barely making it financially has their AC break, that can be a ministry altering event that makes them spin and spiral into more credit card debt, so having the ability to fund needs like that has been a game changer,” said Copeland. “We want pastors to know that we want nothing from you. We want something for you. We want to strengthen your backstage and get you as healthy and whole as you’re willing to be so that we can now have thriving churches.” THRIVING CHURCHES There are two main initiatives that directly focus on developing Thriving Churches: pastoral learning communities and the Lilly Cohorts. Pastoral learning communities Church United creates opportunities for pastors to grow and learn together about how to equip, empower and deploy the people in their church to live their life on mission for Jesus. For example, Church United is utilizing Alpha, an evangelistic tool designed to create conversation around life’s biggest questions concerning the Christian faith, typically run over 8-11 weeks. Pastor Doug Sauder said, “We’re training all of our leaders in the city around a common evangelistic framework that is multiplying, and I think it’s really remarkable. I was just talking with three of our leaders who've been collaborating with people from other churches around best ways to do Alpha in coffee shops.” They also bring churches together to equip pastors to be more informed with resources that help them to better connect with their communities. For example, Church United partnered with Barna and Gloo to provide research on the State of South Florida following Covid, providing pastors with measurement tools beyond church attendance to uncover opportunities for growth. In September, Church United invited Daniel Yang, a pastor and missiologist, to speak on the State of the Church in today’s cultural environment to help orient and equip pastors for a rapidly changing ministry environment. Serving diverse churches Seeking to also reach out to and strengthen Haitian churches, Latino churches and Black churches, David Rosa, Associate Director of Church United, said they partnered with Leighton e 0 , d e s e s s g y . e d y m ft d o r e I e e l Nikki Greenfield, Allison Hix and Denise Trio, Women's Soul Care Cohort leaders
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