COVER STORY 26 october 2024 www.goodnewsfl.org Good News • South Florida edition Ford Ministries (LFM) to help them bring Soul Care Cohorts to already established church networks in those spaces. Working to reflect the full diversity of the body of Christ, Church United has been actively reaching out to our brothers and sisters in Christ and lock arms with them, said Rosa. Together Church United and LFM were awarded a million dollar grant through Lilly Endowment’s Thriving Congregations Initiative, designed to “encourage the flourishing of congregations by helping them deepen their relationships with God, enhance their connections with each other, and contribute to the vitality of their communities and the world.” Founded by Dr. Leighton Ford, known as the pastor of pastors and Billy Graham's brother-in-law who traveled and preached with him for decades, LFM serves globally as a catalyst for mentoring a new generation of healthy leaders, sustaining thriving ministries for the sake of the gospel. Dr. Leighton’s son, Kevin Ford took over the organization and has brought with him his consulting experience from the military, incorporating systems and structures for pastors. Through these Cohorts funded by the Lilly grant, Church United and LFM hopes to help churches “identify their truth north” along with systems and structures “to bring together their mission, vision and values for the sake of scaling impact and their reach,” said Rosa. Rosa explained, “We applied for a Lilly Grant in partnership with LFM because, to strengthen the black and brown church we couldn’t lose our soul care element, and we knew LFM is the best to help them with these systems and structures to strengthen their church organizationally so it can have the longest lasting impact. We’re now identifying, developing and resourcing facilitators from their groups to now bring that to the Haitian Church, the Black Church and the Latino Church.” Network building Going where God is already moving, Church United is creating relational depth and trust with all of the various church networks, denominations and entities in our region and reaching out to form partnerships, share resources and invite them to join in the movement. Arthur Connor, senior pastor at Metropolitan Baptist Church, is executive director of the Broward Baptist Association, one of the most diverse church associations in the state comprised of about 160 multi-racial churches, including Haitian, Spanish, Brazilian, Chinese and a handful of English-speaking churches. “In order to reach our association, Connor said, “you have to present the gospel in multiple languages. So we’re taking the cohort model and setting up special cohorts with our own people in the association and Church United is coming alongside and helping us through the grant resources they have.” Having been involved in Church United for years, Connor said he’s excited that pastors are “realizing that we're not in competition with the church down the street. We're all on the same team, doing what we're doing for the glory of God because for us to truly make a difference here in South Florida it’s going to require that the church collaborates and comes together.” Robens Chery, pastor of Revelation Christian Church in Lauderdale Lakes also heads up an association of about 30 Haitian pastors for whom he plans to organize Soul Care Cohorts. Asked how these cohorts would benefit the Haitian community, Chery said, “it's not so much that it's in Creole. It's more that you've got this community where you have the commonality of your culture and in order for you to help a culture, you need someone that's been there to understand them. Each community needs different things.” But Chery said the reason he’s excited about Church United is “because I want to see what Heaven looks like here on earth. Even among the Haitian churches, some churches are Seventh Day Adventist, some are Baptist, they are separated. But in order for us to have a greater impact in the last days, we have to come together, and Church United is doing that.” Pedro Villegas, pastor of Full Life Church and president of the Hispanic Ministers Association of South Florida, the largest association of its kind in the nation with more than 200 pastors, was introduced to Church United two years ago, and has struck up a friendship with Pastor Doug Sauder and Eddie Copeland. Both pastors have participated in each other’s events, sharing resources and Villegas said Church United prepared a retreat for about 20 Hispanic pastors and their wives, investing in the marriages. They have also worked together to support community initiatives like Love Has No Limits, to reach the community for Christ. Villegas sees Church United as “a bridge to unite the church and overcome the language barrier that is between us, so we can work together in the city the Lord has entrusted to us - to be one Church. I see that we are both reachable and available, so we have a real brotherhood there.” This is just the beginning, Rosa said Church United plans to continue building relationships with other church networks to strengthen more churches and work together. Church planting Close neighborhood connections, hunger for growth, and openness to innovation makes church planting a natural outgrowth of Church United. Right here in South Florida, Spanish River Church is one of the largest church planting organizations in the country dedicating millions of dollars in resources to the advancement of the gospel over the years. To see the number of committed Christ followers double, Church United has an intentional, strategic focus on church planting involving dozens of churches working together to identify, develop, and resource leaders to help produce a vibrant and sustaining church planting movement. FLOURISHING CITIES When churches are thriving with a healthy spirit of unity, they can collaborate on initiatives that lead to Flourishing Cities. Here are a few of those initiatives. Good Neighbor Days Building on the many years of Love South Florida where churches across Dade Broward and Palm Beach were encouraged to pray, give and serve together each November, this year Church United has partnered with an organization called Love Has No Limits to host Good Neighbor Days. Bringing together faith communities, ministries, community leaders and influential figures, Love Has No Limits is collaborating with Church United in Dade County and the Hispanic Ministers Association of South Florida bringing together 350 churches for citywide activations to serve, love, and empower communities. Churches may use their property to become food or clothing distribution centers. Some churches are doing neighborhood car washes. Whatever they want to do to love and serve their neighbors together. Carter Brown, pastor of CrossBridge Church in Miami, said he’s excited “to see pastors really pursuing unity, connecting on a deeper level as pastors and then in turn connecting our churches to things so that we have a bigger vision for the Kingdom of God.” In the spring, 12 Miami area churches and staff gathered to worship together and pray for each other's churches ahead of Easter. Crisis response and disaster relief However, it is during times of crisis and brokenness when Church United has shown its greatest strength, collaborating to provide crisis response and disaster relief. “The real power of what we do here is on this phone,” said Copeland. “I have four different text chains that I can text every pastor in Dade, Broward and Palm Beach County and when we need something, we’re there for one another. That never existed before, but now they are all networked together and there is power in that.” This was helpful when a shooter opened fire at Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport on January 6, 2017, taking the lives of five people and leaving six others injured in the shooting. Through donations to Church United’s crisis response fund, the church community was able to pay the medical expenses of all of the families involved and provide counseling and support to first responders and medical staff who also experienced the trauma. When tragedy struck Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, 2018, Church United hosted a community prayer vigil at Parkridge Church just 24 hours after the horrific shooting that took the lives of 14 students and three adults. “I was meeting with Dr. Rosalind Osgood at the school board office within hours and we pledged to stand with them, providing counseling to students and faculty for years after. Church United also joined forces with marketplace patrons and community volunteers to beautify the school before students returned at the start of the new school year, putting together gift bags with personalized notes for teachers. Doug Sauder, Pedro Villegas, Eddie Copeland and Frank Lopez, pastor of Iglesia Doral Jesus Worship Center
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