Churches embrace their differences to form partnership

Aaron Thompson / Special to the Home News

Senior Pastors Chris Bennett, left, leader of New Community Church, and Rob Boyd of Green Valley Baptist Church join hands at the churches’ annual steak fry and picnic at Silver Springs Park.

By Dave Clark

Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2008 | midnight

Aaron Thompson / Special to the Home News

Lauren Bickens, left, and Julie Dramise, both 14, play volleyball with friends during Green Valley Baptist Church and New Community Church's annual steak fry and picnic at Silver Springs Park.

Green Valley Baptist Church and New Community Church are only four miles apart, yet the differences are wide.

Green Valley Baptist is older, larger and more financially stable, befitting from its suburban demographic, New Community Pastor Chris Bennett said.

New Community is more diverse and blue collar with a focus on inner-city ministries, Green Valley Senior Pastor Rob Boyd said.

To bridge the distance, the congregations did something in October both pastors called rare: they formed a partnership.

"We are trying to send a message to other churches," Boyd said. "When churches partner together, they can complement each other and not compete with each other."

The two churches do complement each other well, Bennett said.

"They offer stability and financial aid," Bennett said. "We offer youth, enthusiasm and an opportunity to reach out to a different demographic."

Already the churches have planned a joint men's retreat, women's retreat, summer youth camp and fall festival for next year. In October they hosted a community picnic in Green Valley. Next month they will embark on a joint fundraising project to provide drinking water in Nicaragua, entitled the "Advent Conspiracy Project."

"We're conspiring together to turn right-side-up the meaning of Christmas, from a consumer standpoint to a contributor mindset," Bennett said.

Boyd said he hopes the congregations will join next year on outreach projects to the homeless and inner-city language groups such as Hispanic ministries.

Both churches will retain their separate identifies and remain independent during the partnership.

"We're experimenting for a period of months to see if there's good chemistry between the churches and an ability to work together," Bennett said. The partnership "is almost unheard of, which is not to our credit as Christians. I'm very hopeful that our relationship can work out."

The partnership evolved during the past year after the pastors met for lunch and discovered a shared philosophy.

"We thought it would be wise to synergize our resources to make a bigger difference in the community and reach out to more people," Bennett said.

Green Valley Baptist, on Valle Verde Drive near Silver Springs Parkway, has about 2,000 members, while New Community, near Pecos and Sunset roads, has 700. Events like the fall picnic were open to the entire community.

"Our membership has been elated, because we can increase our borders and increase our ministry outside of Green Valley," Boyd said. "The New Community membership is excited because they can do more things with the additional resources of Green Valley."

Bennett was hopeful for a long-term partnership between the churches.

"We're trying to leverage each other's strengths," he said. "There's still a lot more to be discovered about how we're going to pull that off. We've begun that process."

Dave Clark can be reached at 990-2677 or dave.clark@hbcpub.com.