Lausanne World Pulse – Church/Parachurch Relations: The Body of Christ at Work

By John Pellowe

Surveying Church/Parachurch Relations
The last time anyone asked pastors and parachurch leaders in Canada what they thought about their relationship with the other was in 1983. At that time, both parties had serious complaints about the other. But this is 2007. Has anything changed?

In 2006, the Canadian Council of Christian Charities conducted the largest ever survey on this

Key Findings of the 2006 Canadian Council of
Christian Charities Survey

  • 75% of pastors and 85% of leaders of non- denominational ministries (parachurches) believe parachurches augment the work of the local church.
  • 89% of pastors and 91% of parachurch leaders believe the major contribution made by parachurches is in specialized ministries.
  • 43% of parachurch leaders think the biggest problem pastors have with them is that they compete for donations from church members. Not so, according to the pastors. Only 7% feel the parachurch is a drain on their church’s finances. The biggest problem according to pastors (59% agreeing) is lack of accountability.
  • Pastors today are quite open to parachurch ministry. 75% affirm its theological legitimacy and 78% say that if a church member chose to give their volunteer service to a parachurch ministry, that would be just as acceptable to the pastor as volunteer service within their church.
  • Pastors and parachurch leaders see eye-to-eye on the quality of their relationship. Exactly 50% of both groups rated the relationship as “good,” while about 15% of each group rated it as “not good.”
  • Both pastors and parachurch leaders want new terminology to describe their organizations. Many of those surveyed feel the term “church” confuses the local congregation with the Body of Christ and places parachurch ministry outside

    of the church.

topic in Canada, with 376 pastors and 136 parachurch leaders participating. The survey confirms a significant shift in opinion has occurred. Current attitudes support greater collaboration between ministries to advance the cause of Christ. What has led to the change?

1. Parachurches rethink their ministries. Across Canada, parachurch ministries are rethinking how they do ministry and what their relationship to the local church should be. Eighty-five percent of parachurch leaders say that partnership with local churches is a priority for their ministry.

Melodie Bissell, executive director of Child Evangelism Fellowship Ontario (CEF), made this priority tangible by using a grant to hire five staff members, train them to do evangelism and then offer them to churches as full-time workers for eighteen months. The churches paid only a small portion of the costs.

Rod Valerio, pastor of Christ the Living Word Church in Toronto, is one of the pastors who has worked with CEF. His church was regularly losing families because of an undeveloped children’s ministry. His church could not afford the full cost of the CEF program. Instead, CEF asked the church for only twenty-five percent of the cost. CEF came to the church, trained children’s teachers and helped with outreaches.

Valerio had a dozen children in his church at the time. Today, there are almost three times that number. Additionally, fifty children at a nearby elementary school and their parents have come to an evening program run by his church.

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