Monthly Networking Lewis County Gospel Mission Chehalis, Washington O ne of the best connections I’ve made is with a local gathering of pastors and faith-based nonprofit leaders in the community. They meet once a month to share solutions, concerns, upcoming events both inter- nal and community focused, prayer requests, and have speakers occasionally who share about topics of concern to leadership. —Fay Ternan, Executive Director Working Together Bread of Life Mission of Holbrook Holbrook, Arizona I n our small town, we have something rare going on. We have a Pastors and Ministry Leaders meeting once per month and rotate which church will host. We share church and ministry events and even put things in each other’s bulletins. We have also held “pastor exchanges” where the pastors preach at a different church for one Sunday. We share events together. No one has a spirit of losing members to another church. We just have great fellowship. Since our churches here are small, none of them could afford to hire a youth pastor but there is great need in our area. We all pooled funds and hired a youth pastor through Youth for Christ, who now ministers to all the area youth. Several local pastors and leaders speak weekly at our mission chapel service, do Bible studies, mentor, and give great supportive help to the mis- sion. Bread of Life Mission also offers help when manpower is needed at church functions or for yard work in the summer. The support works both ways. —Cherise Merrick, Executive Director Filling the Gap Kalamazoo Gospel Mission Kalamazoo, Michigan I do pulpit fill-in for pastors going on vacation or other absences. It gives them an opportunity for time away and have me to speak on either a mission topic or any topic they may be speaking on at the time. I have been able to develop relation- ships with a number of churches this way. This has also caused many churches to call me when they are between pastors or if they need someone to help them while they are searching for a pastor. I have even been asked to interview prospective pastors and do installations when pastors have been hired. It’s given me the oppor- tunity to be a support for local churches in more than just the area of rescue ministry. —Michael Brown, President/CEO Connecting With the Community Merced County Rescue Mission Merced, California I have built relationships with lay people in area churches who are interested in serving the mission in some volunteer capacity. Sometimes pastors will identify lay people who have expertise or interest in helping at the mission. —Bruce Metcalf, Executive Director 40 WWW.AGRM.ORG MAY/JUNE 2018 We all pooled funds and hired a youth pastor through Youth for Christ, who now ministers to all the area youth.