Objectives

Summary | Objectives | Mission | Keys to Success | Legal Entity | Start-up | Management | Invest | Our Board

After World War II, denominations became a primary hub for North American Protestant churches. However, after a half-century, it is clear that while denominations still have a role to play in church collaboration, they also have limits – thus the need for post-denominational networks.

In The Post-Denominational Network:  Church Collaboration in a World Beyond Denominations & The Ecclesia Network:  A Practical Proposal For Moving Forward (Christopher J. Backert, paper toward Doctor of Ministry degree, Fuller Theological Seminary, 2006), the author lists eight core practices of the first-century church network:

1. This early church network ignited missional communities of faith
2. This early church network collaborated on strategic cities
3. This early church network provided coaching and shepherding to local pastors
4. This early church network provided theological training and teaching to local pastors and the wider church
5. This early church network gave generous financial resources to spread the gospel through the planting of churches
6. This early church network facilitated the giving of more wealthy churches to poorer churches
7. This early church network appointed and authorized new leaders
8. This early church network promoted inter-church unity

From this list, one may see how Spence Network is a biblically-based means (practiced through the history of the Christian church) of connecting leaders and collaborating on mission opportunities:

Clearly, these Spence Network initiatives fulfill the final objective of the earliest church network:  promoting inter-church unity.  This unity is achieved through church leaders collaborating on the shared values of equipping congregational leaders for missional objectives to advance the Kingdom of God.

To this end, Spence Network is designed to facilitate connections that will serve Virginia Baptist leaders and the larger North American Evangelical Protestant church by connecting leaders and churches with each other and with best ministry practices.
Our objectives (in Virginia and beyond) are:

• Discover and feed emerging collaborative church networks of leaders who both “consume” information from each other and “contribute” to that body of information about ministry practices.
• Fuel innovative connectional ministry opportunities.
• Identify and deliver world-class ministry practices to local church leaders.
• Acquire additional start-up funding in 2007 to fund initial ministry network opportunities through private donors.
• Raise an additional three million dollars from private donors in 2008-2009, and continue to grow the endowment at a compounded rate of 15% with sound investments (5-10% annual return) and by seeking additional donors (accounting for 5-10% growth in endowment) by 2012 to endow ongoing networking opportunities, network infrastructure, and Kingdom venture capital initiatives.

Please contact John Chandler for more information about the Spence Network.