Churches in these neighborhoods can flourish. But it requires the body of Christ responding to the Great Commission mandate in partnership together to make it happen.
A pipeline for your church to make Missionaries and plant Churches.
If you were to read through the ledger and history books of most churches, what you would find is that very few have ever sent out a missionary or a church plant from their own congregation in response to the Great Commission. And yet, if you were to have a conversation with those churches, most of them would express a desire and burden to see the Commission fulfilled, and for their church to play an active role in it.
We want to propose a mutually beneficial relationship where there is true reciprocity and cooperation. We believe that our cities are the perfect place for your church to call, train, and send Urban Missionaries, and to plant Neighborhood Churches.
Where to begin?
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The very first thing we want you to do is to see it! We want to show you our city, both the great need and the great opportunity. We hold an annual Vision Trip Weekender every May. These trips are a Friday - Monday, where you will go on neighborhood tours, develop relationships with church members, worship with Grace Harbor Church | New Bedford, and attend our annual Neighborhood Church Conference.
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Once you have come for a visit, we want to ask you to make a commitment to partner with Neighborhood Churches, as a vital part of your church’s Great Commision efforts and strategy by committing to pray, to give, and to send.
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Once your church has formally decided to partner in this capacity, we would love for you to schedule a Mission:New Bedford Trip on your calendar! We want your church to know ours, and ours to know yours.
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As your church comes on Mission Trips and gets familiar with our city, we are praying that the Lord might call someone to come and serve alongside of us. We want to ask you to consider who in your church might you be able to send as an Intern, an Urban Missionary or a Church Planter?
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Finally, as all these elements come together, we are praying that it leads to planting churches in our forgotten neighborhoods. As your church comes year after year on Mission Trips, we pray that the Lord would burden your church for a particular neighborhood in our cities. And as He does, and as your church potentially sends Ministry Workers, we want to put them in the very neighborhoods that God has given your church a burden for, tilling the ground for your church to be part of a future church plant in that very neighborhood.
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Mission Trips.
Once your church or mission organization has made the decision to partner with Neighborhood Churches, we would love for you to begin planning to come to New Bedford on a Mission Trip. The Lord uses short-term Mission Teams in big ways to increase our relational footprint in our city. He also uses them to draw out deeper levels of faith and obedience in people from your church. We would love if New Bedford might become an annual trip for your ministry to partner with by sending teams year after year.
We have opportunities for four different types of trips:
Service Project Trips
Evangelism Trips
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Ministry Workers.
We want to be upfront with you in every way. We are not so secretly praying that as your ministry brings Mission Teams year after year, that maybe the Lord would call some people from your church to geographically move across the country to serve and labor in the forgotten fields of our cities.
We have several different opportunities for men and women to explore a call to vocational and bi-vocational Missions. The invitation is to come and be either a:
Church Member
12-Week Intern (Men & Women)
One or Two Year Intern (Men & Women)
Urban Missionary (Men & Women)
Pastor or Church Planter (Men)
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Multiplication.
It takes Christians to plant and revitalize churches. As your ministry organization or church comes on a Vision Trip Weekender, and perhaps as the Lord calls men and women from your church to labor in New Bedford, we are praying that the combination of those two burdens would be the fuel that God uses to change the spiritual orientation of our cities through church multiplication.
Here’s the surprising news. God can use your church to plant a new church in New Bedford. The sacrificial work and commitment of one established church to help birth a new church is one of the primary ways the Great Commision has been faithfully carried out since the first century church.
Ministry Workers
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Are you considering a gap year, or trying to figure out what you are doing with your summer? Our 10 week internships offer a unique opportunity for you to come and labor alongside of our church and grow spiritually within the body of Christ, while continuing to learn how to make disciples both here, and wherever the Lord would take you next.
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Our Internship positions are training positions. They are for men and women who have a burden and desire to serve in the local church, as well as to be equipped with practical hands on ministry experience, and some theological training. We offer 1 - 2 year long Internships serving on the staff of our church. Interns will have a number of different responsibilities that range from leading outreach events in the community to discipling other believers.
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Mission fields need Missionaries. Our urban missionaries serve both our city and church. They do this in a full time capacity by building and maintaining a caseload of discipling relationships and leading out in a number of different ministries and areas in our city. Urban Missioneries serve on the staff of a church, helping assist in the work of church planting.
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Has God given you a burden to plant, establish, and shepherd a healthy church, but you just don’t quite know where at? We want to ask you to consider joining Neighborhood Churches and laboring alongside with us in the fields of New Bedford & Fall River, Massachusetts.
We seek to assess, train, and deploy qualified men to plant and revitalize churches in forgotten neighborhoods. Time spent preparing with Neighborhood Churches focuses on developing:
Spiritual Vitality
Theological Clarity
Conviction and Commendation
Healthy Marriage and Relationships
Godly Leadership
Spiritual Maturity
Missionary Lifestyle and Mindset
Disciple-Making
Ability to Teach
An Entrepreneurial Aptitude.
What other churches have said about their Partnership
“We believe in the biblical mission and vision of Neighborhood Churches: that the greater New Bedford area will only be reached through churches planting churches. We’re excited to invest into such a kingdom endeavor, that by God’s grace will reap an eternal harvest. One of the many ways our church benefits from this kingdom partnership is by putting real names and faces to our Missions giving.”
— Dr. Neal Thornton, Coats Baptist Church, Coats , NC
“New England needs Gospel preaching churches. When I visit New Bedford her tough working-class roots are evident. I’m struck by the city’s beauty and history, but also the need for faithful churches. Grace Harbor Church is uniquely gifted and situated to strategically plant neighborhood churches among the unreached and I am thankful for their presence and vision.”
— Joel Kurz, One Hope, Baltimore, MD
“The great commission has always required great partnerships. One of the greatest joys of my 15 years of pastoring our congregation is the partnership we have with Grace Harbor Church. In so many ways, they are providing opportunities for our church to participate in healthy churches being established, strengthened, and multiplied in unreached and forgotten neighborhoods of our nation.”
— Dr. Beau Hughes, The Village Church, Denton, Tx
