NETWORK/UNITY for Transformation
May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unityamong yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus,..(Romans 15:5)
There is a new page on the 7mwin website, titled ‘NETWORK’. It’s also part of our name, 7MWINetwork. What is a network? Some describe it as a group of people working together for a common good, or a place to share ideas and vision, or to synergize. Whatever the case, people are building relationship and sometimes co-laboring together. Think of the scripture verse, Romans 15:5:
“May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus”.
When I worked in the public school system we did a lot of networking. Often teachers and administrators would share ideas. We’d joke about ’stealing’ ideas, but in reality, we knew they were never ‘our’ ideas . Most likely we got them from someone else, or, if they were new, it wasn’t a problem to share them because we were there for the greater good of teaching and giving direction for students. If the practice or program worked, we were happy to share it, there was a sense of unity among us.
Now that I’m in the ‘church’ arena, I’ve discovered few networks and united groups in the central valley. Did you know there are pastors who gather every Tuesday and pray for our city? Although I’ve only attended a few times, it was good to see them come together and pray. There are also ten Fresno pastor clusters (formed by their area of town), who gather monthly , to eat lunch together and share what’s happening in their congregation. I”ll be honest though, only about 10% of pastors attend these. I’d hope it is the beginning of unity and not the end. Another group that meets is CityBuilders where para-church ministry leaders gather the first Wednesday of every month and share about their ministry. No Name Fellowship (ministry leaders as well) meets monthly. No name often has guest speakers like the downtown revitalization department. Their focus seems to be about dealing with urban challenges of Fresno. Recently I became familiar with ‘United Fresno’ (seewww.unitedfresno.com) whereby some of the larger youth groups are coming together for citywide events. I know not all of these groups are for everyone, but I wanted to share that they do exist.
The new page on our website list two networks- Central Valley (CV) Prayer Roundtable and CV Healing/Deliverance Network. The Roundtable was actually started several years ago by Doris Force (Pray Central Valley leader), and she passed the baton to me last year to facilitate it. We meet quarterly. However, recently the Lord put it on my heart to gather/network the leaders of Healing and Deliverance ministries in our area. Like any network, our purpose is more than sharing ideas but to build relationship together and encourage one another and oppose a spirit of competition or territorialism.
On the state level, we (Fresno HOPE) are connecting with other Houses of Prayer ministries and Prayer ministries. Many of us see each other at Regional Assemblies or statewide prayer events. We often get to pray with one another on weekly statewide prayer conference calls.
I am also under/a part of an apostolic network – Harvest International Ministry (HIM). Although I won’t fully explain what an apostolic ministry is (there are books written about apostolic/apostles), I will say apostolic networks are emerging as a new wineskin, often churches and/or ministries that are not a part of a denomination, are a part of an apostolic network. They often provide accountability, sometimes legal covering, some provide resources and training and some ordain ministers. They are based on ‘relationship’. Global Legacy out of Redding, H.I.M, out of Pasadena, Grace Covenant International out of Kansas City, and Christian International out of Florida are just a few I’m familiar with.
May we…
“… over all these virtues, put on love, which binds them (us) all together in perfect unity”. Col. 3:13-15
Blessings to you all,
Marta Rios Escarcega
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