Church United has been on a decade long mission to connect ministry leaders from Christian churches across denominational, racial and socioeconomic backgrounds to collaborate in ways that strengthen the body of Christ and advance the gospel in our region. Birthed out of a period of brokenness, Edwin Copeland, executive director of Church United, said their strategy is to develop healthy leaders and foster thriving churches that will ultimately lead to flourishing cities.
South Florida has a long history of faithful men and women of God advancing the gospel in their day, explained Copeland. In the 1980’s, the Rev. Billy Graham filled Lockhart Stadium with a message of hope and freedom in Christ. People were saved, tools such as Evangelism Explosion were developed, churches were planted, and South Florida began to shift from a sleepy beach town to an influential gateway city. Twenty years later, the sons and daughters of the pastors and patrons who invited Billy Graham collaborated on BeachFest, where hundreds of thousands gathered to hear Evangelist Luis Palau share the gospel on Fort Lauderdale Beach. Building on the momentum of that moment, the National Christian Foundation South Florida was established, and uncommon generosity was unleashed. Marketplace leaders, pastors and ministries began to connect and collaborate, and a number of influential ministries and churches grew. Yet in the midst of this, a spirit of competition, division and moral failure developed.
Describing the events that led to the founding of Church United, Copeland, said, “In 2014, Bob Coy [founding pastor of Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale] fell; 12 months later – not even – Tullian [Tchividjian, former lead pastor of Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church] fell. Alan Platt, [leader of the global Doxa Deo Church and the City Changers Movement] was brought in as a coach and consultant catalyst to help make sure Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale could be the best it could be [under the new leadership of Pastor Doug Sauder]. During that season about 14 pastors came together, and I watched God do something beautiful. The holy spirit showed up… As these pastors began to share, they realized they barely knew each other’s names yet some of these churches were blocks from each other. They viewed each other as competition, not co-laborers, and the reality was none of them felt like they were winning. At the heart level, we knew this wasn’t just a story about moral failings. Moral failings don’t happen overnight, and they don’t happen in a vacuum. There are a thousand small compromises and decisions that take root in pastoral isolation. That was the theme, so Alan wisely said at the end of this beautiful meeting that went way over time, ‘I think God’s doing something here. You have a rare leader in Doug. I’ve never seen a humble strong leader of an organization like this.’ And he said, ‘Don’t waste this crisis.’ A couple of weeks later Tullian falls.”
Realizing the awesome pressure that is placed on pastors, these 14 pastors and their wives went on an overnight retreat at the Hillsboro Club to do a little bit of soul care with Lance Witt, author of Replenish: Leading from a Healthy Soul, and they continued the conversation.
While this was happening, other key leaders began to take note, lending their voice, influence and perspective to the unity that was beginning to unfold in the region. Copeland recalls a meeting with Stephan Tchividjian, Co-Founder and CEO of the National Christian Foundation South Florida, Doug Sauder, Todd Mullins, lead pastor of Christ Fellowship in Palm Beach Gardens, Rick Blackwood, then senior pastor of Christ Fellowship in Miami, and Rob Hoskins, president of OneHope, where Alan Platt explained “there are City Gospel Movements happening globally where churches are coming together to connect, collaborate and celebrate. Some of them are causal, some of them focus on a single issue, some of them gather together in order to build relationships, but I think God could be stirring something here.” That’s when they all came to the table.
Mullins had already been inviting pastors from other Palm Beach County congregations to join their quarterly staff meetings for mutual encouragement and community, so they were happy to embrace the movement.
Today Copeland estimates there are about 450 churches who participate in Church United in Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties, the Treasure Coast and Southwest Florida with a heavy focus on creating community for pastors and ministry leaders to seed long term collaboration. More than an organization, pastors describe Church United as a family or hyper local band of brothers that come together for impact.
Having been part of Church United from its inception, Stephan Tchividjian said, “I would say that one of the most significant attributes of this movement is how it has brought attention and solutions to the overwhelming pressure that pastors and ministry leaders carry. Often, when this is not addressed it results in tragic outcomes. However, I love hearing the testimonies from pastors, their families and teams on the renewed love and passion they have for their callings, because of sacred spaces that God has created through Church United. It’s the power of God’s redemption.”
Doug Sauder, lead pastor of Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale and a member of the Church United Leadership Team, said “I’m on the phone every week with a local pastor and sometimes we’re praying together, sometimes we’re solving a problem together. It’s a really beautiful thing and it’s very unique. As I travel around the country, this kind of ecosystem doesn’t exist everywhere.”
The pressures on pastors were especially high during COVID. When school closings left many churches without a place to meet, churches like Calvary Chapel, Rio Vista Church and Riverside Church opened up their buildings for churches that were homeless to meet in to do video broadcasting.
Still, Carter Brown, unity catalyst for Church United in Dade County and the pastor of CrossBridge Church, said “A lot of studies show that about 40% of all ministers have left the ministry in America over the past several years.” Church United hopes to reverse that trend. “I think we have a unique moment right now to lead and to say we’re going to fight for unity and be the Church Jesus envisioned. We’re going to help each other, celebrate one another, and I love the idea that we’re going to agree on the essentials and show charity to the non-essentials, in all things showing love. We have this unique moment in a divided and a contentious world to be that countercultural example Jesus set thousands of years ago.”
The vision of Church United is to see an awakening or sustained move of God in our region that is bigger than one church, leader or donor. “It’s going to take all of us being ourselves as part of the story. This is why it’s called Church United and not pastors united,” said Copeland. “We believe you start with the spiritual shepherds. A revival of the shepherds always precedes any move of God. Which is why we park on healthy leaders. Healthy leaders will lead to thriving churches that go on mission and focus on evangelism, awakening the people of God to connect Sunday to Monday and to understand their calling and the power of their influence.”
This is why Church United is tied to the National Christian Foundation South Florida, Copeland explained. “To see an awakening and revival in South Florida, you’re going to need best in class marketplace ministries. You’re going to need patrons who understand that every great move of God is fueled by gospel patrons and gospel proclaimers partnering together to further the Kingdom of God. So why would we not put this under one ecosystem at the National Christian Foundation? Different governance, different kind of networks, but we all share the same table.”
HEALTHY LEADERS
Moving from a mindset of competition and isolation to one of collaboration and co-laboring requires a healthy soul and intentional relationships. So the foundation of Church United is essentially built on Soul Care.
Soul Care
Brian Brookins, lead pastor at Riverside Church and a member of the leadership team at Church United, recently wrote a Soul Care Handbook that will be the guide for Soul Care Cohorts. Entitled Living by Grace, the Handbook is designed to help Christian leaders grow spiritually, so they can lead with resilience and a sense of purpose.
“It’s mostly focused on your personal wholeness and health, starting with emotional health, mental health, and spiritual health, the condition of your soul. It has ramifications and application to family, marriage, finances and physical health but it’s more focused on the heart because that’s the beginning of life,” said Brookins.
“A part of what we try to do in our cohorts is to create self-awareness and situational awareness so you can start to identify the signs that this may not be the best version of me or if I’m not careful, this could quickly go in the wrong direction,” said Brookins. While he cautions that Soul Care is a long game because there are no quick fixes, he believes there is significant cause for encouragement regarding the health of the Church. “I personally am so much healthier because of what we’re doing, the relationships, the cooperation, the strength we find from one another is really amazing. It is working and there is a significant core that is leaning in, participating and benefiting. Even if you look at the two churches that previously experienced moral collapse, today they’re very different. They’re flourishing. They’re amazing churches.”
Soul Care Cohorts are building relationships and trust that foster greater unity.
“Scripture tells us when we unite together Christ is displayed,” said Brookins. “The world is looking at the church with a certain cynicism that will only be removed when we genuinely love one another. However, I would say what we’re experiencing in the area of unity is the most significant move of the holy spirit I have seen in 35 years of ministry.”
There are currently 16 soul care cohorts for senior pastors, executive pastors, worship pastors, youth pastors, pastor’s wives and women in ministry; however, Church United expects to offer more than 20 cohorts this year, including an expansion of cohorts for women in ministry.
Allison Hix, program and relationship lead for Church United and women in ministry lead at The Avenue Church where her husband Jon Hix is executive pastor, helped coordinate the pilot season of Soul Care Cohorts for Women. She explained that meeting monthly with other women in ministry allowed pastors wives to share the sacred questions they can’t necessarily share with everybody and sometimes resulted in the women doing ministry events together causing friendships to blossom.
What she wishes people knew about women in ministry is “that even though we’re surrounded by people all the time, ministry can be a really lonely and isolating journey. We’re sharing Jesus and we’re with people all the time, but I could be in a woman’s Bible study at my church and still have the weight of ministry upon me. These cohorts provide help with that.”
Elizabeth Mitchell, of Boca Raton Community Church and the wife of coaching pastor Bill Mitchell, described the Woman’s Soul Care Cohort she leads as “a safe place for pastors’ wives to work together and to remind each other why we’re doing what we’re doing. We all recognize that to have a healthy marriage is the best thing any pastor and his wife can do for the entire congregation. As we allow God to strengthen our own souls, we can be more of a positive influence on our husbands and on the ministry that God has called us to.”
Church United recently received a $35,000 grant from StrikeForce 421 to help fund Women’s Soul Care Cohorts and Hix said the funds will partially be used to help pay for counseling for women in ministry who may need additional healing or who are struggling in their marriages. They are also planning to launch a Professional Development Program for Women in Leadership online.
The Backstage
To strengthen spiritual leaders, Church United holds an annual Soul Care Conference annually.
This year’s one-day conference, entitled The Backstage is being held in Southwest Florida on October 3rd at Summit Church, University Campus in Fort Myers, and on two separate dates in Broward on October 4th and 5th at Calvary Chapel Fort Lauderdale. Expanding beyond lead pastors, the Backstage will have special breakout sessions for pastors, pastors’ wives, church and ministry leaders, and governance boards along with featured speakers such as Rita Springer, a gifted worship leader and musical artist; Bryan Loritts, teaching pastor at The Summit Church; Guy Wasco, a church planter and certified Lifeplan facilitator, as well as Brian Brookins.
The Call to Action for the Backstage is “Don’t do life in ministry alone. Join a Soul Care Cohort.”
Pastor Relief Fund
Thanks to the generous support of donors, Church United has established a pastoral relief fund to help meet practical ministry needs or provide counseling for pastors and their families.
“When a pastor who is barely making it financially has their AC break, that can be a ministry altering event that makes them spin and spiral into more credit card debt, so having the ability to fund needs like that has been a game changer,” said Copeland. “We want pastors to know that we want nothing from you. We want something for you. We want to strengthen your backstage and get you as healthy and whole as you’re willing to be so that we can now have thriving churches.”
THRIVING CHURCHES
There are two main initiatives that directly focus on developing Thriving Churches: pastoral learning communities and the Lilly Cohorts.
Pastoral learning communities
Church United creates opportunities for pastors to grow and learn together about how to equip, empower and deploy the people in their church to live their life on mission for Jesus.
For example, Church United is utilizing Alpha, an evangelistic tool designed to create conversation around life’s biggest questions concerning the Christian faith, typically run over 8-11 weeks.
Pastor Doug Sauder said, “We’re training all of our leaders in the city around a common evangelistic framework that is multiplying, and I think it’s really remarkable. I was just talking with three of our leaders who’ve been collaborating with people from other churches around best ways to do Alpha in coffee shops.”
They also bring churches together to equip pastors to be more informed with resources that help them to better connect with their communities. For example, Church United partnered with Barna and Gloo to provide research on the State of South Florida following Covid, providing pastors with measurement tools beyond church attendance to uncover opportunities for growth. In September, Church United invited Daniel Yang, a pastor and missiologist, to speak on the State of the Church in today’s cultural environment to help orient and equip pastors for a rapidly changing ministry environment.
Serving diverse churches
Seeking to also reach out to and strengthen Haitian churches, Latino churches and Black churches, David Rosa, Associate Director of Church United, said they partnered with Leighton Ford Ministries (LFM) to help them bring Soul Care Cohorts to already established church networks in those spaces.
Working to reflect the full diversity of the body of Christ, Church United has been actively reaching out to our brothers and sisters in Christ and lock arms with them, said Rosa.
Together Church United and LFM were awarded a million dollar grant through Lilly Endowment’s Thriving Congregations Initiative, designed to “encourage the flourishing of congregations by helping them deepen their relationships with God, enhance their connections with each other, and contribute to the vitality of their communities and the world.”
Founded by Dr. Leighton Ford, known as the pastor of pastors and Billy Graham’s brother-in-law who traveled and preached with him for decades, LFM serves globally as a catalyst for mentoring a new generation of healthy leaders, sustaining thriving ministries for the sake of the gospel. Dr. Leighton’s son, Kevin Ford took over the organization and has brought with him his consulting experience from the military, incorporating systems and structures for pastors.
Through these Cohorts funded by the Lilly grant, Church United and LFM hopes to help churches “identify their truth north” along with systems and structures “to bring together their mission, vision and values for the sake of scaling impact and their reach,” said Rosa.
Rosa explained, “We applied for a Lilly Grant in partnership with LFM because, to strengthen the black and brown church we couldn’t lose our soul care element, and we knew LFM is the best to help them with these systems and structures to strengthen their church organizationally so it can have the longest lasting impact. We’re now identifying, developing and resourcing facilitators from their groups to now bring that to the Haitian Church, the Black Church and the Latino Church.”
Network building
Going where God is already moving, Church United is creating relational depth and trust with all of the various church networks, denominations and entities in our region and reaching out to form partnerships, share resources and invite them to join in the movement.
Arthur Connor, senior pastor at Metropolitan Baptist Church, is executive director of the Broward Baptist Association, one of the most diverse church associations in the state comprised of about 160 multi-racial churches, including Haitian, Spanish, Brazilian, Chinese and a handful of English-speaking churches. “In order to reach our association, Connor said, “you have to present the gospel in multiple languages. So we’re taking the cohort model and setting up special cohorts with our own people in the association and Church United is coming alongside and helping us through the grant resources they have.”
Having been involved in Church United for years, Connor said he’s excited that pastors are “realizing that we’re not in competition with the church down the street. We’re all on the same team, doing what we’re doing for the glory of God because for us to truly make a difference here in South Florida it’s going to require that the church collaborates and comes together.”
Robens Chery, pastor of Revelation Christian Church in Lauderdale Lakes also heads up an association of about 30 Haitian pastors for whom he plans to organize Soul Care Cohorts. Asked how these cohorts would benefit the Haitian community, Chery said, “it’s not so much that it’s in Creole. It’s more that you’ve got this community where you have the commonality of your culture and in order for you to help a culture, you need someone that’s been there to understand them. Each community needs different things.”
But Chery said the reason he’s excited about Church United is “because I want to see what Heaven looks like here on earth. Even among the Haitian churches, some churches are Seventh Day Adventist, some are Baptist, they are separated. But in order for us to have a greater impact in the last days, we have to come together, and Church United is doing that.”
Pedro Villegas, pastor of Full Life Church and president of the Hispanic Ministers Association of South Florida, the largest association of its kind in the nation with more than 200 pastors, was introduced to Church United two years ago, and has struck up a friendship with Pastor Doug Sauder and Eddie Copeland. Both pastors have participated in each other’s events, sharing resources and Villegas said Church United prepared a retreat for about 20 Hispanic pastors and their wives, investing in the marriages. They have also worked together to support community initiatives like Love Has No Limits, to reach the community for Christ. Villegas sees Church United as “a bridge to unite the church and overcome the language barrier that is between us, so we can work together in the city the Lord has entrusted to us – to be one Church. I see that we are both reachable and available, so we have a real brotherhood there.”
This is just the beginning, Rosa said Church United plans to continue building relationships with other church networks to strengthen more churches and work together.
Church planting
Close neighborhood connections, hunger for growth, and openness to innovation makes church planting a natural outgrowth of Church United. Right here in South Florida, Spanish River Church is one of the largest church planting organizations in the country dedicating millions of dollars in resources to the advancement of the gospel over the years.
To see the number of committed Christ followers double, Church United has an intentional, strategic focus on church planting involving dozens of churches working together to identify, develop, and resource leaders to help produce a vibrant and sustaining church planting movement.
FLOURISHING CITIES
When churches are thriving with a healthy spirit of unity, they can collaborate on initiatives that lead to Flourishing Cities. Here are a few of those initiatives.
Good Neighbor Days
Building on the many years of Love South Florida where churches across Dade Broward and Palm Beach were encouraged to pray, give and serve together each November, this year Church United has partnered with an organization called Love Has No Limits to host Good Neighbor Days.
Bringing together faith communities, ministries, community leaders and influential figures, Love Has No Limits is collaborating with Church United in Dade County and the Hispanic Ministers Association of South Florida bringing together 350 churches for citywide activations to serve, love, and empower communities. Churches may use their property to become food or clothing distribution centers. Some churches are doing neighborhood car washes. Whatever they want to do to love and serve their neighbors together.
Carter Brown, pastor of CrossBridge Church in Miami, said he’s excited “to see pastors really pursuing unity, connecting on a deeper level as pastors and then in turn connecting our churches to things so that we have a bigger vision for the Kingdom of God.”
In the spring, 12 Miami area churches and staff gathered to worship together and pray for each other’s churches ahead of Easter.
Crisis response and disaster relief
However, it is during times of crisis and brokenness when Church United has shown its greatest strength, collaborating to provide crisis response and disaster relief. “The real power of what we do here is on this phone,” said Copeland. “I have four different text chains that I can text every pastor in Dade, Broward and Palm Beach County and when we need something, we’re there for one another. That never existed before, but now they are all networked together and there is power in that.”
This was helpful when a shooter opened fire at Fort Lauderdale–Hollywood International Airport on January 6, 2017, taking the lives of five people and leaving six others injured in the shooting. Through donations to Church United’s crisis response fund, the church community was able to pay the medical expenses of all of the families involved and provide counseling and support to first responders and medical staff who also experienced the trauma.
When tragedy struck Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School on February 14, 2018, Church United hosted a community prayer vigil at Parkridge Church just 24 hours after the horrific shooting that took the lives of 14 students and three adults. “I was meeting with Dr. Rosalind Osgood at the school board office within hours and we pledged to stand with them, providing counseling to students and faculty for years after. Church United also joined forces with marketplace patrons and community volunteers to beautify the school before students returned at the start of the new school year, putting together gift bags with personalized notes for teachers.
During hurricane season, Church United often collaborates to provide disaster relief after a storm. When Hurricane Ian hit the west coast of Florida as a powerful Category 4 storm on September 27, 2022, causing severe flooding and damage, the church in South Florida was there. Collaborating to provide a unified front, Church United sent truckloads of aid and supplies along with volunteers to help muck out homes, tarp leaky roofs and minister to the victims for months. The relationships built after Hurricane Ian, catalyzed the expansion of Church United in Southwest Florida.
Teaching series
Annually churches throughout South Florida unite over a common theme. This year’s annual joint teaching series coincides with the presidential election, a period that will likely be marked by fear and division in our nation. In response, Church United aims to speak with one voice, proclaiming the miraculous unity, peace and hope found in the truth that Jesus is King and He reigns over all.
Last year Church United rallied over 53 churches for a collaborative teaching series called, A Seat at the Table, co-created by local pastors, that was designed to awaken Christians to evangelism and encourage them to intentionally share their lives and faith with unbelievers around them, changing our city.
Administer Justice
“Listening to the needs of black and brown churches,” Rosa said they recently brought in Administer Justice, which is a program now available at three locations, to help alleviate the long waits people were experiencing at Legal Aid. “I think we can solve this,” said Rosa. He explained that Administer Justice provides free legal consultancy once a week so folk can come in, speak to the attorney and get the advice that they need. The service is currently available at Cruciform Church in Hollywood, at HOPE South Florida in Fort Lauderdale and at Advent Lutheran in Lake Worth.
Connecting churches for the sake of mission
There is also a lot Church United does below the waterline to bring churches to the table in support of ministries like Habitat for Humanity and HOPE South Florida to tackle community-wide issues such as homelessness and the lack of affordable housing.
Connecting churches with technology for mission
As Church United walks alongside every church to help them understand the low hanging fruit in missional opportunities, they’ve developed partnerships with organizations like Gloo and Barna to provide them with technological tools that connect those curious about the gospel, which they call explorers, to a local church.
For example, during COVID Church United piloted a program with Gloo called the Church Connect App, which became the infrastructure behind the He Gets Us campaign. He Gets Us is an historic, digital evangelistic campaign connecting those exploring faith, life, and meaning to the churches of South Florida.
Copeland explained, “When someone watches a He Gets Us ad on Facebook or sees it on TV, they go to a website. There are algorithms that route that explorer to a local pastor that best meets their felt need – a marriage need, an addiction need, I just want to talk to someone. Based on how they fill that out it goes to three churches in your neighborhood that have raised their hands to say, I want to receive those explorers. Today, there is no more Church Connect, but we still have 117 churches that are receiving explorers from campaigns like He Gets Us, Churches Care, Hope With God and God Speaks.”
Connecting with local schools
One of the greatest opportunities to demonstrate what’s possible when churches collaborate together exists in education and next generation engagement. That’s why Church United has developed relationships with school principals, sitting down with them to say, “How can I help?”
Working behind the scenes, they’ve helped orchestrate professional development programs for assistant principals, facilitated church partnerships with their neighborhood schools and even saved two Christian schools from closing due to partnerships developed through Church United.
Sauder also pointed out that there have been several offshoots of Church United that have developed such as Schools United, Village Hymns and One City Prayer.
For such a time as this
The momentum appears to be building.
“I absolutely believe the last 10 years of Church United was providing the framework for such a time as this,” said Copeland.
What is so unique about this time?
“The world is more divided than ever,” said Sauder, “and when the world is more divided, when the world is more cynical, when everything is being disrupted, that’s typically when God works in a way that could bring revival. So, we look at all the things that are happening in our world as a precursor or catalyst to a really beautiful movement that God wants to do through unity that brings awakening and builds the Kingdom.”
Robey Barnes, lead pastor of CityRev Church and a member of the Church United Leadership Team, said he believes “the Lord is in the process of sweeping through our region, reawakening the church with a fresh fire so that our whole city will in the end look differently. We’re passing on to our children and grandchildren a different South Florida, one that reflects more of what’s happening in the Kingdom of heaven down here on earth. That’s what I’m expecting because why else would He be doing this unprecedented miracle of unity? It’s not just a revival fire that lasts for a week or two. I think He’s building a deeper wildfire that’s going to last for generations to come.”
It was an invigorating challenge for Good News Media Group to present this 10-year retrospective of Church United. For their unbelievable dedication and hard work, we salute them on their 10 years of impact and are excited for the years to come under their leadership.
To get involved, visit churchunitedfl.com
For more Good News, read the GOOD NEWS October 2024 issue at: https://digital.goodnewsfl.org/2024/october/#1