2023
Partnering in the Spread of the Gospel
Missions | by Pastor Marco Ribeiro
Downtown Cornerstone,
The letter to the Philippians is so full of theology and encouragement that we may not notice it is a ‘thank you’ letter from a missionary to a church. Paul goes as far as calling his relationship with the church at Philippi a ‘partnership in the gospel’, and he thanks God for it. Consider these words that the Apostle uses:
I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. – Philippians 1:3-5
Yes, and I will rejoice, for I know that through your prayers and the help of the Spirit of Jesus Christ this will turn out for my deliverance… – Philippians 1:19
I have thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, and your messenger and minister to my need… – Philippians 2:25
And you Philippians yourselves know that in the beginning of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with me in giving and receiving, except you only. Even in Thessalonica you sent me help for my needs once and again. Not that I seek the gift, but I seek the fruit that increases to your credit. I have received full payment, and more. I am well supplied, having received from Epaphroditus the gifts you sent, a fragrant offering, a sacrifice acceptable and pleasing to God. – Philippians 4:15-18
As noted in the passages above, this partnership entails giving and receiving financial resources, prayer, exhortation, rejoicing together, and much more.
But what makes it a partnership in the gospel? The fact that both Paul and the Philippians have the advance of the gospel as a common desire and goal, and that their partnership is centered around that goal. This explains why Paul talks about the advance of the gospel rather than the discomforts of his imprisonment (1:12), why he rejoices when the gospel is preached even by hypocrites (1:18), why he repeatedly calls the Philippians to strive together for the gospel (1:27; 2:1-4), and why he emphasizes that Timothy, Epaphroditus, Euodia and Syntyche all worked with him in the gospel (2:22; 2:25; 4:3).
This partnership of mutual encouragement, prayer, and support for the advance of the gospel is a model for our own partnerships with other churches, church planters, and missionaries. While we may not have the same depth of relationship with all of our partners, our aim is to get as close to this model as possible. For this reason, I am including a few updates from our partners below, to give us all a chance to pray and rejoice together with our fellow workers in the gospel, and to stir in us a desire to work diligently towards this goal, either as senders or as goers.
As you read the names below, remember that these are not just names, but real people and real churches—our fellow laborers in the kingdom of God. Please join me in prayer for them. (You'll also find more information about our next Global Missions Meetup taking place on Sunday, February 5th.)
Your partner in the gospel,
Pastor Marco
Local, National and International Partnerships
ACTS 29
Our church is a part of the Acts 29 church planting network, which provides a great structure and vetting to help us support a variety of church planting and pastoral training efforts around the world. In addition, we recently also voted to give significant one-time gifts to a pastoral training school in Ecuador, and to the building funds of churches in Albania and closer to home in Oregon.
In addition to our Acts 29 partnership, we are also supporting the following individual churches/planters:
Radiant Church Matsu Valley | Palmer, AK
(Caleb Richardson)
By God’s grace, Radiant Church installed their first elder other than Caleb, and are about to install another in the next few months. The biggest area of growth they have seen as a church in the last year has been in the area of authentic community. Some prayer requests they sent us:
- They need to find a new meeting space in the next few months.
- For boldness in sharing the gospel.
- For the addition of a new elder.
- That the core of their church will grow and own the mission of reaching their city for Jesus.
Sufficient Grace Church | Puyallup, WA
(Noah Winningham)
“We are so very appreciative of your support of our ministry!”
Sufficient Grace just hit their 2 year birthday and are rejoicing with what God has done. By God’s grace, they have 2 elder candidates this year, and have added 13 families into their communities. They expressed deep appreciation for our support, and asked for prayers for continued growth and for more people to step into leadership, in order to support such growth. Noah would also appreciate prayer, as he balances his time being bivocational.
Soma Fuchu | Tokyo, Japan
(Yoshito Noguchi)
Our brothers and sisters at Soma Fuchu are deeply focused on prayer, and in sharing the gospel with unbelievers (of course, those go hand in hand). Please join them in prayer for their work, both as a congregation (e.g. evangelism at the park) and individually (in the workplace).
Antalya Protestant Church / Reach Turkey | Antalya, Turkey
(Kerem Koç)
Reach Turkey received some unexpected large gifts, which allowed them to rent a building and start the ‘Academy’, a 3-year long program for church leaders. Antalya Church is praising God for a variety of visitors, and two new brothers who joined their church in October via baptism. They had many visitors over Christmas, with 15 people hearing the gospel for the first time. Please pray that they would come to faith and repentance!
Restore Brazil
(Jay Bauman)
In 2022, we supported Restore Brazil in the “Projeto Plantador” church planting cohort (residency) with 11 men, representing 11 new churches. We also supported twenty one church plants which are less than 3 years old, as well as various missionary endeavors in underprivileged areas and in the Amazon.
DCC Global Missionaries
We also equip and support our own members as our Global Partners in taking the gospel to the nations. Due to security reasons, we are unable to publicly list them here. However, if you are interested in learning more about our current Global Partners serving in Southeast Asia, email us at
Learn More And Get Involved
Have you considered how you can work towards the advance of the gospel, for the good of all people and the glory of God? Here are a few ways to get involved:
- Pray: Start here. Paul is confident that he would be delivered through the Philippians’ prayers. Similarly, we can actively participate in all of the above by asking our triune God to work for his glory. Further, pray for guidance on how you can join this work as a sender or a goer.
- Join our regular Global Missions Meetups: Our next meetup will be on Sunday, February 5th, at 12 pm. In this meetup, we will meet with Andi Dina, who is a church planter in Albania, and also leads a ministry to equip pastors and churches in that area. This is a great opportunity to think about how the unchanging gospel goes into very different and ever-changing cultures, and to pray for church planting in parts of the world that have fewer resources. Register here.
- Consider taking a more intentional role: We’ve developed a Global Missions Development Pipeline to help provide practical pathways and training for engagement in missions. This is both aimed at people who think they may be called to be missionaries, and those who want to grow in becoming better senders. In order to successfully send a church planting team, all kinds of needs must be provided for: accountability, prayer, sending leadership, finances, business mentorship, and other types of practical support. Thus, there are many ways to be involved. You can read more about our Global Missions Development Pipeline and how you can begin taking next steps here.
