Last month, we looked at the theological undergirding of the Trinity Network of Churches. The Apostle Paul was overflowing with joy as he wrote to the Philippian church because of their ‘partnership in the gospel’ because they ‘shared in God’s grace’ and because they strove ‘together as one for the faith of the gospel’. And all of this was because of their shared goal of seeing God glorified and praised.
In essence, we are a family of 14 churches around Adelaide and South Australia that treasure God’s mercy and grace and partner together to live for His glory and honour.
But, in practical terms, what does our partnership look like?
1. What does this partnership look like in the Trinity Network?
a. We pray for one another
Paul is in Rome. The Philippians are, as you would expect, in Philippi. Paul is constantly praying for the Philippians (Philippians 1:9-11), and the Philippians likewise pray for Paul (Philippians 1:19).
As I travel around the Trinity Churches, hearing our churches praying for one another is an enormous encouragement. It is a mark of gospel-centred conviction that we pray for the extension of the kingdom beyond the scope of our own backyard. Our praying isn’t limited to our Network churches—we call on God to glorify His name through gospel-centred churches and ministries in our state, country, and internationally.
This is why we circulate prayer points for each of the churches and the Network staff and ministries each month (see the Trinity Network Monthly email newsletter). Sue and I regularly use these as a part of our daily prayers. Can I encourage you to do the same?
b. We plant churches together
In a little over 20 years, God has graciously enabled us to plant 13 churches. When we planted the first church at Aldgate in 2001, we prayed that God might enable that church to plant a church. In 2010, Trinity Church Aldgate was able to send a group to Mount Barker to start a new church. In due course, the members of Trinity Church Mount Barker were instrumental in planting a church at Victor Harbor in 2015. Trinity Church Adelaide has had the privilege of sending and planting five times, and the other eight church plants have been planted from ‘planted’ churches. You can see the sequence of this in the diagram below.
Why do we plant churches? Are we empire-building or seeking our own glory? No. The reality is we live in a gospel-poor city and state. The number who regularly attend a Bible-teaching church is less than 5%. Thousands of South Australians do not know the joy of knowing Jesus, the forgiveness of sins and belonging to God’s family. Starting new churches is an effective way to reach new people with the good news, the gospel. Our city and state desperately need more gospel-centred churches.
In our Network, partnership means we share a conviction that it is good and effective to work together to keep planting new churches and ministries as we ‘strive together for the faith of the gospel’.
Trinity Church Aldgate is currently launching a new evening congregation. Trinity Church Victor Harbor has a small group meeting to pray and plan for the start of a new church at Goolwa in 2026. Our four northern churches are working together to see three new churches begin in the next five years. We would also love to plant churches to the east, west, and south of the city.
c. We resource our churches for health
In the Network Vision statement, we are committed to strengthening our churches. We want all our churches to be healthy and vibrant. We seek to do this by providing ministry and ‘administry’ support.
i) Ministry support
Here are some of the ways we are currently collaborating to support one another in ministry:
- We have appointed several Senior Pastors to take on the role of Lead Pastors. They work in regions around our Network to gather Senior Pastors and other staff for fellowship, encouragement, and coaching.
- We run quarterly days where we gather all the staff from the churches for some in-house training.
- In the last few years, we have seen how this regional approach to Network thinking has led to creative ministry initiatives. Several of our regions have seen the value of combining resources for certain ministries, including youth ministry. We are exploring ways we can be more effective in ministry through collaboration.
- The Network Board has set me apart to support the Lead and Senior Pastors and to keep the Network Vision clear as we seek to grow and plant healthy churches.
- The Network Board is also keen to explore ways we can directly connect with and encourage church Leadership Teams.
ii) ‘Administry’ support
This refers more to the organisational, governance and administrative aspects involved in enabling churches to be healthy. If there is an ‘administry’ activity that we can do centrally to free up people in the local church to do ministry more effectively, then our approach is ‘let’s explore how we can do it’. Right now, this means we employ people to take care of areas such as finances, safe ministry, communications, church planting, training, HR, IT, governance, risk, policy development and a range of other areas.
We are constantly reviewing how, as a Network, we can collaborate to be more effective in making disciples. The Network Board, consisting of Godly men and women from our churches and a member from beyond the Network, provides Godly support, oversight, and accountability for our churches.
d. We partner financially
In Philippians 4, Paul thanks the Philippians for their financial partnership with him in gospel proclamation.
Yet it was good of you to share [partnership word] in my troubles. Moreover, as you Philippians know, in the early days of your acquaintance with the gospel, when I set out from Macedonia, not one church shared [partnership word] with me in the matter of giving and receiving, except you only …
Philippians 4:14-16
We encourage all our members to think about financial partnerships in and beyond their local church. Sue and I give to two of the Trinity Churches and partner financially with the Church Missionary Society (CMS), Australia Fellowship of Evangelical Students (AFES), The Gospel Coalition of Australia (TGCA), Reach Australia and the Bible College of SA. I know many of you give generously to gospel work beyond your local church.
For a number of years, Sue and I, along with a number of individuals around the Network, have also financially ‘partnered’ with the Trinity Network by giving to the Trinity Network Growth Fund to help support the missional aspirations of the Network to take the gospel to our city and state, especially through church planting. Each of our churches sets aside 10% of their finances for Network support and initiatives, but this doesn’t cover the current expenses, let alone some of the future plans.
We are keen to grow the number of Network Gospel Partners. The areas we are currently trying to raise funds for include:
If you would like to see more detailed information, please email info@trinity.network.
Are you in a position to consider partnering with the Network financially as we seek to raise the $440k for 2025? If you are, details of how to do this can be found here.
2. Partnering with purpose
As a Network, our desire is to be unified by the gospel of God’s grace and mercy. Our purpose is to glorify His name. We want to do that by partnering together to see the gospel proclaimed and many people come to know the saving grace of Jesus. The context we are in – Adelaide and South Australia – is gospel poor. So, as a Network, we want to keep striving together to grow healthy churches that make disciples and continue to plant other healthy churches to take the gospel to the lost. Keep praying God goes before us and enables us to love, serve and honour Him.