Mt. Airy Baptist Church, Easley, and a new church plant near Cleveland, Ohio, signed a partnership covenant during a worship service on Sept. 21.

The signing was a culmination of months of prayer and planning and began with a vision trip Mt. Airy staff members took through the South Carolina Baptist Convention in the spring.

South Carolina teams have been sent through the SCBC to the Cleveland area since 2012, and the convention started a partnership with Ohio in 2010. According to Tim Rice, SCBC missions mobilization director, vision trips provide the opportunity for churches seeking partnerships to meet church planters and experience new ministries happening in other places.

“Vision tours give churches the chance to hear needs and pray over where God is leading them,” Rice said. “We help connect pastors and church planters with vision teams to show them the local community and church, and then they pray after the vision tour about which church they feel led to work with. I am excited to see the progress of a church like Mt. Airy that has taken a vision tour, then gone on to form a partnership.”

Mt. Airy is a missions-minded church. Its members have embraced partnerships with churches in several states across the country, as well as in Costa Rica and Uganda. Ron Taffer, pastor of discipleship and missions, said a group from his church responded to an SCBC vision-team invitation earlier this year in order to continue the church’s vision to be an Acts 1:8 church. During a two-day trip in March, the team toured areas of the city, met several church planters and listened as each shared their individual visions for ministry.

“In Cleveland, we saw a city with abandoned church buildings and a homeless community in need of ministry, and we felt the overall sense of lostness,” said Taffer. “[Church planter] Tony Loseto met us at the airport and took us on a tour of the Old Brooklyn community. Our team felt an immediate connection with Tony as he shared his vision to plant a church there.”

Loseto was born and raised in Cleveland, the child of Italian immigrants. He became a believer at the age of 10 when an uncle shared the gospel with him. After graduating from college in Kentucky, Loseto and his wife, Beth, committed to church planting and felt the call back to Cleveland in 2013.

Through their connection with Gateway Church in Cleveland and an apprenticeship with the North American Mission Board, the Losetos began the groundwork for a church plant in the Old Brooklyn community outside of Cleveland. They launched a Bible study group in their home last January, which now has 20 people attending regularly. Gateway Church Old Brooklyn will officially launch with services later this year.

How does a partnership begin?

Following the vision trip in March, Mt. Airy Church members began praying and continued to learn more about the Losetos and their ministry in Ohio. The two communicated through Jeff Callaway, a NAMB Send city coordinator for the Cleveland area, who helped them figure out elements of what a partnership might include. The Losetos visited the church in June to share their ministry vision and to get to know the heart of Mt. Airy Church as well.

“The fruit of the gospel is evident at Mt. Airy,” said Loseto. “They have a love for one another, for other people, and for the Lord. We wanted to know Mt. Airy’s vision, too. Their leadership team understands that they aren’t going to plant ‘Mt. Airy Cleveland,’ and that understanding makes it a joy to partner with them.”

“The more time we spent with Tony and Beth, the clearer it became that our visions and hearts were in one accord,” Taffer said. “Mt. Airy sent another team back to minister alongside Tony. We saw him in action, and we got to know his core group. This was another confirmation, to work with him in the field and see how the people of Cleveland welcomed him.”

Mt. Airy member Charles Lane went on the church’s second trip in June because he is interested in missions and church planting. He said the team helped Loseto make contacts in the community and distribute fliers about upcoming church events, and team members spent time with locals during a game night at a library. The experience caused Lane, a five-year member of Mt. Airy Church, to come away with a different perspective on his life back home.

“Living where we live, there are a lot of churches, and we assume people are okay. After going to Old Brooklyn, I realized the depth and breadth of lostness,” Lane said. “Several people we spoke to had never heard the gospel, and many didn’t believe it. I realized I needed to go back home with the same set of new eyes that I had while there, looking for people who don’t know Christ.”

What does a partnership involve? 

The covenant agreement Mt. Airy Church and Gateway Church in Old Brooklyn signed outlined commitments both sides have made for the roughly three-year formal partnership. Those commitments include financial and prayer support, leadership coaching, and sending and hosting mission teams.

“It’s neat for longstanding churches to partner with church plants because it gives them the chance to ‘lay down their lives’ and give resources, and church plants are an outlet for those needs,” Loseto said. “We can help with discipleship as well, and we want to serve them as much as they are serving us. The blessing goes both ways.”

For his part, Taffer said Mt. Airy’s members look forward to building a closer relationship with the Losetos in coming years. “We are investing in the lives of Tony and Beth and are making this a personal partnership. When they think of Mt. Airy, we hope they won’t think about a church in South Carolina but of brothers and sisters in Christ on this journey.”

Why should existing churches partner with church plants?

According to Taffer, when it comes to partnership, churches don’t have a choice. “Churches are called to be an Acts 1:8 church,” he said. “We need to do more than occasionally send a team and give financially. I believe a church that is planted in the kingdom will benefit greatly when there is a partnership and a desire from both to change lives through the gospel.”

Loseto linked church partnerships and the Great Commission, Jesus’ command to make disciples of all people. “The local church is how that happens best, and discipleship involves planting churches,” he said. “Partnership is a way for longstanding churches not to become stagnant but to be a part of Jesus’ mission of reaching people who are in need of the Good Shepherd. It’s an opportunity for an existing church to grow spiritually in a way that they couldn’t if they just stayed put.”

There are a lot of uncertainties when churches enter partnerships, but Taffer urges existing churches to “just go.” “Go! Who will be next? Partnership is a step of obedience.”

The 2014 Janie Chapman State Missions video features a segment on Cleveland, which can be accessed through the Woman’s Missionary Union website at www.scwmu.org. For online information about vision teams and partnership opportunities, go to www.scbaptist.org/missions or contact Rice directly at 803-765-0030.