Mercy Outreach Participates in a National Think Tank for Churches and Nonprofit Ministries

The Outreach team at Mercy Multiplied recently participated in a two-day Church/Nonprofit Think Tank – Kingdom Ecosystem Without Walls. Sixty leaders from fourteen states participated in the event held at Lifeway Christian Resources headquarters in Brentwood, Tennessee, and sponsored by Mission Increase, another Nashville nonprofit ministry with a global reach. Vice President for Church and Global Engagement at Mission Increase, Scott Harris, led the Think Tank sessions.

Topics discussed at the Think Tank were very relevant for the Mercy Outreach team, said Erin Gentry, Outreach Director of Operations. “We want to be a nonprofit ministry that churches feel supported by and not nagged by, and this is an area we have been working at for years,” Gentry commented. That’s why Mercy’s Outreach team includes a local pastor. Marshall Gallagher, Lead Pastor at Hope Community Church, serves as Mercy’s Church Strategy Advisor and helps the Outreach team support and communicate more effectively with churches.

“We want to be careful as a ministry that when we’re approaching pastors and church staff, they know we are supporting them,” Gentry said.

Gentry said Mercy offers resources many churches have found valuable, including the Keys to Freedom discipleship study and MPower training. “Churches often find out about us from other churches. It’s all relational, and we learned more about that at the Think Tank.”

One of the major topics discussed at the gathering was how to develop city networks made up of both churches and nonprofits. City networks foster collaboration and lessen competition tensions between organizations with similar visions. “We’re all the Body of Christ,” Gentry commented. “And the Think Tank gave this unified message that aligned a lot with what we want to see.”

Adelein Nichols is another member of the Outreach team at Mercy who attended the Think Tank. She was also encouraged by the city network model. “This Think Tank just really opened our eyes to how we can be resourcing specifically in the greater Nashville community. We are an international organization with many connections, and we resource people and organizations across the country and the globe. Still, our resources don’t necessarily significantly impact Nashville itself.”

Nichols commented that the Think Tank helped our team see new ways to network with other organizations and churches to make a more significant impact locally. She said the experience gave the team a “…new perspective on how churches use our resources and their value to other churches and organizations.”

Gentry agreed and said the Mercy Outreach team will apply the lessons learned moving forward. But the Think Tank also posed essential questions about collaboration for the Outreach team to consider, Gentry said. “Are we ready for more churches to engage with us? Do we have the handhold they need to understand what we do and how we can support them? And then do we have ways to communicate what we need and how they could support us?”

As the Mercy Outreach team reflects on their time at the Church/Nonprofit Think Tank, they are energized by new possibilities for collaboration and community impact.

Mission Increase equips donors, nonprofits, and churches to multiply their collective kingdom impact, so that more lives are transformed for Jesus Christ (Ephesians 4:11-16).

Mercy Multiplied exists to provide opportunities for all to experience God’s unconditional love, forgiveness, and life-transforming power. We offer multiple programs and resources online and onsite designed to help people live free and stay free in Christ.