There is an African Proverb that says, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” Stadia has seen first-hand that the best way to solve complex challenges, create momentum for your organization, and even scaling is found in partnerships. The secret that no one talks about, is that partnership benefits everyone.

Stadia Church Planting started in California in 2003 when a group of pastors wanted to collaborate to help start new churches in other parts of the United States. With the help of trusted partners, Stadia began starting new churches across the United States! It was in 2009 that Stadia developed a partnership with Compassion International to begin starting new churches in Latin America and sponsoring children. After over a decade of partnership with Compassion, nearly 200 new churches have been started in Latin America and over 50,000 kids have been sponsored.  

Due to collaboration, our vision has expanded and our mission has grown and evolved. Stadia’s mantra is “We won’t stop until every child has a church”, and we can’t accomplish this vision without current and future partners.

In 2019 Stadia was at a crossroads. We were starting around 40 churches a year in the U.S, and our partnership with Compassion was not only growing but thriving. At the time, Stadia maintained a handful of domestic and international partnerships, but none were formalized. The question was asked: “How do we start more and better churches?”

Since that time, Stadia has made many shifts as an organization, (including giving our services away for free!) but one of these impactful shifts has been expanding our partnerships (now over two dozen partnerships in seventeen different countries!) in order to start more and better churches. Expanding our partnerships is important not just to start more churches, but because we need to continually learn from others and remember everyone benefits from collaboration and partnership. 

Stadia now has 25 domestic Multiplication Partners including:

• Christian & Missionary Alliance Metro District
• Christian Alliance of Pastors
• Evangelical Covenant Church
• Multiply Vineyard
• New Thing
• Ethnos Network
• Houston Church Planting Network (HCPN)
• We Start Churches

We also have 7 International Partners including:

• Compassion
• Missions of Hope International
• ACS (Asia Christian Services)
• Timothy Initiative
• Enhance

Here are a few lessons we’ve learned about why partnership is vital:

• Innovation occurs
• Stretching makes you both stronger
• You become better communicators
• Knowledge and resources are available
• Your posture is that of a learner
• Surrounded by great leaders who make an impact
• 360 feedback
• Staff alignment

The list could go on and on. At times, partnership is difficult and takes work to maintain. But the same could be said about anything good in life. Partnership is worth it.

Questions to Consider.

• What keeps you from having future partners?
• What values must you share to have a successful partnership?
• What expectations need to be communicated sooner rather than later?
• How will you deal with conflict in your partnership?
• How do you foster collaboration and honest feedback during this partnership?