Growth Partnership Network
FAQs

How do I get involved in a Growth Partnership?  The best way to get involved in a growth partnership is to find a partner you would like to “team up” with.  These relationships often form in the context of Home Fellowship Groups or church social events.  Once you find your partner, please let Reyn Cabinte know at rcabinte@emmanuelnyc.org.  That way, we’ll be able to provide you with the resources and support you need, and we’ll be able to pray for your growth partnership.  If you  don’t have a partner in mind, please let us know of your interest, and we’ll try to match you up with someone else who has expressed interest.

Does my Growth Partner have to be someone I’m “really comfortable” with? No.  While it’s important to have some things in common, it is also great to find a partner who is a bit different from you (stage of life, career, interests, education, etc..), as this will provide the greatest opportunity for you both to challenge one another and to grow as you see the diversity of gifts and people God gives to his church.   One of the great benefits of the Growth Partnership Network is that it at once (1) convinces us that we are all “one in Christ”, and (2) teaches us that “love… does not seek its own.”

What if I don’t feel like I would be a “worthy” Growth Partner?  Any Christian, through the resources provided by the Holy Spirit, can help any other Christian grow.  Growth Partnerships, like every thing else we do in the kingdom of God, proceed and unfold by faith in the promises of God.

His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness.  4 Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. (2 Peter 1)

Is the Growth Partnership Network “the answer” to our need to build one another up?  It is not necessarily an improvement on accountability relationships that some of us may already enjoy, although we hope the materials and resources we provide will help them.  Nor is it a substitute for our Home Fellowship Groups, where a different and necessary group dynamic occurs.  Nor does it hold out a guarantee that everyone who elects to be part of it will find in every connection the high quality fellowship that he or she is looking for.   It is rather a modest effort to point us all (not just some of us) in a healthy direction and to help us to help each other by providing a structure that will enable us connect purposefully.

Are all growth partnerships the same?  No.  This is so, generally speaking, because no two friendships are the same (people are gloriously unique).  Amidst all the variety we distinguish at Emmanuel between two types of GPs: "Accountability Partnerships" and  "Discipling Partnerships".  Accountability GP's are made up of people in the same stage of spiritual development, and often the same season of life.  Discipling GPs are made up of people in different seasons of spiritual development—one more experienced than the other.  Our hope and goal is that anyone who chooses to be part of our GP Network will have at least two relationships—one Accountability and at least one Discipling  relationship. 

What happens if the "chemistry" is bad?  GPs are voluntary relationships, so you can end them when you want.  We need, of course, to understand that chemistry is never perfect, and that one of the challenges and benefits of friendship is learning how to love someone you might not ordinarily choose to befriend.  Often these are the most rewarding relationships and the ones in which we learn the most what it means to “not seek [our] own” (1 Cor. 13:5).  If, after a good and honest effort, you choose to discontinue the GP, please let the Growth Partnership Administrator know.