Building Unity Between Coeur d’Alene Bible Church and Summit Christian Academy Communities through Leadership Engagement Groups

The Western church must model unity to its congregation and the local community as part of the battle against the growing cultural focus on individualism. The purpose of this action research project was to develop and build unity between Coeur d'Alene Bible Church (CBC) and Summit Christian Academy (SCA) by utilizing Leadership Engagement Groups (LEGs). LEGs consisted of individuals from the leadership team of each ministry, five from CBC and four from SCA. They met for five weeks to pray, examine biblical unity, and discuss how they can practically assist the other ministry in their ministry goals. Questionnaires, which measured the knowledge of the partner ministry, and surveys, which demonstrated the degree of unity experienced and desired, were utilized pre-project and post-project, along with direct observations of the interactions between CBC and SCA. The pre-project and post-project surveys were conducted and compared to determine if participation in a LEG impacted the participants' perception and practice of unity between the ministries. Control groups that did not participate in LEGs were utilized to compare the findings against those of the experimental group. The research findings demonstrate that utilizing LEGs in a ministry context benefits each ministry and leads to more significant interaction and integration. The project demonstrated that LEGs can be utilized between groups to grow unity and develop ministry partnerships.