What’s your role as the stakeholder for El Shaddai Christian Church?
As the stakeholder for El Shaddai, I have the opportunity to create strategic partnership opportunities with Fellowship and the larger Nashville community to further the mission of El Shaddai Christian Church. Those partnerships range from recruiting volunteers at Fellowship to collaborating with non-profit organizations throughout Nashville that share a common goal.
How long have you been at Fellowship? What has your experience been like at Fellowship?
Since the spring of 2015. I met a few Fellowship staff members while attending IF: Gathering and they encouraged me to check out the young adult ministry, Inversion. It proved to be the perfect place to build intentional and authentic community, which ultimately encouraged me to invest more in the church at large. It wasn’t long before I joined the core team for the Fellowship Nashville campus, where I attend today.
What is your day job?
I am a development planning manager for a real estate development company. We seek opportunities in middle Tennessee and beyond to provide unique living environments where people can have a sense of belonging and build connections with their neighbors. My role in that is working with municipalities and engineers to develop those communities. Immediately after becoming the stakeholder for El Shaddai, I was informed of their need to renovate a historic building that previous flooded in 2010, which was another affirmation from God of my call to serve this particular ministry.
Why El Shaddai? What makes this partnership matter for Fellowship?
In middle school, I started studying Spanish and since then God has continuously put me in places where language bridges are needed. It’s been really beautiful to see Him use my small language skills in big ways for His glory! Through all of it, I’ve come to love many people and cultures from Latin America. Maybe you don’t speak Spanish or you don’t have an infinity for cultural exchanges, but I think our partnership with El Shaddai allows members of Fellowship a unique opportunity to directly engage with people of different backgrounds in a way that most of us don’t interface with on a daily basis. Working with El Shaddai always reminds me of how great our God is! I get to partner with people from a different culture, who speak a different language and have different personal backgrounds, yet we still serve the same God. It’s a humbling reflection of the body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:12-26) in that we are all so essential to building the Kingdom of God—a group of people from different backgrounds, communities, and skills coming together to glorify God.
What are your goals as stakeholder?
My primary goal as the stakeholder is sharing the mission and values of El Shaddai with others because I believe there are great initiatives we’re curating that the larger community is not aware of. The more people that become aware, the more successful we’ll be in pairing resources to needs. Fellowship is a leading example of cultivating a partnership with El Shaddai. Now, there are a wealth of needs and service opportunities that have grown from their partnership, but to this end “the harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few” (Matthew 9:37). It’s common to think a few staff members and a stakeholder can hold down the fort, but given a full-time job, family, friends, and personal sustainability, I think we can all use more advocates to help strengthen the partnership in advancing the mission of El Shaddai.
What are some current ways to serve?
In its simplest form, our mission at El Shaddai is: Haciendo discípulos para las naciones (making disciples for all nations), which is a mission every believer can get behind: The Great Commission. We’d like to hear from anyone with a willing heart because everyone has skills that can help further the great commission. In 2018, we plan to continue building upon our efforts from last year by serving at The Branch food pantry, children’s ministry, environmental sustainability initiative, playing soccer, or facilitating seminars about various skills and community resources. A new venture we’d love to see this year is young adults from both Fellowship and El Shaddai find ways to connect with each other in a fun and intentional way.
For more information about engaging in Fellowship’s partnership with El Shaddai, contact Ce Ce Wilkes ().
