OUR HISTORY

“For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.” – Habakkuk 2:14

Habakkuk 2:14, that’s what we’ve been working towards since e3 Partners began in 1987; filling the earth with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord. It started with a vision God placed on the heart of Mike Downey to help nationals plant churches, and over the last few decades, God has used this ministry to do just that. He’s guided us through challenges and growth, and through it all, the vision has stayed the same. e3 Partners remains focused on helping nationals plant healthy, multiplying, transformative churches all across the world, and we will continue to do so until there is a local church accessible to every person, everywhere.

The Early Years

In 1985, Mike Downey led a group from his church in Oklahoma to Mexico for a mission trip. While there, they saw over 100 people accept Christ into their lives, and when they returned the next year, a church had been planted! Mike called it, “accidental church planting.” He was moved by the passion of these Mexican believers, and as he returned from that second trip, God gave him a vision. He founded Global Missions Fellowship (GMF) with the intent to serve nationals and plant churches in Mexico (on purpose), and it wasn’t long before God expanded that vision further.

In 1990, the collapse of the Soviet Union opened doors that allowed GMF to expand into Eastern Europe, and four years after that, we expanded to Africa as well.

In 1996, God expanded our vision to the entire world, and GMF began taking trips to areas within the 10/40 window.

Over the next two years, God revealed to us the concept of church planting movements (CPMs), which we began incorporating into our short-term trips strategy. There then became a clear need for some scalable evangelism and discipleship tools, which led to the development of the EvangeCube.

The EvangeCube provided our trip participants and national partners with a simple, easily comprehendible way of sharing the gospel. We began using it on all of our trips, and we’d train those who came to accept Christ on how to use it as well, encouraging them to go share the Good News with others.

The 2000s

In 2002, God revealed to us another idea that we refer to as “initiatives”. Essentially, the idea was to combine the evangelistic aspects of our short-term trips with an aid/relief aspect as well.

Medical church planting was our first initiative.

We began taking these types of trips to areas that were severely lacking in accessible medical care, and God used our medical service to open doors to countless families and individuals who had not yet heard the gospel. It was amazing to see how God could use the medical expertise and service of our teams to ultimately lead people to Him.

In 2006, we became e3 Partners Ministry.

Equip God’s people, evangelize His world, establish His church. Those are the three “e’s”, perfectly aligned with the original vision God gave Mike Downey in 1987.

Two years later, the I Am Second brand launched in Dallas, TX, focused on reaching people with powerful Gospel-centered stories through the ever-growing presence of digital media. It quickly became a national brand, and has now grown internationally as well, allowing us to spread the gospel to many people and places we may not be able to get to physically.

That same year, e3 Partners started its “Orality” initiative in Ethiopia. Many communities across Ethiopia speak languages that the Bible has not been translated into yet. The orality initiative focuses on developing strategies and scripts to share the gospel and other Biblical stories with these people through oral storytelling.

By the end of 2008, e3 was taking trips to dozens of countries around the world, and we’d organized the ministry into regional and country teams.

Recent Years

In 2014, we added a more focused training element to the ministry. Training new believers and Christian leaders had always been a part of what we did on our trips, but now there was an added emphasis on training outside of our church planting trips as well. Both domestically and internationally, through one on one meetings, discipleship groups, church gatherings, and other opportunities, we began training new believers how to share their testimonies and the gospel, and training more mature believers on how to disciple others and plant churches.

Then, in 2017, through God’s guidance we employed an integrated Four Fields strategy locally and globally to create something we call the “Great Commission Pipeline”.

The Great Commission Pipeline connects our trips, trainings, international workers, national partners and church partnerships all together to increase the effectiveness and speed at which we reach people far from God.

Looking back on the last 30+ years, it’s amazing to see how God has been at work the whole time. The expansion of our vision from Mexico to the whole world, the addition of initiatives and scalable evangelism tools like the EvangeCube, and now 3-Circles, the added training element, the 4 Fields strategy, the Great Commission Pipeline, it’s all been from God. He’s led this ministry the whole time and has allowed us to do some amazing work for His Kingdom.

In recent years, through our 4 Fields strategy and the implementation of the Great Commission Pipeline, we’ve seen the Gospel reach further and spread faster than ever before. We truly live in an unprecedented time in history. God is moving all across the world.

Come join us as we work to make Habakkuk 2:14 a reality!

Coopers On A Mission

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Organized by Troy Cooper

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We are the Cooper family: Troy, Rachel, Mayah (16), Malachi (15), Isaiah (13), Tessa (11), Lucy (9), Ezra (5) & Lazarus (3 ) – a family who exists to make Jesus’ Name great among the nations. While we serve and train in various parts of the world, we are living on mission among the 93% unchurched communities of Southern California.

We equip local believers to take responsibility for the core missionary task — to make disciples & plant churches (Acts 13-14) — among every people and every place. We are currently laboring locally & globally towards the following benchmarks:

California: 500 new churches by 2022
North America, Europe & Australia: missionary teams in the top 10 cities by 2023
Global Cities: missionary teams in the top 100 cities by 2025

Troy serves as the VP of Global City Strategy & Rachel serves as a Church Planting Mobilizer for e3 Partners/ I Am Second, who has a vision to establish 1 million healthy churches globally by 2025. We are also part of the global #NoPlaceLeft Coalition of church planters, using the Four Fields strategy.

More Info: Support Our Ministry | Get Equipped

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Ministry Updates: You can view photos and read regular updates by viewing our Epistle page and liking our Facebook Page.

Prayer/Support Card: If you would like to receive our prayer card for your fridge or Bible, contact us at CoopersOnAMission@Gmail.com

CONTACT INFO
Troy & Rachel Cooper
3571 Marna Ave
Long Beach, CA 90808
CoopersOnAMission.com
CoopersOnAMission@Gmail.com

Our Ministry Team Leader:
Jeff Sundell
Executive Vice President of Strategy, e3 Partners / I Am Second
1969alfs@Gmail.com

Our Missions Organization:
e3 Partners / I Am Second
2001 W Plano Parkway, Suite 2600
Plano, TX 75075
e3partners.org | 214.440.1101

Our Local SoCal Church Ministry Base:
Bridges Church
3435 San Anseline Ave. Long Beach, CA 90808
BridgesChurch.org | 562.429.4146
Pastor Jeff Timblin | Jeff.Timblin@e3partners.org

Our Home Sending Church:
Onward Church Network
PO Box 681 Fishers, IN 46038
OnwardChurch.org | 317.513.0227
Pastor Gary Stump | Gary@GaryStump.org

There are no updates at this time.

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