Judy, a dark-haired waitress at Grady's Restaurant, came to the table without her obligatory smile. One member of the lunch group, Jaan Heinmets, said, "We are all followers of Christ and are about to ask God's blessing. Is there a blessing we can pray for you?"

"My husband left me this morning," Judy replied.

It was Judy's good fortune on this awful day to have waited on several leaders of The Net, a coalition of churches in Colorado Springs, Colo. The pastors all immediately prayed for God's peace for Judy, then lined up counseling and spiritual help from their different churches. They also left her an especially generous tip.

"That is what The Net does," says Jaan, a 32-year Campus Crusade for Christ staff member. "We respond to community needs and put the gospel in it."

Almost half the Protestant churches in the city have united in some way with The Net. But a unified response from the pastors of these 160 churches in Colorado Springs may not have happened a decade ago. Doctrinal, political and racial division among Christians made it impossible for the church to act as a body and provide answers for the burgeoning problems of a fast-growing city.

The tension first heightened in the summer of 1992 over a political issue raised by a Christian group. The group had proposed an amendment to the state constitution to prevent special rights for homosexuals. The issue made it onto the fall ballot. Pastors statewide took stands on either side of the issue and often ostracized those trying to remain neutral.

Within the city, friction among the churches escalated when the state built a highway from the Colorado Springs airport to the interstate. Many African-American pastors wanted to name the new road after Martin Luther King Jr., creating new fissures among the churches, some on either side of the matter, others not wanting to be involved at all.

In the midst of this division, evangelist Greg Laurie scheduled a crusade in Colorado Springs and lined up many of the leading churches to coordinate the event. The pastors asked Jaan to manage this coalition of the divided. He agreed.

At a wrap-up meeting for the group following the crusade, Rev. John Stevens of First Presbyterian Church stood and said, "I have really enjoyed working together. Finally, we are known for what we stand for, not for what we are against." The group wanted to keep this newfound unity and asked Jaan to continue in his role of corralling the Christians.

After the pastors fasted and prayed for 40 days, The Net was born. Their first question: "What can we accomplish together that we cannot accomplish alone?"

They answered that question with three cornerstone principles and ambitions: to present the gospel to everyone in the Pikes Peak region, to pray for everyone there and to help eradicate the social ills of the community—three God-sized tasks.

	Life Blood | Jaan invests considerable time cultivating relationships with—and among—pastors like John Stevens (above, at left).

As a first step toward offering the gospel to everyone in El Paso County, pastors with The Net organized teams from their churches to give JESUS videos to county residents. Since then, The Net has helped sponsor annual events like Jesus Marches and Easter sunrise services.

To address their second goal of praying for everyone, they literally divided up the El Paso County telephone directory. Participating churches were assigned pages according to their size. The congregations agreed to pray for everyone in the book every week. In another prayer strategy, Christians prayed for every police officer and their families. They named this program Shield to Shield.

Everyone knew that the third goal of the coalition, helping to eradicate the social ills of the county, would be, to say the least, tricky. But opportunities came their way—whether they wanted them or not. Soon a new entity, Faith Partners, emerged from The Net.

The seed for Faith Partners germinated when former President Clinton signed The Personal Responsibility and Work Reconciliation Act of 1996. The law mandated a two-year limit on public assistance. This raised fear among many church leaders that the government would dump welfare recipients on them after they exhausted their government benefits.

"We invited [someone from the El Paso County Department of Human Services] to speak to The Net," says Jackie Jaramillo, who directs Faith Partners. "We intended to grill him, but he turned the tables on us. He said, 'You have what these people need. You can give them hope. The government cannot.'"

For five years, Faith Partners has consistently delivered that hope. In 2001, Colorado governor Bill Owens even proclaimed September 21 to be "Faith Partners Day." But Faith Partners is not one day; it is every day—rescuing those trapped in generational poverty like an endless game of musical chairs where some people never find a seat.

Faith Partners builds a bridge between The Net and the Department of Human Services, connecting trained mentors from local churches to families in trouble. The mentors help their adopted families for one year, walking them from public support to successful living. They do it in the name of Jesus. And, because of the new law, the government pays for it.

Life Lines | Faith Partners helped single moms like Consuella Gilliard (above at left, with Laurie Gomez).

Consuella Gilliard desperately needed help. Poverty and the pressures of raising five children under the age of 8, with another due soon, milled her low. At 29, her hair fell out and she could only heave herself out of bed long enough to feed her children. She called the Department of Human Services and tried to put her kids up for adoption. "They came to look at us," says Consuella, "but they didn't take them."

She even tried calling the Child Abuse Hotline to anonymously report the children as neglected. That didn't work either, but during the assessment process for getting public assistance, she was connected to Faith Partners.

At the end of her yearlong mentoring, Consuella has a full head of hair, all of her children, and a GED diploma. She is now enrolled in a two-year nursing program. "God used Faith Partners," says Consuella, "to help me trust again."

But even with Faith Partners' amazing success stories, it might never be accepted as an outreach by some churches, even some of those within The Net. "I know some of The Net churches aren't interested in what we do," says Jackie Jaramillo, "but because they trust Jaan, The Net supports us."

And The Net accomplishes what a single church could not do alone. For example, after the Columbine shootings in 1999, The Net asked New Life Church, a large charismatic church and member of The Net, to print prayer guides for local churches. The Net distributed them and the city churches gladly used them.

"If those guides had come from New Life Church," says Rev. John Stevens, "some churches would not have accepted them. But since they came from The Net, everyone did."

Despite the success of The Net, this is not a single-minded group. "There is virtually nothing we do that all the pastors are on board with," says Rev. Steve Brooks, a founding member of The Net and pastor at Springs Community Church. "If they catch it, they are on board. If not, that's OK."

The point is not for the pastors to achieve agreement. The point, Pastor Brooks explains, is much broader. "We really do believe we are one church," he says, "working from many locations."