Sharing the Opportunity: Why Watermark Health Launched the Collaborative Clinic Network

For more than thirteen years, and through multiple locations and service lines, we have been learning what it looks like to provide excellent, compassionate healthcare that honors the dignity of every patient and creates space for meaningful gospel conversations.

Those years have shaped not just our clinics, but our convictions. We’ve seen what sustains volunteers, what supports clinicians, and what keeps the gospel at the center of the care provided.

Over time, other churches began to reach out asking for coaching and help as they considered similar ministry opportunities. Rather than guarding what we had learned, Watermark Health leadership felt a growing responsibility to share the opportunity. Not because our model is perfect, but because God has been faithful to refine it. While we've helped a variety of clinics through casual consulting efforts, we always wondered if there was a more robust way to provide services to other churches, especially those that become barriers of entry for a new clinic. Our mission statement is rooted in deploying the local church, and we saw an opportunity to find more robust ways to do that.

Watermark Health Mission Statement: We exist to serve the community by awakening and empowering the local church to care for the physical healthcare needs and engage souls with the love and power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The Collaborative Clinic Network is our way of opening the door—inviting other churches to step into a ministry space we’ve seen bear fruit over time.

Why a Collaborative Clinic Network

Healthcare ministry can feel daunting. Regulatory complexity, clinical standards, and compliance requirements create real barriers for churches with willing hearts.

The Collaborative Clinic Network exists to lower those barriers by offering:

• A tested framework shaped by years of practice

• Ongoing clinical, operational, and spiritual support

• A collaborative community rather than isolated effort

  
  

The Watermark Health team during the final walkthrough with Westside Medical Staff

Collaborative Clinics build their own network of donors, volunteers, and healthcare professionals to deploy. Watermark Health provides clinical, operational, and spiritual support for an accessible fee. This collaborative effort allows both organizations to accomplish more together, rather than attempting to go upstream on their own. This is not a franchise or a template to copy and paste. It is a shared learning environment where churches are supported as they care for their own communities.

Over the years, we've seen the complexities of healthcare requirements slowing down the ministry impact of other churches or non-profits trying to enter this space. Our hope is that if we already have the structures and systems built to function as a ministry within healthcare that those structures and systems can lower the barrier of entry for other churches to be a part of a similar ministry impact. They can focus on caring for their community and discipling their members, not trying to navigate healthcare law. We've seen the amazing stories God writes through efforts like this- we hope that impact is multiplied throughout the Body of Christ everywhere. - Christy Chermak, WMH Executive Director

Collaboration allows churches to focus on ministry, not infrastructure. Healthcare creates relational trust. These conversations are not scripted or rushed. They emerge when patients feel seen and respected and care is excellent and accessible.

When Watermark Health completed ten years of ministry, the board and staff leadership spent time prayerfully considering where to focus efforts for the next ten years. The Lord directed that ten year goal towards continuing to do what we've done best- engage in conversations with Jesus with as many people as possible. The Collaborative Clinic Network is a way to continue pursuing that effort.

Healthcare creates relational trust. These conversations are not scripted or rushed. They emerge when patients feel seen and respected and care is excellent and accessible. By embedding clinics with churches and their local communities, holistic care is also provided. The Collaborative Clinic model will allow us to continue pursuing our ten year vision of multiplying this impact.

"Working with the Westside team has been a joy. It's been exciting to see God bring His church together in this way. We've already seen how working together has allowed us to move faster and smarter. On opening day, Westside won't be 'figuring it out'. They'll be set up according to thirteen years of experience, ready to serve their community. That's why we've created this model. Their staff won't be bogged down in creating forms or shopping vendors. We've already set them up with those resources so they can focus on the patient who walks in the doors." - Kimo Thorpe, Director of Clinical Services

As Westside Medical Clinic's launch date quickly approaches, we look forward to seeing who that first patient will be to receive this gospel centered care. Join us in praying for the ministry impact these six churches in Fort Worth will have, and for the next ministry partner to launch a clinic. Know a church or ministry that would be interested? Send them information about the Collaborative Clinic Network.