Go to http://goo.gl/6UjZJ to download a free PDF of Phill Butler’s partnership handbook, “Well Connected: Releasing Power, Restoring Hope Through Kingdom Partnerships.”
Filed under: Uncategorized on October 21st, 2011 | No Comments »
The Hi Kidz website presents an exciting opportunity for a children’s Internet site and represents the collaborative work of Christian ministries to reach today’s generation in a relevant and engaging way. The site was initially developed in French by the Swiss children’s ministry, Grain de Blé. In the UK, the English version has become a collaboration of fourteen organizations, including Agape, Crusaders, Scripture Union, the International Bible Society and Viva Network. Read the Article
Filed under: collaboration, education, evangelism, Internet evangelism, partnerships on October 21st, 2011 | No Comments »
The Forum of Bible Agencies International exists to promote collaboration and cooperation amongst Bible agencies with a shared vision to maximize the access and impact of God’s word. In addition to working together on other key initiatives, the Forum has launched Find A Bible, an innovative and interactive website that gives easy access to 15,000 Scripture products in more than 3,000 languages. Read the Article
Filed under: collaboration, evangelism, Global collaboration, online collaboration spaces on October 21st, 2011 | No Comments »
When it comes to sharing the gospel of Christ with many people at one time–casting the proverbial large net–Christians eagerly use the tools of their day. Paul preached from Mars Hill. Luther churned out printed Bibles. Huge crowds in the 18th century were drawn to Gospel tents. More recently, we have seen stadium gatherings. As Global Media Outreach Chairman Walt Wilson says, “The Internet is the funnel to put new believers into the church.” Read the Article
Filed under: collaboration, evangelism, Global collaboration, Internet, Internet evangelism, media outreach, networking on October 21st, 2011 | No Comments »
The New York City Leadership Center seeks to impact the spiritual and social climate of an urban center. They report successful collaborations like these:
Filed under: collaboration, community development, Large churches, networking on July 29th, 2011 | No Comments »
This article by Nicky Chong and Soak Wan Leong of Wycliffe Bible Translators Singapore illustrates how working together can accomplish more than working alone. Fifteen mission agencies in the Fellowship of Missional Organisations of Singapore (FOMOS) have joined together in a translation and distribution effort.
Filed under: collaboration, Global collaboration, networking, partnerships on July 29th, 2011 | No Comments »
By David Hackett, visionSynergy
Lausanne has released the new Cape Town Commitment coming out of the Cape Town 2010 Congress. Of special interest to the partnership Movement are the sections in this new Commitment that describe the call to partnership and collaboration in the body of Christ.
The full document of the Cape Town Commitment is available online at http://www.lausanne.org/ctcommitment.
The sections referring to partnership are:
Part I, Section 9 A:
Love calls for Unity. Jesus’ command that his disciples should love one another is linked to his prayer that they should be one. Both the command and the prayer are missional - ‘that the world may know you are my disciples’, and that ‘the world may know that you [the Father] sent me’.[50] A most powerfully convincing mark of the truth of the gospel is when Christian believers are united in love across the barriers of the world’s inveterate divisions – barriers of race, colour, gender, social class, economic privilege or political alignment. However, few things so destroy our testimony as when Christians mirror and amplify the very same divisions among themselves. We urgently seek a new global partnership within the body of Christ across all continents, rooted in profound mutual love, mutual submission, and dramatic economic sharing without paternalism or unhealthy dependency. And we seek this not only as a demonstration of our unity in the gospel, but also for the sake of the name of Christ and the mission of God in all the world.
Section VI
VI. Partnering in the body of Christ for unity in mission
Paul teaches us that Christian unity is the creation of God, based on our reconciliation with God and with one another. This double reconciliation has been accomplished through the cross. When we live in unity and work in partnership we demonstrate the supernatural, counter-cultural power of the cross. But when we demonstrate our disunity through failure to partner together, we demean our mission and message, and deny the power of the cross.
1. Unity in the Church
A divided Church has no message for a divided world. Our failure to live in reconciled unity is a major obstacle to authenticity and effectiveness in mission.
A) We lament the dividedness and divisiveness of our churches and organizations. We deeply and urgently long for Christians to cultivate a spirit of grace and to be obedient to Paul’s command to ‘make every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.’
B) While we recognize that our deepest unity is spiritual, we long for greater recognition of the missional power of visible, practical, earthly unity. So we urge Christian sisters and brothers worldwide, for the sake of our common witness and mission, to resist the temptation to split the body of Christ, and to seek the paths of reconciliation and restored unity wherever possible.
2. Partnership in global mission
Partnership in mission is not only about efficiency. It is the strategic and practical outworking of our shared submission to Jesus Christ as Lord. Too often we have engaged in mission in ways that prioritize and preserve our own identities (ethnic, denominational, theological, etc), and have failed to submit our passions and preferences to our one Lord and Master. The supremacy and centrality of Christ in our mission must be more than a confession of faith; it must also govern our strategy, practice and unity.
We rejoice in the growth and strength of emerging mission movements in the majority world and the ending of the old pattern of ‘from the West to the Rest’. But we do not accept the idea that the baton of mission responsibility has passed from one part of the world Church to another. There is no sense in rejecting the past triumphalism of the West, only to relocate the same ungodly spirit in Asia, Africa, or Latin America. No one ethnic group, nation, or continent can claim the exclusive privilege of being the ones to complete the Great Commission. Only God is sovereign.
A) We stand together as church and mission leaders in all parts of the world, called to recognize and accept one another, with equality of opportunities to contribute together to world mission. Let us, in submission to Christ, lay aside suspicion, competition and pride and be willing to learn from those whom God is using, even when they are not from our continent, nor of our particular theology, nor of our organization, nor of our circle of friends.
B) Partnership is about more than money, and unwise injection of money frequently corrupts and divides the Church. Let us finally prove that the Church does not operate on the principle that those who have the most money have all the decision-making power. Let us no longer impose our own preferred names, slogans, programmes, systems and methods on other parts of the Church. Let us instead work for true mutuality of North and South, East and West, for interdependence in giving and receiving, for the respect and dignity that characterizes genuine friends and true partners in mission.
Filed under: Africa, Cape Town Commitment, collaboration, evangelism, partnerships on February 28th, 2011 | No Comments »
By visionSynergy Staff
Immediately after a network or partnership has held its formation meeting, the tendency is to allow energy to drop off for weeks, even months.
Yet these are critical times for the facilitator or facilitation team to follow through on activities that will help the partnership move forward with health.
Here are six facilitator activities to work on following a formation meeting.
Step 1. Rest & Recreation (i.e. Re-Creation!)
Why is it important for the facilitator to get some rest after the meeting?
The facilitator should not neglect this. Often we go from one meeting to the next, without giving ourselves the time to recover — and the result is that we may not perform in the most effective way!
Step 2. Coordinate Writing-up the Report/Minutes of the Formation Meeting
If the partnership has asked for a report of the partnership meeting to be circulated to the partner members, the facilitator will need to ensure that a report is written. He/she may do this him/herself of may ask someone else or a team to write the report.
Sometimes a partnership may decide they do not want a written report of the meeting, perhaps because of a sensitive security issue. If this is the case, the facilitator may still want to write up some notes — to have a written record of the meeting for future reference. However, make sure that it is clearly noted that this is a private report — and that it shouldn’t be passed along to anyone else.
Good reports will include the following items from the meeting in the Report/Minutes of the meeting:
If it was agreed to circulate a report, the facilitator may write the report for circulation — and add a supplementary report with an evaluation of the meeting, which the facilitator would want to keep confidential! Sometimes, since the report may include sensitive material, it may not be circulated in writing for security reasons, as above.
If someone else is writing the official Report/Minutes, the facilitator will want to follow-up with them and try to encourage them to get it finished as soon as possible. (It can also be helpful for the facilitator to ask to see the official Report/Minutes in draft before it goes out – because there may be sensitive issues, which shouldn’t be circulated to the whole world!) We recommend that the report is distributed no longer than a month following the formation meeting – sooner is even better.
Step 3. Communication and Relationship Building
The facilitator will want to develop relationships with three groups of people:
A. The Attendees: The first group is the partners who attended the meeting. Be aware that in certain cultures and ministries the person who represented a partner at the meeting may not necessarily be the head of the partner organization or church. The facilitator will be working on building relationships with these people in a variety of ways. For people who live close to the facilitator, visits are very helpful. However, for people who live further away, then the facilitator will want to use the telephone and e-mail.
As you build relationships be aware of the varying ways relationships are built via online contact and e-mail, telephone, and face-to-face. In communicating with partner members – don’t just rely on e-mail. Voice communication (telephone and web-based telephone) can have definite advantages. There are times when talking to someone provides the clearer communication; sometimes the cost of not talking to the person far outweighs the longer time it takes to make a call.
B. The Non-Attendees: However the facilitator won’t just be building relationships with those who were at the meeting. The second group of people with whom the facilitator will be building relationships are those who the facilitator may have met with earlier but who didn’t come to the Partnership Meeting. The facilitator, in these first steps in the partnership, communicates with those who didn’t come to the meeting to continue to try to build relationships with them and to try to get them involved in the partnership.
Therefore, the facilitator can go and see them or call them – and tell them about the meeting and encourage them to think about coming to the next meeting – and make it as easy as possible for them to come!
C. The New Potentials: And the third group of people are those whom the facilitator didn’t even know about when the meeting was called – people discovered in the course of conversations at the formation meeting, for example. At the meeting, or subsequent to it, the facilitator may learn of others who are either involved or who may want to be involved in ministry among the people. The facilitator is positioned to start to get them involved in the partnership by building relationships with them.
The more communication provided to the partnership, the more the partners will feel that they are part of something beyond their own organization. The facilitator may want to make an occasional e-mail report to the whole partnership – perhaps giving them a report on the progress of the Focus Groups. General communications to everyone are beneficial – don’t forget personal communication to individuals – a personal e-mail, a telephone call – and even face-to-face meetings wherever possible. This is not just at the start of the Partnership but throughout its life. Good communication will make a partnership grow! As one Indian leader commented, ”Put decisions down in writing and share them with all the partners.”
Step 4. Working with the Focus Groups
The facilitator will want to try to avoid getting too deeply involved in any of the Focus Groups. If he or she does, an inordinate amount of the work of the group may be asked of them. The purpose of these groups is to get as many members of the partnership actively involved in some aspect of the partnership.
However, the facilitator does have some role to play in the Focus Groups – mainly in supporting the leaders (or facilitators) of the focus groups.
If the facilitator is regularly communicating with the Focus Groups leaders, asking them how the work of the Group is progressing, it can actually encourage the process to be going on throughout the year. This is much more effective in getting satisfying and effective outcomes from the Focus Groups.
Step 5. Identifying Resources
How might partnerships use resources, particularly funding?
Funds aren’t the only resource that can be used to great benefit. People’s time and skills are resources, too, that can be leveraged for the development of the partnership. The facilitator can identify those persons who can be used to help the partnership achieve its goals.
The facilitator is likely to be drawn into the task of identifying resources because:
Step 6. Developing the Facilitation Team
If a facilitation team has been selected, elected or appointed, certain elements will help the team work effectively. Some best practices:
Consider the example of one facilitation team, located in different parts of the world. This high-performance team meets at least every six months and also holds a conference call once a month. Another facilitation team never meets between meetings or talks together on the telephone between partnership meetings. The correlation is clear: More communication yields better partnerships!
Filed under: collaboration, Facilitation, Formation, Global collaboration, networking, online collaboration spaces, partnerships, skills of collaboration, teambuilding on February 28th, 2011 | No Comments »
By Lucas King, visionSynergy
Do you know the “Iron Chef” TV show? This was a show that originally launched in Japan in the early 90′s and then had spin-offs in the U.S., U.K., Australia, and Israel. In the show, there are master chefs in an outlandish “kitchen stadium” who compete to quickly create entire multi-course meals around a single theme ingredient, which is revealed to the chefs at the opening of the show. They make some pretty crazy dishes. I want to use this illustration to explain one of the distinctives about the model of collaborative partnership we encourage in our training.
There are many different forms a partnership can take depending on its size, scope, setting, and structure. Likewise, there are many good models or approaches to partnership in general. I believe that most of the models of partnership you will find are what I call “ingredients-oriented” approaches. The model visionSynergy encourages is a “process-oriented” approach. An “ingredients-oriented” model will focus on the different qualities, characteristics, or dimensions of healthy and effective partnerships – things like openness, mutuality, accountability, cultural sensitivity, and so on. But a “process-oriented” model is more focused on the step-by-step – the actual processes and best practices of developing an effective partnership.
It’s kind of like the difference between a nutritionist (or dietitian) and a chef. Hence, my illustration. You see, a nutritionist can give you all the ingredients for a healthy and balanced diet, but do they show you how to cook it? No. That’s what a chef does. A chef understands the process of making a meal. So our goal in training is to help others become the “Iron Chefs” of partnership. No matter what their mystery ingredient may be, we want them to have the skills to be able to cook it up into something wonderful.
Now, obviously this is a generalization. Other models of partnership do, in fact, talk about what it takes to make partnership happen. The model visionSynergy uses also, in fact, seriously considers the attributes of a healthy and effective partnership. It’s a difference of emphasis and degree. We find that people want more than anything to know how to actually do it. So, we tend to focus more on understanding the process of partnership than on analyzing the qualities of partnership. We place less emphasis on talking about the influence of culture, or inequities of power, or issues of accountability, or things like that.
That definitely does not mean such qualities or “ingredients” are unimportant. Don’t get me wrong. Like the knowledge of a nutritionist, it’s important to understand the different dynamics of health in collaboration, especially from a diagnostic point-of-view. You need to know why things may or may not be working right. But you also need the knowledge of the chef, otherwise you might have all the right ingredients, but end up making a big mess in the kitchen.
As they say on the Iron Chef TV show: “Allez cuisine!” Let’s get cooking!
Filed under: collaboration, networking, partnerships, skills of collaboration, Strategies on February 28th, 2011 | No Comments »
Download and listen to a ten-minute audio (http://bit.ly/orissa-audio) of “Joshua” (name changed) telling dramatic stories of transformation in Orissa, India, due to collaboration among pastors in response to Hindu persecution in the region. (11.5 meg mp3 file)
The story in brief
Radical Hindus came to Joshua’s region and persecuted the Christians there. In the midst of that persecution, Christian leaders of the region learned of the Tree of Life collaboration training (held in Delhi), which visionSynergy developed, and sent representatives to be trained how they might partner for effective transformation.
Their first application of partnership was to seek police action against the illegal persecution. Previously, one pastor had gone alone to the police station, but his complaint was ignored. Using concepts learned from the Tree of Life Seminar, eight pastors banded together and went to the police station. This time their requests received a hearing, and gained police response to the persecution – due directly to their collaborating together.
Dedicated their lives to working together
In light of this success, the eight pastors dedicated their lives to working together for common cause. They experienced other successes such as addressing the chronic lack of education, reestablishing a formal school for a village that had not had a school for years. “Now,” Joshua says, “the persecutors are coming to the Christians and asking them to take their own children into the school!”
Another success was in gaining the services of a medical doctor to make regular visits to the village – with a scheme that covered the expenses of the doctor’s visit and did not create dependency.
Better than their wildest (individual) dreams
Joshua says, “One pastor could never have dreamed of starting a school; these eight pastors bringing doctors to the village is such a great thing. Previously these people [the Christians] were seen a threat to the culture; now they are resources to the culture” – providing an educational facility and a medical facility. He adds, “Today pastors are able to walk openly in their villages. Churches are meeting again. There is great, new interest in the gospel. The people who persecuted us now thank us.”
Filed under: collaboration, community development, education, India, networking, partnerships, Strategies, Unreached People Groups on November 22nd, 2010 | No Comments »
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