Partnership Revisited

by Steven Downey

Sometimes you’ve just got to go back to the basics. When Vince Lombardi, former coach of the National Football League’s Green Bay Packers, wanted to stop the team’s losing streak, he started by telling his players, “This is a football.”

Sometimes you’ve just got to go back to the basics. When Vince Lombardi, former coach of the National Football League’s Green Bay Packers, wanted to stop the team’s losing streak, he started by telling his players, “This is a football.”
Partnership in mission is more complex than football. And because partnership is the prevailing wisdom of mission practice today, we may think that we all mean the same thing when we use the word.After assuming this for some time, Partners International got to a point where even the leadership team wasn’t exactly sure what was meant by the term.

Partners International was born in 1943 of a desire by westerners to help Chinese evangelists reach China with the gospel. The central assumption, not widely assumed at the time, was that “native” or local Christians could be the most effective agents at reaching their own people. Part of this idea was driven by China’s history at the time; the Japanese occupation, World War II and the subsequent Communist revolution had made foreign mission work difficult and eventually impossible. Helping Chinese evangelists was a pragmatic response to historical realities.
Part of the idea was also rooted in a belief that partnering with national Christian workers was one of the best ways of doing mission.

Over subsequent decades, this practice of partnership, although it has many shapes ard forms, has won growing acceptance. Even though the Church of the twenty-first century ministers in a world different from that of more than half a century ago, Partners International is convinced that partnership remains the best way for the Church to work together to establish God’s kingdom.

In 1999 Partners International began a program of major organizational change. The board of directors together with staff began to re-examine the purpose and place of Partners International in the global missions movement. The most immediate outcome of that re-examination was the adoption of a new mission statement which read: “Partners International is a global ministry that works to create and grow communities of Christian witness in partnership with God’s people in the least-Christian regions of the world.”

This statement changed our mission in four fundamental ways:

1. It specifically highlighted a greater focus on the end result of our partnerships (“communities of Christian witness”).

2. It geographically focused our ministry on the least-Christian regions of the world, those places where another religion has a vast majority of adherents.

3. It emphasized the proactive nature of our work (“works to create and grow”), calling us to move from a primary focus on financial assistance to a greater focus on developing a partner’s full potential through deeper and broader levels of involvement.

4. It purposely used the phrase “in partnership with God’s people” to mean all God’s people wherever they are located. Churches in the West are as much our partners as the indigenous agencies.

EXTERNAL REALITIES OF DEFINED PARTNERSHIP
In the midst of these internal changes, we had long and wide-ranging discussions about external realities. We identified three main ones.

1. The best mission agencies also work with local partners. Even though many of our partners commend us for how we practice partnership (assistance without control), we cannot claim to be unique in our role of partnering with indigenous entities.

2. Many churches and individuals “go direct” in supporting ministries in the Southern Hemisphere. This method is made easier by cheaper international travel, the popularity of short-term mission teams and the arrival of instant communications.

3. Christianity in the Southern Hemisphere is going to influence the style and substance of global Christianity in the coming decades. If it is true that partnership is two-way, how do we bring the gifts of the Southern Hemisphere Church to the parochial and materialistic North?
When we began to grapple with internal changes and external realities, we found ourselves grappling with what partnership should look like in the twenty-first century. It was time to go back to the basics.

A NOT-SO-NEW METHOD
Partnership is not an invention of the business world. Partnership is biblical, so we began by looking at what the Bible said. We also reflected on our history and experience. Amidst these endeavors we refused to compromise our core ethos of empowering locally-led ministries to carry out God’s work in culturally-appropriate ways in partnerships of mutual trust.
An unpremeditated document, which we eventually called “A Covenant of Partnership,” began to emerge (see pages 203-204).

We quickly labeled it “an emerging vision,” because we knew it would require ongoing discussion by all of God’s people. We do not pretend that all the thoughts are original, but they express partnership as we understand it and as we aspire to live it. The text is not revolutionary in and of itself; only if applied will it have revolutionary consequences. Partnership in mission is a non-negotiable mandate by God to bring about God’s ultimate purpose, namely, his reign on earth.

Until now, this Covenant has not been widely circulated. Where it has been shared—particularly among our partners in both hemispheres—it has been received with a sense that such a statement is necessary because it brings clarity to what we mean by partnership. However, it is not merely theory; it is practical and includes how we plan to live out our partnerships. It allows both ourselves and others to hold partners accountable when it is not lived out. For this reason, “Covenant” is a very appropriate name.
People have suggested that this Covenant should not only apply to our partners, but to our staff relationships within Partners International as well. One board member even shared it with his business partner and employees.

This Covenant has breathed fresh hope in the way Partners International wants to pursue its partnerships. We still need to work out the implementation. Our understanding of partnership must dictate our actions; it cannot remain theoretical. Change will not come easy. This emerging vision needs further work, which is why we invite the global missions community to contribute to the discussion, one that we pray will radically improve the way God’s people do mission together. We are ready to listen to God and to each other.

Steven Downey is vice-president of communications and marketing at Partners International. He has worked with Latin America Mission, the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization and the United Bible Societies.
Contributors include: Jon Lewis, Phil Arendt, Bob Savage and Ted Shimanuki.

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A Covenant of Partnership: An Emerging Vision for a Radical New Commitment to Global Christian Community
Partnership is God’s Mandate

In giving us the Great Commission, God calls us to partner with him in global mission. Our God is a missionary God and we are to be a missionary people. Jesus prayed that God’s people “be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me” (John 17:23). The oneness of the global Christian community (enhanced by working in partnership) is a powerful testimony to Jesus as God’s anointed one.

Partnership describes both our relationship with God in mission and our relationship with others as a means of accomplishing that mission.
God himself (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) is the perfect model of partnership: one essence of three distinct persons of equal importance, each with different roles performed for a common purpose.
Therefore, we do not engage in partnership simply because it is cost-effective or pragmatic. We do so because partnership reflects God’s nature, demonstrates Christian unity and draws people to God. It is how all mission should be done everywhere.

Partnership is Mutual
True partnership embraces the reality that every partner has something to give and something to gain. What they give, they do so sacrificially. What they gain, they receive humbly. No partner is greater than another in what it contributes.
Therefore, we acknowledge every partner’s contributions, large or small, according to God’s gifts. If we are perceived as the giver, we also receive something valuable in the partnership. If we are perceived as the receiver, we also have something valuable to give. It is the partnership that, by God’s grace, achieves the vision.
Partnership is diverse and dynamic. No partnership is static or exactly the same as another.

Partnership can range from a single focus, such as funding, or it can be more full-bodied. It can happen once, intermittently or be long-term. Relationships change over time depending on the vision, maturity, size and capacity of the partners.
Therefore, we celebrate the various expressions of healthy partnership and reject a “one-size-fits-all” mentality. The various levels, forms and stages of partnership reflect the diversity of God’s people as well as the diversity of needs in the world.

Partnership is Most Effective through Multiple Networks
No single agency can bring all the resources necessary to meet the needs of God’s people and of the world. God values humility over pride and collaboration over isolation.
Therefore, multiple networks of partnerships are often the best way to serve God’s Church and to meet the world’s needs. In almost every case, at least one of the partners in the network will have an incarnational presence where God’s people are manifesting the love of Christ.

Partnership is Measurable
Healthy partnership is not afraid to measure the benefits of partnership. We will not shy away from setting goals and measuring results. We affirm the value of asking questions and acknowledge the need for mutual transparency and accountability.
Therefore, while we reject excessive quantifying, we affirm that mutual evaluation of the quantitative and qualitative results of a partnership is important if we are to be good and faithful stewards of the resources of God’s people.

Partnership is Relational—and Messy
Partnership is as much about relationship as it is about strategic outcomes. It is done with others, and those others matter.
But we live in a fallen world where personalities and cultures clash. Unmet expectations lead to misunderstanding and disappointment. Forgiveness is infrequent. Speaking the truth in love is seldom practiced.
We must live the Great Commandment. God created us to live in communion with him, to participate in his nature and to imitate his character. When the Apostle Paul described his partners in the gospel, he used language such as “I have you in my heart” and “how I long for you with the affection of Christ Jesus.”

We are called to pray for one another, to suffer with one another, to rejoice with one another.
The best partnerships arise out of rich relationships based on shared passion, mutual goals and much time spent together. There is no greater work of partnership than the building of relationships in love by which all peoples will see Christ.

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