Practicing Partnership

by Richard Haney, Executive Director

For the first time since the first millennium, the greatest number of Christians live in the Global South, making up more than 65% of the world’s Christian population. The implications of this demographic shift are just being realized. Leaders, theologians, theologies, scholarship and institutions—all are growing in Africa, Latin America, Asia and Oceania. We welcome the reality of global Christianity and what it means for our understanding and experience of God’s Kingdom.

We rejoice that God is working all over the world through indigenous ministries and cross-cultural workers. The Church is growing in what might seem unlikely places—even the heartlands of Islam and Hinduism. And two of the fastestgrowing church planting movements are found in Iran and Nepal. How is the Church flourishing in places like these? God’s Spirit is bringing together people and gifts from across the earth to take the Gospel to those still waiting to hear it.

Over the last several centuries, much of the Church’s global mission efforts originated from Europe and North America. This led to unprecedented Gospel access for many of the world’s people groups through significant advances in Bible translation, medicine, literacy, education and community development. Yet an honest view of history shows that Western-led missions have also failed at times to honor the unique needs and values of those they’ve served or thoughtfully navigate cultural nuances. Yes, those of us in the West have resources to share and workers to send. But we also have much to learn.

Our efforts to reach those without any knowledge of Jesus require the comprehensive Body of Christ. Our brothers and sisters throughout the world apprehend and reflect God’s image in distinct and glorifying ways. He invites His children to join hands across nations and cultures to labor with Him as He builds His Kingdom.

Partnerships are critical to bring together people and ministries for frontier mission. But practical questions loom large for those working to develop effective cross-cultural partnerships. How do you go about forging a fruitful relationship? And how do you sustain it?

My understanding of partnership has benefited greatly from the insight of Sherron George, who lived and served for many years in Brazil as a crosscultural worker. In her book Called as Partners in God’s Service: The Practice of God’s Mission, she identifies attitudes and practices that belong in missional partnerships. These attitudes include respect, compassion and humility

These attitudes are decidedly other-oriented. A collaborative partner shows respect for the other, exhibits compassion and relates from a position of humility. I like to think of these three sequentially. Humility prepares us to respect and learn from those around us. Coupled with care or compassion, this combination of characteristics sets the stage for us to collaborate effectively with others.

The apostle Paul speaks of these attitudes in his letter to the Philippians, pointing to the example of Jesus who stooped low to serve:

Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others. Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.

—Philippians 2:3-5

Sherron George also offers key missional practices: first, observing and participating and second, receiving and giving. In cross-cultural settings, we always have more to learn about the opposite culture’s customs, languages, sensibilities, rituals and other societal features. Observing and participating is the way into vibrant cross-cultural relationships. This means listening, noticing and sharing in the sufferings, joys and rhythms of daily life.

The second pair of essential practices is receiving and giving. As Christians, we give out of the overflow of all we’ve first received from Christ—we accept God’s grace which then propels us to love others. Humility also allows us to recognize that those we serve have gifts to offer. Receiving God’s grace and the kindness of those we minister to and alongside prepares us to be good givers ourselves.

Cross-cultural partnership is no simple enterprise, however, and there’s no formula for entering into it. Even when we embrace humility and healthy practices, relationships are complex and often challenging. As theologian Cathy Ross describes, partnership requires mutual trust, the willingness to give up control and a readiness to share the responsibility of collaboration, including the possibility of failure. Even the ability to communicate clearly can become frustrated by language and cultural barriers despite diligent effort.

In Frontier Fellowship’s work, we’re continually learning about what it takes to cultivate partnerships that are mutually respectful and beneficial. We’ve certainly missed the mark at different points along the way. But we and our partners depend on God’s faithfulness to guide, correct and transform us in our journeys together.

In 1 Corinthians 3:7–9, Paul illustrated partnership this way:

So neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. The one who plants and the one who waters have a common purpose, and each will receive wages according to the labor of each. For we are God's servants, working together; you are God's field, God's building.

The word “servants” in verse nine is rendered “co-workers” in the NIV translation. The Greek term is sunergoi, literally “fellow-workers.” The connotation is that these laborers are God’s helpers, subordinate to Him. Looking to Him as our head, we work alongside one another on equal footing, no worker more important than another.

Another Greek word, koinonia, usually translated into English as “fellowship,” may be the closest word to our modern understanding of partnership. It appears in the New Testament 19 times to describe the sharing of time, gifts, material resources, food and even suffering. In 2 Corinthians 8:4 and 9:13, Paul uses this term when referring to the contribution of the Macedonian churches in spite of their poverty and persecution. More than a transaction of goods or expertise, it’s the sacrificial offering of both presence and provision for each others’ needs.

Yet healthy cross-cultural partnerships can’t exist without recognizing asymmetries and imbalances of resources or power. When we raise funds or develop tools to share with indigenous partners, it can look like missions “from the West to the rest,” as the saying goes. The resource imbalance throughout the global Church can establish or appear as asymmetrical power structures that marginalize the agency of certain groups. We must pay attention to the linguistic, cultural and power issues that cry out for humility and wise translation. The Edinburgh 2010 mission conference’s Common Call includes this admonition for those in positions of privilege:

We're called to repentance, to critical reflection on systems of power and to accountable use of power structures. We're called to find practical ways to live as members of the Body of Christ in full awareness that God resists the proud. Christ welcomes and empowers the poor and afflicted, and the power of the Holy Spirit is manifested in our vulnerability.

Several times in the New Testament epistles, we find Paul celebrating unity and diversity in the same paragraph. The Church is called to unity in the Body of Christ that doesn’t require uniformity. People and cultures are distinct in ways that evince God’s love for diversity. Faithfulness to Jesus doesn’t erase differences but breathes new life into them.

Strong partnerships, like all healthy relationships, require commitment and perseverance. We celebrate our friends in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and diaspora settings who continually teach us lessons in collaboration and allow us to glimpse God’s Kingdom through their eyes. We pray God will give us grace to embody humility, respect and compassion and renew our efforts to listen and learn, to give and receive.

In John 15, we find a striking image of the relationship between Jesus and His followers. Jesus the vine supplies life to the branches. Branches depend on the vine and are connected to each other. There are no solitary living branches. Like living branches, disciples are joined as partners in Christ’s communion. As we develop and deepen our relationships with fellow believers, may we rely on Jesus to nurture and establish us in Him so together we can take the Good News of His Kingdom to the world’s frontiers.