Shifting Missions Paradigms Part 2
Written By // William Drake
Shifting Missions Paradigms: Partnership
There are so many sayings about the impact of the company we keep, it borders on the cliche.
Whether we’re joining sides or teams, spending time with friends, or finding allies and causes to join - we know the people we surround ourselves with matter.
To no lesser degree, as we consider effectiveness in sharing the Good News, we must consider the partnerships we build to help get our students from our campuses to the ends of the Earth.
What is a long-term, cross-cultural partner?
When we partner, we join forces. A mission partnership is a formal strategic union between two like-hearted ministries to help support the long-term field strategy for advancing the Gospel in the overseas context.
Simply put, it’s an intentionally cultivated relationship that helps maximize your impact through your students and to the waiting harvest fields. It means that - Lord willing - year after year, students from your campus will travel to long-term overseas partners - who become friends - to join their mission, vision, and strategy in reaching the lost in their city.
The impacts and echoes of such a relationship are many. Each future labor builds on the foundation built by previous labors.
Why should I build long-term, cross-cultural partnerships?
Investment breeds affection.
The more we pour our hearts and lives into a place, a subject, people, or a cause - our hearts for those things grow.
Without a doubt, building overseas partnerships are the same. Deep roots provide an opportunity for deep impact. When we become students of a place or people group through our continued investment, the Lord uses that to help grow hearts for His Kingdom work.
With the year-after-year returning impact of investing in a long-term partner and their work, we are able to build mutually-encouraging relationships. These partnerships can positively impact the overseas host, our students, and ourselves.
A history of investment in the same place also helps fuel the future.
“One generation commends your works to another; they tell of your mighty acts.” (Ps. 145:4) Whether telling stories of God’s abundant blessing during their trip, or sharing how He helped sustain and encourage them through a difficult summer - when your returning students tell the story of their trip to other students in your ministry, it helps proclaim the Gospel there and generate a heart in your younger students to go and see for themselves.
Continued partnership can also have longer-last effects.
When students join long-term work - even on a short-term basis - they have the opportunity to explore God’s potential call on their lives. It may be that several summers of short-term work is how your student encounters God’s call to long-term foreign mission involvement. Many sites around the world are in great need of more laborers and your long-term partnerships can play a key role in that recruitment.
There are workers waiting and ready for partners!
Eugene Peterson once described discipleship as “a long obedience in the same direction.” Don’t underestimate the potential effect of a long-term partnership.
So how do we get from here to there?
How do I decide with whom to partner?
Partnerships are like intentional friendships. And like friendships, they are never going to be perfect. We can commit, though, to asking good questions, doing a lot of thinking and research, and a lot of prayer. Here are a few places to start the process in finding a partner.
We start, always, with God. Pray. Ask where God is leading you and your ministry. Is it to a specific people group? Is it to specific overseas partners? Ask God to speak loudly, and then commit to getting quiet enough to listen. The advancement of the Gospel to the ends of the Earth, and the continued discipleship and development of your students is more important to Him than it is even to you. Ask Him to speak.
Once you have a potential partner in mind, ask whether your students can be a blessing. Is there a project they can do? Does the potential partner have capacity to host a team? Will a team be a blessing? Or will it just be a burden to the host? Think through and ask good questions.
Does the potential partner have a strategy? Short-term teams aren’t a good option to help build a strategy. Again, think through and ask good questions that will help you and the partner determine if the timing and the project is right.
While you are asking questions though, remember to take time to understand their strategy and their work through their context. No doubt their methodology is built and informed by their context. It may appear different than your preferences or how you’d do your work on your campus. But your strategy is informed by your calling, and that of your potential partner is informed by theirs.
Don’t miss out on a beneficial relationship for your students, your campus, and for the work of the Kingdom just because of a minor difference in strategy. We never compromise on the Gospel, but we bow in humility to the infinite creativity in strategy the King uses to reach people for His own.
Pray. Remember, the measure of a successful partnership is not that your students should have a perfectly wonderful time, or that all their expectations should be met during their summer trip. Rather, it is having pursued a partnership relationship with thoughtfulness and prayer, that everyone should join in where God is working and be faithful to the opportunities He’s placed before them.
Finally, your potential field partner should have some common characteristics. The leader should have a vision they are able to communicate and hold before their team and your students. The field personnel should have a heart for shepherding, knowing that your students are an investment to be stewarded. And they should have a heart for hospitality, welcoming your students into the context of their lives in whatever ways are appropriate and possible, endeavoring to truly share life on the field with them.
As we form partnerships, it can be easy to begin to think or feel that the project and the overseas partner should focus exclusively on our students. After all, we believe in the value of training - as we will discuss in our third article, “Shifting Missions Paradigms: Training” - and we want that investment to bear a return.
We have to remind ourselves though, and our students to arrive on the field with a commitment to servant heartedness. Our students have been trained, yes. But they are going to join work that is in progress, and they have much to learn. They are the biggest blessing when they join the overseas partner with the humility of a new recruit, not the bravado of a Navy SEAL.
Partnerships will be challenging
Long-term, cross-cultural partnerships are challenging. But so is anything that has the potential for eternal impact. There are two foundational ideas to keep in mind:
Partnerships require time and energy. This is not a business partnership, but a Kingdom partnership.
Partnerships require initiative. While both sides certainly need to be involved in the partnerships, take the initiative and put the bulk of the responsibility for pursuing the relationship on your shoulders.
With some intention and attention, these relationships can nurture and thrive.
Partnerships can be done well
Seek to serve your partner. Beyond just sustaining the relationship for the sake of your students, ask how God would have you be part of their work overseas. Here are just a few ideas for nurturing your partnership:
Prioritize the relationship! Don’t let them fall to the bottom of your to-do list, or slip from your mind except for when you “need” them. Build in reminders to help you give attention to the relationship.
Send them a note or present on their birthday.
Recruit your students to write letters to their children.
Ask if there is anything your students can bring them on their trips. (You’d be amazed how much peanut butter and tortilla shells can bless your partner!)
Visit! Even if it’s just for a few days, make a commitment to visit them in their city every few years. Taking the time to visit and see their work and community communicates how much value you place on them. Don’t miss the opportunity to bless and encourage your partners - while creating better communication for your students and teams.
Invite! When your partners return stateside, invite them to visit you and your campus. Just as your visiting them helped you, this helps strengthen their understanding of where your students are coming from and to feel connected to the stateside work. Plus it can be fun for them to reconnect with students who spent a summer serving with them.
Encourage prayer. You should be one of the biggest advocates for the work your partner is doing. Talk to them and ask what security guidelines they have, and be sure to clear it with them, and then take every opportunity within those guidelines to encourage prayer on their behalf.
How do I find a partner?
FOCUS has a wide network of overseas partners. There is a large number of ready partners who are looking for committed stateside partnerships. If you would be interested in learning more or connecting with a potential partner, please feel free to write to us at office@onefocuslink.com.
Another potential avenue for finding a partner is through your own campus network. Are any of your alumni serving overseas? They might also be a good place to start.
As you look, remember to be prayerful. Ask good questions. And move forward, believing God can and does use us all to advance the Gospel.
There are men, women, and children out there waiting to hear the Good News. Together, we can put the vision before our students, develop long-term partnerships, and invest in the training to help our students grow in their skills and readiness.