All kinds of ships sail the missional seas of today. Some really big vessels have powerful engines. Others small boats navigate with just a couple of oars. Just as in commercial transport by sea, the flags of some northern countries once dominated the practice of Christian mission. In shipping, the flags of a few “free-states” allowed some to give less importance to security, maintenance and labour laws, with negative consequences.
The worldwide missional scene has seen in the last three decades the launching of many “mission vessels” with an unseen diversity of flags from all the continents. Without forcing the comparison, the spreading of the Good News requires all sorts of boats, both those that can navigate the big seas and those that can enter the smaller rivers and berth at local harbours.
The size of the boat does not matter, neither the port of origin. Some are built for deeper water, others are fragile for navigating streams but not the dangers of unknown seas. When big vessels try to enter small rivers or when rowboats go out to deep waters, catastrophe is eminent. Both “Titanics” and rowing boats have shipwrecked.
Both the numbers of injured sailors and of lost missionaries has been a big concern for some time.
The missional challenge is to understand and acknowledge the distinctive functions and seek co-operation between missional initiatives of all sizes, flags, and destinations. We look for partner-ships to be inclusive, respectful and strategic. As sea-routes go today from everywhere to everywhere, our missional co-operation should reflect the reality of the Holy Spirit’s initiative to move God’s people into His mission.
A good model for partnership is seen among Jesus’ disciples: “…they signalled their partners in the other boat to come and help them, and they came and filled both boats…” (Luke 5:7).
The WEA Mission Commission considers itself to be a missional community — a fleet of many diverse boats, if you will. The MC Leadership Team does not aspire for the MC to be a big vessel. Rather, we want to be a catalyst for many partner-ships that include both the big and the small. In the worldwide trouble waters we believe that a safer and more productive journey can be done when we know each other, share our navigation journals and unite our efforts.
What experiences have you had with mission partnerships? Feel free to post your comments.
Bertil Ekström
The WEA Mission Commission Leadership Team wishes you all
A Blessed New Year!
I have had very good and also some painful experiences. The painful ones were when I was working with the Evangelical Alliance in Angola and some organisations came to offfer their service, after leaving the church on her own in much suffering for years. Those people came to serve but did not want to listen to anything the Angolans had to say (I was always present as a translator), they knew best what the Angolans needed and how things should be done.
But I had many positive experiences, in the context of IFES, of Interserve and of the Missions Commission, working alongside people with a much broader experience and training but who were willing to listen, to really work together, to allow my little boat to have its function. Actually this started much earlier when I served as a secretary with SIL/Wycliffe for a few years, and was very young and inexperienced, but those wise and committed brothers and sisters were willing and desirous to listen to me. So it all starts with the desire to really work together, and not just a paternalistic kind of service.
Our calling and its urgency is greater than our any interests. Its nature urges us to collaborate together. Also partnering each other is the answer of Jesus’s prayer. May God help us to stand together.
We are in the process now of partnering in South Africa as church leaders on how to respond to the leadership vacuum in government and how to do it appropriately. We have come to realize that expectations need to be clearly defined and responsibilities fully understood. Often the sticky point can be financial responsibilities, so it is good to be upfront about these. A verse that has been meaningful to me in the last few days as I have read the NLT One year bible is Gen 11:6 where God says,” look , the people are united and they all speak the same language. After this, nothing they set out to do will be impossible for them!” May this be true for us as MC!
Fascinating way of considering Christian mission as it is going on today.
When we talk about partnerships, it would be helpful to speak of the kinds of entities we are thinking of. That is, we should be clear about if we are talking about a partnership between a church and an agency, between an individual and a church or agency, or about a partnership between two agencies–or something else. Perhaps it is a partnership between an entity in the USA and one in Europe, or between one in Zimbabwe and one in Singapore. What difference does the composition of the partnership make?
What kind of differences between the entities make the partnership you are thinking about important? How is this partnership the same as other partnerships, or different?
These distinctions might make our conversation more meaningful.
I was watching a TV series last week. In the scene, two police detectives, who are often in situations in which they have to protect one another, begin a dialogue about trust. They end the scene by doing the familiar exercise in which one closes his eyes and falls backwards, trusting that the other will catch him.
True partner-ships are more than just plans to do things together. They are relationships, with some kind of binding between the two ships. Trust is the bond.
I have found over the years that the shared efforts and initiatives that function well and are productive are those in which there is mutual trust, and it grows over time. I have had the experience of attempting to ‘do’ things together because there was some area of common interest. Some were painful, some just not effective. Experiences of true partner-ships are few and rare! Let’s change that!
“Make them holy by your truth; teach them your word, which is truth. Just as you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world. And I give myself as a holy sacrifice for them so they can be made holy by your truth.
“I am praying not only for these disciples but also for all who will ever believe in me through their message. I pray that they will all be one, just as you and I are one—as you are in me, Father, and I am in you. And may they be in us so that the world will believe you sent me. John 17.17 – 21
In the North American (US and Canada) context we at Missio Nexus are emphasizing this simple truth: The Great Commission is too big for anyone to do alone and too important for us not to try to do it together.
Bertil, than you for giving us a useful metaphor for understanding how we can relate better to each other.
This is an excellent metaphor.
I recall that at the height of Nigerian oil rich Niger- Delta militant uprising, the most difficult places to deal with the militant insurgency were the creeks for one simple reason – inaccesibility except by small boats and canoes driven by experts drivers. Most mission agencies dream of being big boats but most of the remaining unreached areas need expert small boat riders who can navigate the very dangerous waters. Most often, this means indegenous believers who know the local terrian very well, going out to reach peoples which missionaries from even big mission agencies with all their resources, especially financial resources cannot reach.
The big boat best role in such a situation is to serve as a feeder base to many small boats!