Working together to further the gospel: partnerships, networking, alliances as well as relationships with non-evangelicals.
ISSUE GROUP ASSUMPTIONS
The Gospel is first Good News of restored relationships. In this context, God considers the restored, open relationship among His people to be the primary sign of His finished work. (John 17:23, Psalm 133, etc.).
The divisions in the Body of Christ are a primary roadblock to seeing major breakthroughs in world evangelization.
The natural tendency of Christian ministries, organizations, institutions, etc. is toward disintegration and fragmentation. As a result, any effort seeking to encourage collaboration must be intentional and pro-active.
Responding to these realities, it is a primary obligation of those committed to world evangelization to find ways to initiate and strengthen partnerships, networks, and other forms of cooperation.
ISSUE GROUP PURPOSE
The Issue Group will:
Encourage widespread adoption of a paradigm of Kingdom collaboration and identify the elements/steps necessary to encourage the launch and maintenance of effective Kingdom partnerships and networks. To do this, we will:
- Identify current trends in partnerships and networks at six levels: city, country, linguistic, regional, functional, and international.
- Identify case histories of effective collaboration at the six levels identified in #1.
- Identify primary roadblocks facing current and needed partnerships and networks.
- Identify means to link the growing global “company of the committed” committed to and working toward Kingdom collaboration.
- The Issue Group will not:
- Focus on “how to,” believing that training in partnership/network development is more appropriately available in other settings.
- Seek to establish a global partnership/network structure of any kind.
Note: The Issue Group is coordinating the Group’s work closely with the Great Commission Roundtable and their commitment to strengthening Kingdom networks.
Leadership
Convener:
Phill Butler, USA
Founder, Interdev
Co-convener
Hugo C. Morales, Guatemala/USA
Partnership Training/Development, COMIBAM Internacional
Facilitator:
Lianne Roembke, Germany
Campus Crusade for Christ International
Read the Lausanne Occasional Paper (LOP) produced by this Issue Group:
LOP 38: Partnership and Collaboration (.pdf format; 208 KB)