4 Practices for Selecting Mission Partners - Part I
Best Practices ... First 2 Points
If you’re serving in some leadership capacity with your church’s missions and outreach ministry, you may have to manage a constant variety of requests from people or organizations who want you to partner with them.
How do you work through those requests? What filters are available for carefully selecting these opportunities? Here I share the first two of four best practices to help you in this process.
Before we identify these four, however, we need to rethink what we mean by “partners.” The term has been watered down, used it flippantly at times, and has lost poignancy and power in mission circles.
To be partners means that two entities collaborate to solve problems and to add value to one another. In a true partnership, one side doesn’t get the only benefit. That's called a sponsorship, where value-adding goes in one direction, from the sponsor to the one being sponsored. Think through all the partnerships you currently have and ask, “Are we sponsors for them or are we truly partners with them?”
An example of a sponsorship is when a church funds a family serving in cross-cultural church planting, with little expectation that the family will give anything back to the church. The church asks for very little in return for its investment. There’s nothing wrong with this setup, as long as the church understands what it is committing to. The church may experience some satisfaction knowing they’re helping this family launch a new church. Or, perhaps the church has a goal to help plant 10 churches in the next 20 years, and by funding this family, they’re closer to accomplishing this goal. Don’t misread me and think I don’t condone your church sponsoring cross-cultural workers, please. I want you to sponsor families by investing financially so they may serve cross-culturally.
In contrast to a sponsorship, a partnership is when a church becomes an ally of a local non-profit homeless shelter to alleviate the needs of the homeless in its town. A back-and-forth pathway is cut between the church and the shelter. The church offers financial support, for instance. The non-profit offers value back to the church by allowing congregants to volunteer at the homeless shelter. Is it self-seeking for a church to ask their mission partners give something back? I don’t think so, as long as the church clearly communicates how the shelter can add value to the church’s ministry. In this scenario, the church and homeless shelter have a mutually-beneficial partnership.
Bottom line: when you ask another group or organization to partner with you, be prepared to show how together, you can solve problems and add mutual value.
Now that we have this understanding, here are the first two of four practices leaders in church mission should keep in mind so they make wise decisions about mission partners.
1. Pray often, listening for God’s direction
Please don’t be flippant or downplay the transcendent dimensions of God’s mission to the world. Usually, the greatest impact you can have in ministry is a spiritual one. Making wise decisions in this area makes all the difference for the eternal destiny of lost people and sets an example to those who look to your spiritual leadership. Missions is not merely temporal work. It is more than that—it is transcendent, spiritual work when it is done well.
If you want to partner with a group to address poverty and homelessness among U.S. teens and you sense God’s blessing on this, then pursue it. But if a partnership like that doesn’t permit you to build relationships with these teens in hopes of sharing the Gospel, then maybe you should instead connect the ministry with a local Rotary Club for more funding.
As a local church pastor and church planter of many years in Nova Scotia, Canada, I quickly learned that setting aside 30 minutes a day for devotions wasn’t enough. I began to schedule an entire day each week, a true Sabbath, to be alone with God, my Bible, my journal, and God’s creation. That commitment made such a huge impact upon my life and ministry. I can’t emphasize enough the importance of extended prayer and quiet times in your life.
When was the last time your missions team really prayed about your partnerships? What were the results? Did you listen for God to speak?
Consider retreating with your missions team, with your Bibles, notebooks, and ears attentive to what God is saying to you. Then, and only then, do you move forward. I hope you’ll evaluate your current decision-making processes for selecting mission partners, asking if your team takes their spiritual leadership responsibilities seriously by hearing from God.
2. Allow the lead pastor(s) to have significant influence in deciding mission partners
I know what you’re thinking already: “If we hear God leading us to partner with X, then what else do we need to do? Why do we need the lead pastor’s buy in?”
It is true that you need to hear God’s clear leading. But having the support of your lead pastor is also crucial. He is the gatekeeper. Without his support and influence in the decision, you’re facing an uphill journey. With the lead pastor’s support, the gate opens wide for a transformational partnership.
If your lead pastor doesn’t support you, that’s a good reason to pause, keep praying, and negotiate a way forward. Maybe this check in the process will reveal new truth for the missions team or the lead pastor.
A lead pastor needs to be deeply invested in the success of your missions ministry. Should s/he be a member of the missions team? Yes! Being a member demonstrates by example how important God’s mission is and shows he has a pulse on the work of missions in the church. The lead pastor transfers that investment and passion to the congregation every weekend through presence, public prayers, and preaching. He takes it to the office every week, and his passion rubs off on the rest of the staff during meetings.
If your lead pastor isn’t behind you, stop the process and, together, ask God for clarity and direction!
These are just two sieves you can use to decide your mission partnerships. We’ll explore two more next time!
By Dr. Duane E. Brown,
VP of OMS USA Church Partners
Opportunities to serve with One Mission Society: https://onemissionsociety.org/opportunities