Looking for a good quote on networks and partnerships to add to a presentation or workshop? Here is a list of 35 quotes about cooperation, networks, and partnerships from the Synergy Commons and other network communities.

“Connection changes what and who is connected.” – Anonymous

“While the task or, dare I say, the business of the Great Commission is of extreme importance, a business-based understanding of mission must never supplant and, in fact, must be the maidservant of relationships / partnerships as mandated by Jesus’ Great Commandment. There is no greater work or greater understanding of partnership than the building of relationships in love (Rom. 13:10; 1 Cor. 12:31b-13:3, 13; Col. 3:14; 1 Tim. 1:5; cf John 13:34-35). ” – Phill Arendt, Author

“Pull a thread here and you’ll find it’s attached to the rest of the world.” – Nadeem Aslam, Author

“Many organizations do not start expanding their network until they find themselves in need of others. People rightly wonder about the sincerity of your intentions. By that time, the network should already be in place and have a solid basis of reciprocity and trust.” – Monica Bakker, Network Leader

“Networks are present everywhere. All we need is an eye for them.” – Albert-Laszlo Barabasi, Researcher

“A good collaboration pushes the boundaries of both partners.” – Neil Blumenthal, Business Founder

“We never know how our small activities will affect others through the invisible fabric of our connectedness. In this exquisitely connected world, it’s never a question of ‘critical mass.’ It’s always about critical connections.” – Grace Lee Boggs, Political Activist

“Our partnership with Christ is a fellowship which demonstrates his life and reality to a watching world.” – Luis Bush and Lorry Lutz, Author and Evangelist

“Working in collaborative efforts is never easy.  Our co-investments of time and resources in the infrastructure of collaborative efforts are – in the long run – one of the most essential and most effective investments we can make.” – Phill Butler, visionSynergy

“As I considered the role of the local church to advance Jesus’ Kingdom, cooperation and genuine collaboration with other Jesus-loving pastors and churches in my city was no longer an “overrated” option. It was an essential practice.” – Daryl Crouch, Pastor

“Ultimately, kingdom partnerships are not about transactions, but about transformation. It’s not “what can I get from you, and what do you want from me?”. It’s about what has God given me to share with you so we can complement (complete) one another. This attitude and action will ensure lasting fruit in your partnership with God and others.” – Arjo de Vroome

“Philippians 2:3 says, “In humility consider others better than yourselves.” No single person, church or ministry has all of the perspective, strategies or resources that are needed to fulfill God’s Great Commission. We are arrogant to think otherwise. As you live out the “one another” verses of Scripture – encouraging, giving and collaborating with partners in a Spirit of genuine biblical humility – God can accomplish more than you could ever dream possible.” – Steve Douglas, CRU

“Coming together is a beginning, staying together is progress, and working together is success.” – Henry Ford, Industrialist

“Relationship, not structure is at the heart of effective partnering. Those who partner well value the action of working together more than they value the organizational structures within which they work. It is their commitment to one another, rather than to the structures, that keeps them together. They are willing to work outside established structures or even create new ones for the sake of their common vision.” – Brent Fulton, Chinasource

“Prayer is the Christian’s secret sauce for healthy network growth and practices. Paul knows that prayer is unusually helpful in “settling us down” when we are worked up. Prayer refocuses us on God’s potential to act and on God’s presence among us. It draws us together. Effective network leaders will employ prayer to knit a network together and speak peace into unreconciled places and people.” – David Hackett, visionSynergy

“I don’t really think it’s just me. In the face of astonishingly obvious economic benefits and a fairly obvious set of “how-to’s,” I think the main reason we don’t collaborate is simple fear. There are two simple approaches to lowering fear. One is to mitigate risk. The other is to stop being so fearful. The first one is getting most of the press; we need more of the second.” – Charles Green, Author

“Church history demonstrates the dangers and disasters when a single individual, group, or movement assumes they can do all of God’s work alone. The failures of prominent, visible Christian leaders too often frustrate the work of God’s kingdom. Collaboration creates the context for disciplined accountability as well as for mutual support.” – David J. Gyertson, Asbury Theological Seminary

“If God’s purposes on earth began with and were advanced through partnerships, we can assume that his work can be achieved best in such a collaborative context.” – David J. Gyertson, Asbury Theological Seminary

“Too often, partnerships are broken or resisted because of clinging to distinctive practice or belief systems that have nothing to do with the eternal destiny of souls. For the sake of the kingdom, we need the commitment that if we can agree on the essentials of redemption, all else will be worked out in order to see the work of Christ completed.” – David J. Gyertson, Asbury Theological Seminary

“This great work is too large, complex, and important for us to achieve on our own. If our ministry is truly to be God’s ministry, done his way, we should expect that it can best be accomplished when we determine to “let us” create, work, support, and serve in his image rather than our own. We are created and called to collaborate. Out of such collaboration will flow the anointing oil of the Spirit and the life-giving dew of Hermon (Ps. 133:2-3). And we will hear heaven’s choir singing, “How good and beautiful when God’s people dwell together in unity!” – David J Gyertson, Asbury Theological Seminary

“Successful communities will recognize the multiple entryways in which individuals develop connections to the larger community and work to foster relationships that deepen, strengthen, and cross those lines.” – Rabbi Anne Heath

“Partnership is, therefore, not a choice for the 21st-century church; it should be a way of life in order to enhance our witness for Christ.” – P. James

“In nature everything works in collaboration. There are hummingbirds and flowers that are in such deep coordination they need each they for survival. How vibrant and alive and successful could our movement be if we moved with such coordination and collaboration.” – Karissa Lewis, Community Organizer

“We cannot live for ourselves alone.  Our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads, and along those sympathetic fibers, our actions run as causes and return to us as results.” – Herman Melville, Author

“True collaborating begins with trusted relationships and a blank whiteboard that is eventually filled with the ideas/concerns/commitments of every ministry present. Participants become partners who are convinced they can serve and succeed better together.” – Phil Miglioratti, Mission America Coalition & Engage Chicago

“Our individual power to effect change may not seem like much, but remember, we are all interconnected: We are One. Powerlessness itself is an illusion. Every positive action we take, no matter how small, will have an impact.” – Laurence Overmire

“Networks are perhaps the most strategic tool available to facilitate global engagement and collaboration. They are becoming recognized as the best platform from which to provide leadership and the best space or context that enables global engagement.” – Eldon Porter, Linking Global Voices

“A network is only as valuable as the contribution of its members. There are a lot of people hanging out on the edges of networks that join only to take rather than contribute, and as a result, they experience limited value.” – Karin Butler Primuth, visionSynergy

“Multicultural networks are one of the most visible and functional demonstrations of unity in the Body of Christ. In a world that is increasingly divided by race, culture, and religious identity, the Global Church has the opportunity to demonstrate a powerful witness to the world through our love for one another as we work together in partnership.” – Karin Butler Primuth, visionSynergy

“When we realize the magnitude of the challenges we are trying to address and can acknowledge we don’t have all the solutions or resources needed, then we become open to collaboration. It’s the realization of that God-sized dream that compels us to work together with others.” – Karin Butler Primuth, visionSynergy

“The most significant change at the beginning of this century has been the creation of platforms for cross-sector cooperation that enable change-makers to gather, become aware of, and understand the evolution of the whole system, and consequently to act, build and test prototypes that originate from that shared awareness. And the most important ingredient is always the same: a few fully committed people who would give everything to make it work.” – Otto Scharmer & Katrin Kaufer.

“Just as good trees produce good fruit, alliances that glorify God begin in hearts with pure motives grown out of a daily abiding in Christ. You cannot do God’s work without God’s favor and wisdom and power.” – Bekele Shanko & John Becker, GCAX

“To ensure that the partnerships are productive, believers have to focus on learning to agree with one another instead of on the little things that divide us.” – Bishop Efraim Tendero, WEA

“The success or failure of networks can usually be traced to the condition of their relationships.” – Lisa Watson, The Power of Networks

“Relationships are all there is. Everything in the universe only exists because it is in relationship to everything else. Nothing exists in isolation. We have to stop pretending we are individuals that can go it alone.” -Margaret J. Wheatley, Author on Emergence and Complexity