Category Archives: Article

Crossing the Line of Commitment

Cross the Line

A partnership always defines its own ground rules regarding participation. Typically ‘strong’ partnerships are based on very specific points of commonality among the participants and there are clear and reasonably costly participation requirements (those costs may be cash, resources, political, organizational, influence, personal loyalty and/or commitment, commitment of other tangible or intangible assets, or other obligations of participants).

Working Cooperatively for the Kingdom

Basketball Fail

I had a college friend who played basketball in prep school with Pistol Pete Maravich. My friend could also score with the best of them. Their prep school program had several other athletes who had been selected by major college programs. When I heard him list all the “stars” on his prep team, I asked if they ever lost a game. He smiled and indicated that they didn’t even have a winning season. How could that be possible? The answer was surprisingly simple. There weren’t enough basketballs to go around. They were all shooters gunning for their own stats, and no one truly valued teamwork.

The Glue of Partnership

The method of making dissimilar materials adhere to one another is as old as history. At first natural materials were used, such as natural gums, plant resins, and saps. Then in the early 20th century, synthetic adhesives made from polymers emerged. Because of these modern adhesives, it now became possible to bring together different materials with extremely different properties. Just think of a Teflon pan or the heat shields on a space shuttle. This word picture of Teflon sticking to metal while being exposed to heat, the two materials expanding and contracting at different speeds, is not too far from the tension realized in partnerships. If you have ever been in a multi-lateral partnership or network where there are several different entities working together, you have experienced the tension of trying to “stick together.”

Characteristics of High-performance Ministry Networks

Breakthrough or Maintenance?

Networks have enormous, game changing potential. They can re-write the future. In an increasingly interconnected world they hey can help realize truly impossible dreams far beyond the capacity of any individual or organization. Yet many well intentioned networks never realize their potential. There are reasons for this. This short paper seeks to explore some of the keys that spell the difference between an ordinary and a high performance ‘breakthrough’ network.

Vision

Vision is the driving force of any collaborative effort. It must be owned by each member of the initiative. Our focus must be clear to run powerfully the race Christ has set before us. Vision is the passionate purpose which answers the question of why we are coming together.

Collaboration for Bigger Kingdom Impact

Our culture in the United States and in the Western hemisphere, in general, tends toward individualism, and inter-church connection is frequently no different. Often we are preoccupied with our church, our impact, and our role in God’s work. We operate as silos and are unaware of, or are not in relationship with, the churches located immediately around us. If there is one or two churches close by we may make an effort to build relationships with them, but it usually stops there.