• Our hope-filled future is bound up in sharing the story of Jesus, in discipling others, in bringing those disciples together into communities of believers, and in developing and releasing those believers to create other communities... till Jesus the King comes again!

Collaboration: take two

Posted on April 20, 2016 by wtdavid

‘Organizational culture’ refers to what should define our relationships with one another. Organizational culture tells us in what kind of atmosphere we will work.collaborative-meeting-clipart-1

Collaboration among members and teams within the World Team global community should be a natural reflex. That heart stance of serving together should then lead us to collaborate well with brothers and sisters outside of the World Team context.

I saw a good example of this recently among one of our teams in Africa. Wanting to further process where God might be leading them to minister next in Africa, they invited a national director of the church association that they serve under to share in their discussions. In the course of these discussions, it became evident that the Lord was laying on everyone’s hearts the same locations to consider.

Over lunch, one of our leaders said to the national director: “Would you be interested in joining together to do initial research on one of these locations that God has laid on our hearts?”

Collaboration is not about you joining ‘our’ project or us joining ‘your’ project, but putting our collective resources at the disposal of one another to work together on our (all parties included) project.

I think it took a lot of humility to ask that question of the national director as it was an admission that we need each other and that we can’t go it alone.

I also think it took some guts to ask that question because it changed our ministry work context to one that would be multicultural with all the inherent difficulties and potential misunderstandings. Yet the ultimate outcome will be a much better representation of what missions will be like in the future.

Filed under: Collaboration, Mission | Leave a comment »

Collaborate, cooperate, work together, and act as a team

Posted on April 15, 2016 by wtdavid

Collaboration is a ‘misunderstood’ word in our culture. I have heard many people give different definitions to it.  At times, it serves as a buzz word that many of us enjoy using, but the actual working out of it can elude us.collaborate

The World Team Ministry Framework gives the following descriptor for this element:

“To accomplish our vision, we partner with like-minded ministries. These partnerships can involve sharing resources, strengths, expertise, and responsibility for overseeing ministry projects and programs.” 

‘Ministries’ could easily be interpreted as only agencies or entities outside of World Team.  However, we are talking about ‘organizational culture’ here and what should define our relationships with one another.  Organizational culture tells us what kind of atmosphere we will work in.  So, ‘ministries’ refers to other teams, other branches of World Team as well as partners outside of World Team.

Projects, programs and ministries in our World Team global community benefit in greater ways when teams and branches of World Team share “their resources, strengths, expertise and responsibility” with others; when we ‘work together with one another’ and act as a World Team team.

Once again, this is where the difficulty lies. Most of us are quick to offer help, but slow to ask for and accept help.  The result?  Many projects, programs and ministries roll out or launch as a ‘one man’ or ‘one woman’ effort.  Some of those projects, programs and ministries will gain traction by the simple perseverant attitude of the creator behind the project, program or ministry. Imagine though the synergy that would be released if that one person solicited help from others within World Team.

One of my first experiences in collaboration occurred in our early days here in Europe. We wanted to do some home repairs, and being the non-handyman that I am, the only option I could see was to ‘grit my teeth’ and try to figure out how to do those repairs on my own.  However, I quickly realized that if I asked others for help, my neighbors were more than eager to come to my aid.  I didn’t enjoy the asking part because, in part, it was an admission that I didn’t really know how to do the work. I needed the help, the expertise, the time of others in order to do the job.  Sure, I could have watched YouTube videos and figured out  how to do most things, but asking for help provided a resource base that I would not have had otherwise.

Collaboration begins by asking two questions. First, what are the critical action steps in this project, program or ministry?  Second, who has expertise, insight, wisdom and ability to help with any of those critical action steps?

Once we answer these two questions, the next step is to go and ask someone to collaborate with us.

Filed under: Collaboration, Working together | 4 Comments »

No one is an island

Posted on March 11, 2016 by wtdavid

That expression, in part, comes from John Donne’s (1572-1631) well known poem which begins in this way: “No man is an island, entire of itself, every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main.” Each one of us is ‘connected’ to others. To talk about life from a singular viewpoint denies the very nature of what is means to be human.  In other words, as God’s creation, we are relational beings.desert-island

That all may sound heady and somewhat theological, but the practical implications of this truth are far reaching.

For one, it means I should resist talking about ‘my’ ministry. If no one of us is an ‘island’, then all ministry is done in the context of community.  It’s ‘our’ ministry, or better yet, it’s the ministry God has given to us.  As a result, I (we) will find ways to find out more about what is happening elsewhere in my community and how I can support it by my prayers, resources and presence.  I (we) will seek to know more of what is happening in Suriname as well as in East Asia.  There’s time investment involved.

For another, it means I could consider moving laterally within the agency to help another part of the community. If we believe this is a community ministry, then we will be open to God’s leading to move from one ministry location to another (maybe even outside of our current geographical location) to come alongside and help another part of our larger team.

Finally, it means that when I enter a people group or culture, I will recognize God’s hand already at work in that people group or culture. This is His ministry and working from that truth, I will more easily share ministry with others within that culture; I will see myself more as a facilitator of those on that ‘continent’ with me.

No one of us is an island. We truly do need each other.  So, how do I reach out and offer the ‘hand of fellowship’ to other members of our community?

Filed under: Collaboration, Community, Sacrifice | Leave a comment »

Is Church Planting Too Narrow a Focus?

Posted on July 15, 2014 by wtdavid

Sometimes in conversation with people from around the globe, I will hear a comment which goes something like the following: “So, your mission is only focused on church planting?  I’m not sure that really plays well to potential workers today.”  What I think people are trying to say is that ‘church planting’ is somewhat out of date, too restrictive, or that the term doesn’t really communicate passion and vision to potential workers.churchplanting

Agreed. The term church planting (CP) might not communicate well in our media saturated context and it could convey the idea that we’re just concerned with building a building and moving on.  However, I think church planting is oftentimes undersold.

Building communities is not only a wild ride of spiritual passion, it is varied in its activities and outcomes.

For one, building communities pushes a person to their limit because you always ‘work from a blank page’.  Jerry (WT France) used this expression recently to describe the work in Western Europe and I think there is a lot of truth in what he said.  It’s about starting something from scratch by looking around to see what God is already doing, how you can join in partnership with others, and what ways you can facilitate the work of seeing people commit to Christ and live out their spiritual journey in a different cultural context.

For another, building communities involves addressing the total needs of people, and in particular their spiritual needs.  Everyone we meet has a host of needs that range from physical to emotional to spiritual.  The Bible is pretty clear that we cannot just address spiritual needs when the physical needs of a person are staring us in the face.  It is a multifaceted task to which we are called.

And finally, building communities means admitting daily you don’t have the capacity or ability to do ALL the work.  It calls for distributing, delegating and sharing the work across a large number of people.  It means learning, really learning to work collaboratively with others, where sometimes their ideas are chosen over ours.

Church planting may not be the best term to communicate what we are about.  Perhaps it’s building communities. Perhaps it’s something else.  Whatever the term, the elements which make up that work get my heart, and the hearts of many others, pumping.

Filed under: Church planting, Collaboration | 8 Comments »

we have a dream

Posted on March 21, 2014 by wtdavid

Thanks to many of you who are ‘dreaming’ with me in the way I described in my last post.  Maybe it might be more appropriate to say:

we_have_a_dreamWe have a dream for World Team.

We have a dream that one day all World Team workers, all staff serving with World Team will be looking for ways to participate in teaming up potential workers with existing or new initiatives.

We have a dream that World Team workers will more quickly say: “We need to mobilize more workers into cross cultural church planting, so how can we work together on this,” rather than “WT Australia needs to do a better job of getting us workers”.

We have a dream for World Team.

We have a dream that World Team workers, the World Team community will invest deeply in potential workers: reaching out to them relationally, training them on the job, and developing them through delegation.

We have a dream that all of us as a World Team community will always be growing in our character in the Gospel, always learning new ideas and more helpful skills, and always reaching out to draw others into His mission.

We have a dream for World Team.  We hope and pray that many more will join us in sharing this dream.

Filed under: Collaboration, Mobilization, Vision | 2 Comments »

Should I really care about the WTGA?

Posted on October 19, 2012 by wtdavid

The impact of the WT Global Alliance may not be seen or felt in the day-to-day life and ministry of many WT workers.  So, should you as a worker really care about the WTGA?

By all means, yes, and for two primary reasons.

First, because the Alliance will open the door for many more voices to enter the life and ministry of the mission.  One avenue will certainly be by global members from outside of the WT community joining the WT Global Alliance.  These members will bring different perspectives on issues and challenge our default way of pursuing ministry.  Another avenue will be the growing number of non North American workers who will join our teams and potentially lead our teams.  Each of us will need to be trained in greater cross cultural or multicultural communication and collaboration.

Second, because the Alliance will empower leaders and workers to expand ministries much more quickly.  With key resource players around the same table, the Alliance will have the ability to determine World Team’s response to ministry initiatives without having to poll individual resource centres or hubs.  The collaborative spirit of the Alliance will allow faster engagement and capacity to empower teams to move on new ministries and projects.

Certainly, all this is not for tomorrow.  The Alliance is in a building stage, but that is the future clearly before us, and we should care about it.

 

You are invited to share your comments and questions by posting them here on the Thoughts Along the Journey blog.  We are calling on the entire WT community to uphold this newly formed global alliance in prayer.  Pray especially for the invitation of new global members from outside the WT community.  We are praying for the laying of firm foundations that will serve future generations of workers well.

 

 

Filed under: Collaboration, Communication, Global structure, WTGA | 6 Comments »

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