Thoughts Along The Journey

Mark & I dialogued recently in the comment section of the post: “Should I really care about the WTGA?”  I thought his question and my attempt to answer could serve as another step in this ongoing conversation with the WT community. 

Mark wrote: “This post prompted two questions. The first is for me. In order to generously accommodate new friends from other cultures – to genuinely submit in partnership – how do I need to conduct myself in ministry? Attitudinally I certainly need humility but in practice I came up with two.

1. Learn how people from the incoming culture make decisions.

2. Learn how people from the incoming culture value relationships.

The second is: how will you know if we care? In other words, what is practiced on a day-by-day basis in our ministries that shows we care as much about the new global alliance as you do?”

I responded by saying: “Your question is not one easily answered.  The answer will be displayed more in our WT ethos than in specific steps that would be the same for all. Let me try one or two examples. First, when we are building a project for a new ministry outreach, we should look beyond our own team/field/Area, or to put it another way, beyond our own ‘silo’. Others in other places may have valuable insights that would help us in moving that project forward. This would be an outworking of what we mean be interdependence, consciously seeking ‘many voices’ to enter the discussion. A second example might be in how people approach ministry and particularly the issue of contextualization. Too often we will simply translate material from our home culture into the language in which we are working, not thinking about the cultural dissonance that might occur. I will know that people care about the Alliance when I see workers reaching out to others who are different from them for their ideas and input; when I see our growth in life and ministry being impacted by our interaction with those from other cultures and backgrounds.”

I know there is more to be said.  What do you think?

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The WTGA is a global structure and forum for assessing and implementing WT’s global vision. It provides input and accountability for the ministry vision and direction of the agency. The Alliance is comprised of WT’s International Director, Assistant International Director, Sending Country Directors, Sending Country Board delegates and global members from outside WT who are invited to serve based upon their expertise. With the launch of the Alliance, the WT International Board has been dissolved leaving the separate Sending Country Boards intact.

In addition to providing input and accountability for the International Director, the Alliance will help integrate new Sending Countries and ministry partners, approve the WT Global and major project budgets, guard the fiscal integrity of WT, call and release the International Director, and foster greater global resource sharing.

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The newly establish World Team Global Alliance is the next giant leap forward in living out the implications of our organizational name: World Team. The Alliance is a guiding body that will shape the agency’s ministry expansion and hold accountable agency leadership and sending partners. The most notable advantage of the Alliance is the inclusion of a broad spectrum of voices at the top tier of agency decision-making and vision-casting. These global members will come from outside the World Team family and include men and women from different corners of the globe and the greater mission community.

Filed under: Global structure, WTGA | 4 Comments »