Thoughts Along The Journey

I shared earlier this week that interdependence is about a “desire to live out God’s design for the Church from within our organization by working together with fellow believers from all nations, within World Team, as well as with other like-minded organizations; so that we might glorify God in unity, grow in the likeness of Christ as individuals, as well as maximize efforts to bring the Gospel to all peoples. It’s about all believers everywhere being united together and needing each other.”

Several of you commented about the notion of how far interdependence can extend.  Could small steps be taken to encourage us to move towards that kind of extending interdependence by crossing over our existing silos (teams, fields, areas and Support Centres)?

Let’s try a few examples:

• Workers in a creative access country have a need for professional business expertise. Their current oversight is provided by a good leader with extensive experience in CP.  However, he does not have business insight.  Another worker/leader from another region or another volunteer has the needed expertise.  What creative ways could provide the needed counsel and help for these workers?
• An emerging CP team is struggling to further local ministry.  Their need is for someone to facilitate and direct their team towards greater synergy and fruit.  Such a person is working in another team, in another country.  How could such a person be challenged to serve this team and demonstrate interdependence?
• One of our Support Centres has a unique opportunity to participate in several seminars over a weekend.  Two gifted field mobilizers would be on HA at that time.  How could these field workers help their Support Centre?

Now, I know there are lots of reasons why some of these situations might not work.  We need to continue to challenge one another to consider ways to demonstrate this interdependence beyond our natural silos or boundaries.

If the truth be told, one of those scenarios actually came to fruition and was a blessing to all involved.  Interdependence trumped independence and its extent went beyond just team and field: “It’s about all believers everywhere being united together and needing each other.”

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The title kind of makes you stop and wonder: did David get the title wrong from that Will Smith movie?   No, I am thinking about how interdependence comes into, works out in our day to day lives.

I asked a number of WT workers if they could share in less than three minutes how our core values are being worked out in their personal, team and ministry lives.  Last week you heard from Daniela about the prayer & worship.

This week, Dan, one of our staff workers in North America, shares what “interdependence days” might look like in his context.

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In yesterday’s post, I wrote: “It’s hard to become less self reliant and more interdependent.  It begins sometimes with a simple statement: “I need your help on this.””  However, who is the audience that I need to be addressing?  In other words, what is the scope of interdependence?

Is it something that expresses itself:

• Among fellow workers?
• In teams?
• In communities of believers?
• Among Support Centres?
• Between Support Centres and workers?
• Between Support Centres, workers and partners?
• Between workers in different regions?

The farther I went in my list, the more I saw how difficult it is to live out interdependence.  It really does require an other centredness that is not part of my natural bent.  Once again, I found myself being driven back to the Gospel as the core motivation for wanting to move in this direction.

If you go to the WT global website: www.worldteam.org (for those in Australia, Canada and the US: http://global.worldteam.org), you will find the following statement under our vision and values:

“Interdependence is evident in our conscious desire to embrace partnerships with others who share our passion for the unreached. It is lived out in our teams, networks of national church associations, and sending churches and individuals who make up the broader World Team family.”

The audience just keeps extending farther out.

May the Gospel push our hearts to “embrace” partnerships with others that demonstrate in tangible ways our interdependence.

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As cross cultural workers, most of us are self reliant.  The transition from life in one’s home country to life and ministry in another culture and place calls for a person to demonstrate drive, initiative and self effort.  This is part of the nature of our work. 

However, this self reliance can collide with one of our core values: interdependence.  Self reliance means we count primarily on ourselves.  Interdependence means we need others involvement in our lives and ministries and we count on that engagement.

Thinking about this idea today, I remembered something that Detlef shared with me awhile back.  He said that as we demonstrate interdependence by looking to others to engage in our lives, it is a tangible expression of the interdependence that exists between God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.  Interdependence is a Trinitarian value.  World Team doesn’t have the corner on this core value, but we do need to find ways to express what appears to be at the core of the relationship between the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

It’s hard to become less self reliant and more interdependent.  It begins sometimes with a simple statement: “I need your help on this.”

As the Gospel works its way deeper into our hearts, we will recognize more and more how much stock we put in our own abilities and we will grow in our desire for His work in our lives which is often worked out by brothers and sisters moving into our lives.

“Interdependence is about oneness. It’s about all believers everywhere being united together and needing each other. As Jesus prayed that we would be one, as He and the Father are one, we are united through the Spirit. Interdependence is about more than just being on the same team, it is the outward reality of the Gospel, binding us together in heart, mission and passion as the body of Christ.”

1 Corinthians 12:18-27, Ephesians 4:2-4, John 17:21

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