Partnering With Churches

In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. – Philippians 1:4-6

Jesus describes the Church as His body and bride. Local churches are His chosen instrument for His involvement in the world. When the local church acts, God receives the glory, rather than the praise going to an individual or organization. That’s why the church is key to addressing brokenness.

The Church around the world is called “the body of Christ” and “the family of God” throughout the New Testament. Jesus and Paul both plead, pray, and command us to have unity, to be one, to build each other up. If we believe the Bible, there’s no way around it: if we want to see transformation in lives and communities in the Majority World, we must partner with local churches.

Yet many of us know from experience all that can go wrong with partnerships. Partners who make promises but never follow through. Misuse of funds. Reports that seem too good to be true (because they are). Lack of understanding. Lack of trust. Disappointing results.

How can we move from partnerships riddled with all these pitfalls to partnerships that glorify God, build each other up, and bring transformation to those we serve?

It starts with our beliefs

As this website points out again and again: beliefs have consequences. Where there is brokenness, we can nearly always find wrong beliefs at the root. Two beliefs that we must overcome in order to build strong partnerships are:

The local church is too poor to contribute.

Poor communities are best helped by projects done by outsiders.

Both of these beliefs are common, but they are barriers to healthy partnership and lasting change. The truth is, the local church has much to contribute (ideas, skills, local resources, and relationships, to name a few). And when outsiders do projects, the benefits only last as long as the well or latrine (or whatever) keeps functioning. After five years or so, the community is right back where it started. What about when the local church sacrifices to do the same project? God gets the glory, the church is strengthened, and a journey of transformation begins.

5 characteristics of transformational partnerships

In healthy partnerships:

Decisions are shared and there is mutual accountability.
Trust is high. Local partners feel able to share their ideas and are allowed to take some risks.
When funding is provided, it’s appropriate to the local partner’s capacity and carefully managed.
The local church makes significant contributions to their community’s transformation. They may mobilize or educate their neighbors, pray, and do acts of service. These are just a few of the many ways local churches contribute.
The outside partner strengthens the local church. This often happens through bringing new ideas (with effective, field-tested curriculum taught by experienced practitioners), skills training, prayer, and encouragement.

How does such a transformational partnership develop?

One of the most important inputs for a transformational partnership is TIME. Great partnerships are long term and slow moving. Partners invest a lot of time sitting together over tea, having seemingly unimportant discussions. A trusting relationship is established where local partners are safe to express their opinions, to disagree, and to share honestly when there are problems and challenges. With time, outside partners gain understanding and insight, while local churches build their skills and vision. And, though the results may be less than impressive in the first year or two, these slow-moving partnerships can help change people’s thinking and bring about true and lasting transformation.

In the following articles, we will take a closer look at how to develop transformational partnerships. We’ll start with choosing the right partner and avoiding common pitfalls.