“One finger will not pick up a stone” (Gourma proverb from Ghana). Try it! It’s impossible. Partnerships are like fingers working together to “lift the stone” of lostness and human need around the world.

For SIM, partnership takes many forms. Our files contain more than 75 legal partnership agreements. Some partners are national denominations, others are like-minded agencies, local churches, and individuals. There are also uncounted informal working agreements at the local level. The goal of partnership is ministry effectiveness. An African proverb says, “Go fast, go alone. Go far, go together.”

Some of our partnerships have a history of half a century; others are still in formation. Frankly, some have come to a tragic end with pain on all sides. Others have moved through extremely difficult adjustments and are now thriving. In any case, we are committed to strategic partnering because we believe it reflects the biblical pattern of mission and is pleasing to the Lord. In the pages of this magazine you will discover a variety of working partnerships. We’re doing our best, but we admit that we have a lot to learn. Sometimes partnering across the barricades that divide the worldwide body of Christ seems almost impossible.

Promise of the Kingdom

Dr. David “Zac” Niringiye, assistant bishop of Kampala in the Church of Uganda, calls us to kingdom thinking—viewing mission from the perspective of the King. He explains that historic missions from the West had a mindset shaped by global expansionism, with the “Go” from Christ’s final command as their motivating word. An alternative model, from the beginning of the Gospel, is Christ’s word “Come.” God is already at work among the nations, and He invites us to come and join Him in His work. “In the flow of God’s grace,” Niringiye writes, “partnership is not a mission strategy or an option reserved for the well connected internationally. Partnership is the global movement of gifts and resources” (Connections: the Journal of the WEA Mission Commission, November 2006).

All of us—those who already live in a particular location and those who move there from somewhere else—are called to break down barriers and enable mutual access to the gifts of grace.

Barriers to Partnership

Dr. Tokunboh Adeyemo, Executive Director of the Centre for Biblical Transformation, spoke at last year’s SIM International Council, where he identified some of the barriers to effective partnership. Centuries of segregation have robbed us of respect and appreciation for those who are not like us. Our respective cultures have programmed us differently; at first we are as unaware of our own culture as fish are unaware of the water in which they swim. Our philosophical points of reference have developed out of our growing-up context, and they seem so right to us that others simply must be wrong. Missionaries who came from Christianized nations knew they were bringing good news that the local people didn’t yet know, but many of them held on too long to the role of “spiritual parent.” Then there are the problems caused by money and power. Money for mission has tended to come from the more prosperous West, accompanied by the temptation to possess and control. Individualis stands against the concept of community sharing that marks many cultures, bringing huge clashes of misunderstanding. Finally, on all sides there are desires to dominate—with equal and opposite desires to not be dominated. Barriers indeed! Dr. Adeyemo offers several principles to help committed partners “go far” together:

• Shared vision and philosophy of mission
• Equality and reciprocity of partners (servant attitudes)
• Interdependence and shared responsibility
• Commitment to the local church
• Mutual trust and accountability
• Recognition that God owns it all—the work, the outcome, the glory

Walking Through the Rubble

Look around. Wherever we live and serve, we see barriers that we have unintentionally erected between ourselves and those who are not like us. Now look at God’s Word in Acts, Galatians, and Ephesians, and see that first-century churches were commanded to intentionally destroy barriers of race, class, and culture. Brian Seim, who champions SIM’s work in urban centers around the world, writes, “Christ tore down the walls; fait accompli. Yet we seem to continue as if nothing happened. It is time to encounter God, the breaker of walls. Perhaps the debris looks too rugged to pass through. But Christ has won, and with Him it is time to construct footpaths through the rubble. We can strengthen those footpaths with radical hospitality, personal friendship, and mutual service—being built into one body, a highway for our God, reconciled in Christ.”

Seim acknowledges the daunting nature of this task. “Christ took the costly responsibility to break down the barriers. Can we not learn a few communication skills in order to be involved in the things that are on God’s heart?” He offers these difficult but manageable steps:

1. Intentionally break down the barriers.
2. Build footpaths through the rubble of torn-down walls.
3. Accept discomfort; it is inevitable.
4. Make progress slowly in the early stages of dialogue.

If we can learn to be good listeners, we may find healing of past hurts and come to understand the reasons people act in a certain way. And then we’ll be moving past the barriers and on to the promise of “picking up stones together” for Christ’s kingdom.