Summing Up The Mission Next Conference

It has been almost a week since the Mission Next Conference and I have been processing the key lessons and ideas. Let me share some very quick summaries for you to consider and link you to my thoughts from the conference.

1. The minute we start questioning motives, we loose our ability to create partnerships between the Global South and the Global North.
2. Little details speak volumes. If we open our eyes to little things that we say and do and how they impact those from another culture, we will have a solid foundation for partnership.
3. As long as the standards for ministry practice are developed in the Global North, the Global South will struggle to have their issues and priorities at the table.
4. If we value status above empowering, then we will never allow new leaders to learn or grow through responsibility.
5. Partnerships are messy but that allows God to get the glory instead of us.

Out of these and many other conversations came a list of possible ways that we can connect the entire world of Great Commission workers. Take a minute to read some of those ideas.

I hope that blogging this conference has been an encouragement to you. I hope that you have been forced to think about things differently and consider new ways of partnering with other cultures.

Underlying all of this is relationship. If we are not out in our world building relationships, working together and praying together, we cannot hope for unity in the Great Commission Effort.

What are you doing to build healthy and strong cross cultural relationships today?

Moving Forward - Ideas Presented

This conference has been very colaborative. There have been some great efforts to collect ideas, bring together input and create consensus. One of the things I am most impressed about is the effort to create concrete steps for how to build powerful Global North (GN)/ Global South (GS) relationships.

Here are some of the ideas that people have shared (by no means all of them) about building stronger relationships:

NOTE: These were some of the initial brainstorming ideas. There will be more consolidated ideas/action steps coming out of the final discussions. Hopefully the conference will release those in some way to benefit others who could not attend.

1. Create Listening and Learning Opportunities

• Exchange visits for listening, prayer, learning and family time, not just tasks.
• Schedule days of listening, repentance and forgiveness for GN /GS failures
• Select couples with relational skills to dedicate to long term relationship building
• Share perspectives on N/S topics with internet video in many languages
• Add peer review process by local voices for GN publications about GS issues

2. Require Cultural Training on the Field with Local Partners

• Use varied national church contexts for orientation and training of staff and visitors
• Teach culturally appropriate ways to listen, dialog and partner to new missionaries
• Invite GS leaders to help design pre-field and on field training for short-term and long-term teams.
• Invite leaders from GS nations to visit and train organizations in the GN

3. Support Majority World Missions Movements

• Ask global partners for 1-2 ways to assist them in their own missions mobilization
• Create business as mission jobs for GS workers in restricted access contents

4. Demonstrate Partnership Vision and Competency at all Levels

• Set up partnership training for all levels from board to field personnel to partners
• Establish partnership criteria/expectations for key levels of organizational operation
• Work on clear, mutually sensitive agreements, policies, MOU’s, and contracts

5. Internationalize Leadership

• Populate teams and networks with GS/GN people who are reaching the world together.
• Expect GS/GN people to participate in decision making councils and advisory boards.
• Place GS individual as co-leader of the organization – regionally or internationally
• Involve GS people in the recruiting process for their regions by GN organizations

6. Engage Boards in GN/GS Issues

• Boards should meet internationally
• Set objective of 50/50 balance for boards between GN/GS
• Require board members to travel overseas at least once a year to see ministry in context

7. Create Culturally Sensitive Funding Patterns

• Encourage GS leaders to nominate priority initiatives and projects for funding
• Clarify benefits and culturally wise methods of funding GS missions movements
• Redesign funding structures to work flexibly with GS partners in accountable ways.

My heart will choose . . .

As we began worship tonight, we sang the song "Blessed be your Name." It is a powerful song that many churches have been singing for the past few years. But tonight one line stuck out in my mind - "My heart will choose to say Lord Blessed be your name"

The reason this stuck in my mind was that partnership is a choice that our heart must make. Building lasting relationships and loving others is a heart decision. It is a deep commitment to the value of people and the passion to reach those who yet do not know about the hope we have in Christ.

Mission Next Idea 8 - Motives

One of the things I have seen at this meeting is the tendancy to question motives. I think this is natural. People question motives based on actions that they see. The challenge we have is that actions cannot always be understood because cultures are so different. So we see someone say or do something and in our culture their action would indicate inappropriate motives. However, that person may not actually have bad motives.

So we have to get beyond guessing about motives and really get to know people. As we get to know people then, we will see their hearts and their passions. That doesn't mean that many times people do not have bad motives. But until we know people intimately we will not understand what drives them.

One of our panel members said, "We want what is best for you." If all of us assume we want the best for each other then we can build the relationships that will allow for understanding the dynamics that are going on.

Close connections will allow us to be honest with each other and will allow us to come alongside each other in strategic ways.

Mission Next Idea 6 - Paternalism is an Attitude

Our panel is talking about paternalism. The key idea being shared is that "paternalism is larger than money." K. Rajendran shared that paternalism is more about control. It can manifest itself in many aspects of minsitry. The projects selected, who must follow orders, what strategies are selected, how people are hired, etc.

If we look at paternalism as an attitude, then we need to look at all elements of our ministry. Are the decisions that we are making focused on loving people or treating people as objects?

When people become objects then we dehumanize the partnership. When we see people as a dot on a project timeline or a means to an end, then relationships falter. Paternalism is about control of the chess pieces on the board.

When we treat people as fellow laborers, then the issue of control does not become so critical. There is a relationship to create dialogue to solve issues of control.

Reflections on Global Partnerships

Thursday night at the Mission Next Conference, we had a panel of Majority World leaders answering questions. The questions had been collected throughout the day and they ranged from "What pictures to take on the field" to "What a good partnership looks like."

All that was good, but one thing struck me more than anything else. One question was, "What does your country bring to a partnership?" Of course, as we talk about parity and mutual benefit, that is a very critical question. If Western countries are bringing funding and resources, what are other countries bringing that they view as equal to the resources.

Some of the answers were:
- Experience of the church
- Passion
- New Questions / Answers about the Bible
- Fun
- We love Jesus, we love others and we want to get the job done
- Able to live with little
- Godly insight and wisdom
- Sheer desire to survive

What caught my attention about these answers is that these are not things you can put in a suitcase. They aren't things you can physically hand to someone. And they are definitely not things that you can grasp easily via phone and email.

Bottom line, as I have been listening to the issues, the greatest challenge seems to be "face time" with global partners. The value that Majority World people bring is something that has to be experienced in person. We can't have a conference call and say it's done. It is deeply personal and any effort to depersonalize it and comoditize it will fail.

Are Western organizations and individuals willing to make the commitment to this type of personal and long-term investment in partners? I think many were asking that question on Thursday night.

Mission Next Idea 1 - The Place of Money

"Money is less important in partnership for us than it is for you. We want respectful cooperation more than resources." David Ruiz

Money is always a challenge in culture isn't it? But do we all look at money the same way. David is saying that money doesn't necessarily hold the same value in every culture. There may be other values and things that you can bring to the table in a partnership with people in the Majority World.

What might a partnership that wasn't focused on money look like?

What does David mean by "respectful cooperation"?

Engaging the Majority World

"The purpose of the 2008 North American Mission Leaders Conference is to challenge assumptions, broaden perspectives, and stimulate actionable dialogue among Great Commission leaders regarding how we relate to the Majority World harvest force." - Steve Moore, president of the Mission Exchange

As the Mission Next conference begins, one of the first things to think about and get your head around is the concept of the Majority World. This is not a new term, but there are so many terms out there that people are using, that it can get confusing.

Wikipedia defines it this way: "The majority world (sometimes capitalized as Majority World) is a term used in preference to the largely inaccurate, out-of-date and/or non-descriptive terms developing countries, third world and the "Global South". In the early nineties, Bangladeshi photographer Shahidul Alam [1]began advocating for the new expression “majority world” to represent what has been known as the “Third World.” The term highlights the fact that these countries are indeed the majority of humankind. It also highlights the anomaly that the G8 (whose decisions affect the majority of the world's peoples) represent a tiny fraction of people in the world."

So what does this mean in missions work? Well, the reality today is that a vast majority of the Great Commission work is being done by people who live in this Majority World. Many reading this blog are from a Majority World country and many others are living in one of these countries.

The reality is that the missions movement of the 20th Century was defined and carried out by the Western developed nations. In the 21st Century the missions movement will be defined and driven by the Majority World.

So what is the role of Western leaders meeting in Denver then? God has a bigger plan than any of us can imagine. While the Majority World is the largest player in this new century, the role of the Western missions movement is still critical.

The key is sincere and humble partnership between the two. Both are God's agents to share the Gospel. This is not a "Door Number 1" or "Door Number 2" discussion. God is going to use all that come in humility and obedience. He will use them all in unique and powerful ways.

So as this discussion begins, lets see what God might do . . .

Blogging at Mission Next

What is Next in Missions?

This week, The Mission Exchange, Cross Global Link and EMS are meeting for in Denver under the theme Mission Next. At this meeting in Denver, people will be talking about what is next in missions - what it looks like to do missions with technology, the rise of new missions movements and new levels of strategic partnerships.

This is a key time for this discussion. The global economy, the changes in the church, and the rise of persecution along with a number of great issues are impacting missions significantly.

I will be blogging from the conference. Will anyone who reads this blog be there? Any questions issues that you would like to hear about? Lets have a discussion around this event and the outcomes.