Glimpses of the Kingdom

Would it be too radical to believe that God would utilize the innovation you are working on to communicate to those around you? I would like to contend that many times our innovations provide new and creative glimpses into the Kingdom. Who knows maybe the only interest God has in your innovation is the example it provides.

We are pretty utilitarian so this is hard for us to imagine. But after all. Our God is the one who paid his tax by having his disciple pull the money from a fish! That sure wasn't the most practical way to go about it. But it did teach those who experienced this amazing tax payment some powerful lessons.

What lessons does God want to teach you and others through your innovation?

I was in Sunday School this week at Fellowship Bible Church in Colorado Springs and I came up with one such example that was such an encouragement to me. We all know at least a little about GPS technology. It has revolutionized so much of our mapping software and other key digital tools. We were talking about God's guidance in our lives and it occurred to me that God's Holy Spirit is a lot like a GPS unit in your car. When you begin your relationship with Christ you insert the directions for Heaven. From that point on the Holy Spirit is guiding and directing you towards God and away from the things that might interest us. Even if we get off track in our car, the GPS recomputes how to get to the location and starts us back in the right direction.

What an amazing example of God's faithful and persistent love and guidance in our lives!

What innovations are you working on or interacting with?

How might God use that innovation to point people towards Him?

Innovation in Suffering

The suffering in Haiti is truly heart wrenching. My family and I are working through it in prayer, action and mobilization, but the facts don't go away. To learn from the event seems predatory and to ignore it seems heartless. But I have been asking myself what a Generous Mind would do and I come back to this--we are called to obey God fully and without reservation where we are with what we have.

So with that in mind I share some innovation thoughts. As I have been thinking and praying about tragedy and suffering I have seen two things in relation to innovation. Both of them have to do with innovation in mobile technology.

The first is that in a time of tragedy and disaster people innovate and create solutions that change the game and bring hope and options to those who are suffering. One amazing example is the way cell phones are being used. It is hard to believe that cell phones even work after such a tragedy, but they have been used in countless ways. One system we should all know about is what Thomson Reuters Foundation used for the first time. The Emergency Information Service (EIS) is providing messages to the countless people who have cell phones (although not much else). These messages give direction for healthcare and provide other informational services at no charge. This is the first time this system has been used and is a major step forward in using mobile technology to respond to a tragedy. We can only imagine the hope it is providing and the lives it will save.

Another amazing innovation in technology for those fortunate enough to have an iPhone when the earthquake hit are the applications that show users how to treat wounds. Compassion's Dan Woolley used an app like this while waiting to be rescued. I am sure we will see many more people step up with new ideas and creative solutions as Haiti is rebuilt.

The second observation about innovation is that tragedies create momentum to take an idea that has already been in existence and propel it into the mainstream. A very good example of this is mobile donations. Before the earthquake giving via your mobile phone was starting to gain ground, but this tragedy has propelled this innovation to a new level. According to mgive the Red Cross has raised 24 million dollars from nearly 2.5 million people via mobile phones. Each person sent a text that gave $10 to the Red Cross's response efforts for Haiti. The Red Cross says that mobile donations are now 25% of total donations for their work in Haiti! These are amazing numbers that happen as a result of a tragedy that mobilizes people to action.

So what do we learn from these two observations? Here is my take-away -- a innovation moves from new idea to a useful and powerful tool when there is a clear and present need. Don't hear me saying that we should pray for tragedies so that our ideas will take off...that is not the point.

But what we can learn is that if we are faithful with what God has put on our heart, even when no one around seems to care or need it, then there may be a moment in time when God chooses to use our life's work to respond to a tragic event. We don't know when our innovation will be needed. But that is not necessarily for us to know. If God has told you to do something, then obedience is in order and He will provide the context for it to glorify Him.

I wonder how long people worked on the technology, platforms and partnerships that would allow the Emergency Information Service or mobile giving to be a reality? Did they know that an earthquake would strike Haiti? Did they understand the significance of their work on those hard days when nothing went right and when the obstacles seemed unreal?

No, but today they can look at their work and say, "God used the work of these hands!" Will you be able to say that someday?

Prayer for Haiti

We are all overwhelmed with the needs in Haiti, but where do we start. We believe firmly that we start with prayer. That is what we are doing in our church and in our family and we would ask you to join us in that. Jon has created a 30 Day Prayer Guide for Haiti with Eric Foley as part of their work with .W (doers of the Word - www.dotheword.org). Take a minute to visit Eric's blog and download the prayer guide. And please be sure to share here how you and your family are responding.

Urbana09 - Day 2 Twitter Wrapup

Here are some of the tweets that came out of today's conversations and presentations:

RT @Angelamz40: RT @lovingmercy: Love does not reach from afar, it becomes incarnational. #urbana09 (via @mmesachi)

RT @mmesachi: RT @lovingmercy: Evangelism is firstly relational. #urbana09

RT @Angelamz40: Our prayer: open our blind eyes and break our hard hearts. Save us from pride/prejudice/superiority. #urbana09

RT @Liz_Pix: AM bible session. John 2:1-12. Often times we can taste the glory of God but still not give him the glory for it. #urbana09

RT @TheTatar: "May the people here make decisions that will change history." Yes, Lord, help us change history! #urbana09

RT @HeatherTWR: Ramzez Atallah and Dave Ramsey agree- ACT YOUR WAGE and GIVE LIKE NOONE ELSE! #urbana09

RT @michaelkaspar: RT @julioanta: "Build movements, not monuments" - Ramez Atallah #urbana09. #OMbooth1107

RT @RLouisT: The Great commission & Great Commandment go hand in hand. Love by word and deed. This is the Biblical Mandate frm God #Urbana09

RT @sudantweets: RT @simusa: RT @goodsirdavid: There are currently 15,000 people in auditorium in St Louis cheering 4 Wii tennis. #urbana09

RT @hcjbglobal: Come chat with Radio Trainer Allen Graham from Quito Ecuador at 2:15 booth 1100 #itsnotaboutyou #urbana09

RT @USCWM: Keep the conversation going: articles on slave trade, trafficking etc #urbana09 http://bit.ly/4zAVNH

RT @bensonlee: standing room only out the door for the prayer, fasting, scripture and worship 101 seminar at #urbana09

RT @aaivprays: #urbana09 John Perkins: our blessings from God were never meant for us, but to be shared with others.

RT @christian2do: RT @hcjbglobal: chat w/ Singapore based Ty Stakes about engineering music & farming @booth 1100 at 6pm tonight. #urbana09

RT @acjeske: #urbana09 I am one of the urbana photographers. Shots up at worldviewmultimedia.com ! More soon!

RT @Mexicachel: The bible condemns heterosexual sin at least ten times more than homosexual sin #urbana09

You can follow my messages and RT's during the day at www.twitter.com/generousmind.

Innovation in Organizing Relationships

One of the most important resources an innovator has are his/her relationships. Think about it. Where do you get your inspiration, go to ask for help in brainstorming, go for money to fund your idea, etc. Your relationships are the fabric that allow you to innovate.

But what happens in a world where relationships are exploding through social media. Now if you are a well connected person you might have up to 1000 friends on facebook and your twitter feed might have several thousand followers. But do you know any of these people? How do you organize these relationships to be effective in your ministry innovation?

I recently posted a cartoon about social networks and relationships on facebook and began a great discussion about this topic with a fellow innovator. As we talked, he shared a system he has come up with to manage relationships and make them effective in this sea of information.


Listen to him in his own words:
"I think there is a difference between "friends," "acquaintances," and "followers." I usually think of things in terms of Dunbar's number: I have my best 15 relationships, my close 50, my near 75, and my "tribal" 150. Anything beyond that is "distant horizon associates": people who follow me or whom I follow because we share common ideas, visions . . ."


The great thing about this system is that it allows you to prioritize the sea of information and connections out there and proactively stay connected to those people that you really believe are key in your life and spiritual growth. At the same time it gives you a way not to avoid the larger group - but to keep the mass of information in context.

I love what he says about the flow of information:
"The great thing is that I don't try to keep up with every Facebook/Twitter/Friendfeed post. I view them as a river or a stream that I dip into at various times."


One of the things I appreciated about his approach is that it is not static. He focuses on those relationships that are closest, but as he reads, interacts and grows personally, his system allows people to change their connection to him - closer or further away.
"The closer someone is to me, the more often I will probably be in touch with them.... my close 15 I'm probably in touch with at least once every other week if not weekly... so I'll find out what's going on in their lives from FB posts, emails, phone calls etc. typically daily or weekly. I have different levels of involvement with each of the levels (15-50-75-150-followers). I don't attempt to deepen connections with followers unless they "move" into one of the other levels..."


But you may be asking, how can you manage this in a practical way? Here is his approach:
"I have rules set up in my gmail account to automatically tag all messages from certain people according to which category they are in "best15," "close50", "near75," "tribe150" and slot them in. Then I have multiple inbox views in Gmail that let me see newest emails, as well as newest emails from best15 ... Read Moreand close50. I always respond to best15 and close50 first and then deal with everything else. And I make it a point to check in with best15 at least once a week or once every other week, just to see what they're doing, if I haven't talked to them before."


Innovation requires a proactive approach to relationships and ideas. How will you organize your relationships for greater Kingdom Impact?

The Innovation In Mission Ebook is Here

I know that so many of you live around the world and have had trouble accessing the "Innovation in Mission" content. Well, our publisher has launched the book as an ebook available to purchase at a lower price. I hope that this resource will be more accessible to you and others you know. Please share the link with others:

http://www.ibsdirect.com/p-1095-innovation-in-mission-ebook.aspx

Blessings as you innovate!

The Innovation Challenge

Today's post has an assignment . . . with a prize! Many of you have joined me on a journey to imagine with missional innovation looks like. We have highlighted people, talked about new ministry/outreach and shared about the challenges and blessings of innovation.

So this group should be pretty qualified to do some analysis and synthesis about innovation. In our test, the subjects we will study are the top 10 creative people as selected by Fast Company Magazine. They actually named 100 top most creative people, but we are going to focus on what FC believes are the cream of the crop.

Here is our test: Can you look at this list, read each bio and see the common thing that each of them did which enabled them to change their industries? There are many things, but one stands out - at least to me :).

Here is the prize: I will send two copies of our book "Innovation in Mission" to the first person to submit the right answer as a comment to this blog posting. Why two? One for you and one for you to share with a fellow innovator that you are connected with.

Click on this link to visit the list of the 100 Most Creative People


Here is the top 10 list with links to the individuals:
Jonathan Ive: Apple Designer
"There's an applied style of being minimal and simple, and then there's real simplicity. This looks simple, because it really is."- Design According to Ive, Wired

Melinda Gates: Co-Founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
"We literally go down the chart of the greatest inequities and give where we can effect the greatest change."- Melinda Gates goes public , Source

Shai Agassi: CEO of Better Place

Reed Hastings: CEO of Netflix
"There is a revolution happening, and within two years I think that Wi-Fi and Netflix will be built into all the televisions." - On the possibility of Netflix being built into televisions, New York Times Blog Jan 2009

Rich Ross: President, Disney Channels Worldwide
“Kids on the street can tell you what my priorities are,” Mr. Ross said. “I’m a wild optimist. You see that thread through anything we do. There are hard times, and there are not-so-hard times, but at the end it is an O.K. world.”- Oh, Grow Up, Mr. Ross, NY Times

Sandy Bodecker: VP of global design, Nike
"Like Nike, I believe in the power of human potential to do amazing things whether it's on the playing field of life or sport."Fast Company interview, Fast Company

Tero Ojanpera: Executive VP at Nokia
"What was formerly known as the cell phone is democratizing innovation,"

Michelle Ganeless: President, Comedy Central
The goal is "to make sure our content is everywhere our viewers are. We want everything to be accessible, sortable, and sharable."

Jon Rubinstein: Executive chairman, Palm

James Schamus: CEO, Focus Features

Giving Your Innovation a Stress Test

So we have a new concept in our dictionary thanks to the recession and its challenges - "Stress Test." We have heard the government talking about giving the banks a stress test to see if they are able to recover and serve their customers. This phrase is part of a long line of phrases that enter our vocabulary through the media. Think about the concept of a "carbon footprint" as another example. We could go on and on.

Well, since we have this new phrase in our media stream, why don't we use it to talk about innovation in mission. What does stress testing have to do with innovation? I'm glad you asked.

When we come up with a new idea and prototype it, the environment we are testing in is very limited. It is limited by those who are testing it as well as the volume of people who are experiencing it. This means that your idea is going to be encountered first by people a lot like you and only a few of them.

But if your idea takes off, then it will run into people very different than you and in large numbers. Here is where we usually make our mistake. When we do our prototypes and tests, we assume that if we received positive results we should expect these when we launch our idea to the wider world. That is an assumption that can ruin a good innovation.

So I am recommending that we stress test our innovations to see if they will hold up to the success we are praying for. Here are a few thoughts on how to do that:

1. Test your idea with those in your circle, but then do another test with part of your audience that is very different than you are. For example, if you are creating a small group material for churches, test it with those in your church but then find a church that is very different from yours to do another test.

2. Do some role playing to consider how you would handle bandwidth. When you do your tests, figure how many hours you spent providing service for your idea. Now multiply that by several hundred or thousands (taking into account automated systems and familiarity) and imagine how you will support your innovation. If you can't imagine doing it, then you need to build in some automated systems or get some more people involved.

3. Consider how you will handle both praise and criticism for your idea. Can you effectively take advantage of endorsements and fans and build on them? Can you provide interaction and explanations for those who will complain?

4. Define how you will judge success with your innovation. How will your service, tool, resource transform lives and engage people with Jesus? Are there elements of your process, product, delivery that will keep you from reaching that ultimate goal?

I could write many more stress test items, but you get the idea. The better you do at vetting your idea before you go live, the more effective you will be in serving those who God has called you to. So as you develop your idea, make sure you stress test it!

Take 24 hours . . . create a movement

In Seth Godin's latest TED Talk, he challenges us about the way that leadership happens. Seth shares three phases of how leadership has manifested itself. First it came through factories and industrial efficiency. Then it came through television and mass media. Now he says that leadership is exhibited through ideas. And the groups that form around ideas are called Tribes (the name of his new book).

"That what we do for a living now, all of us, I think, is find something worth changing, and then assemble tribes that assemble tribes that spread the idea and spread the idea. And it becomes something far bigger than ourselves. It becomes a movement. So when Al Gore set out to change the world again, he didn't do it by himself. And he didn't do it by buying a lot of ads. He did it by creating a movement. Thousands of people around the country who could give his presentation for him. Because he can't be in 100 or 200 or 500 cities in each night." Seth Godin

This talk highlights a significant change from industrial power to media savvy and finally to the harnessing of information. It is so important for any missional innovator to understand this trending. This trending looks overwhelming but it is very good news for nonprofits. Why is that?

It is simple. In our nonprofit reality, we don't have huge factories that push out our services. We also don't have the money to take advantage of the mass media the way that the large companies do. But we do have ideas. We have ideas that can be honed, harnessed and delivered to those who will be passionate about them. We are probably more suited to create powerful ideas that move people's hearts than anyone else.

So this latest movement of leadership into the hands of those who formulate and present ideas gives us all some exciting opportunities. This means that you don't have to have the infrastructure to produce product or the money to fund advertising to make a difference.

So listen to Seth's talk above, and begin thinking more about your big idea. How will you lead out? How will you present your idea to the world and use it to change the world for the better? How will your innovation bring glory to the Kingdom? That's our task as mission innovators.

Processing New Ideas - Play it Forward and Philanthropic Investing

One of our facebook group members turned me on to a new service that I found very interesting. http://akoha.com/ is a online social reality game where you set up a list of things you want to do to for others, the planet, etc. It has combined the new trends in social justice with reality games in an interesting way.

This site is not Christian, but it does highlight a trend that we as Christians need to understand and leverage. In our post-christian culture, many people are looking for community and for purpose. A site like this provides both. They can connect with others while they fulfill social responsibility.

As we look for the new models in mission to recruit and fund our efforts, it is key to understand trends like this. People around us are looking for community and purpose. However, the tools they will use to find it are different than they used to be.

So the question becomes, how can we connect with people's desire for community and purpose in a way that energizes people for Great Commission work? That's where innovation comes in.

Another great site that leverages new trends is http://www.kiva.org/. This site allows an average investor to help fund part of a micro loan for someone around the world. Lets say that Rita in Peru wants to start a sewing business. You, sitting in your living room, can lend her 50 dollars and Kiva will work with the micro enterprise organization on the ground to get them the money and to repay you when the loan is up.

This site is combining the eBay approach to shopping with the angel capital efforts of so many. People are saying, "I want to use my money to benefit others but I want to do it through business."

How do you use that for mission purposes?

Here are some thoughts on how to take new ideas and trends and process them innovatively for your efforts:
1. When you see an innovative idea, ask what need it is meeting and who it is serving.
2. If an idea seems to have application to your efforts, define the application clearly and then list out the pieces of their idea that can be brought to bear on your project.
3. When the next huge fad hits, ask why people are jumping on board and list out the keys to its success.
4. Understand the DNA of your project. When you see another innovative idea, compare it to that DNA to see if there is a connection.
5. After you have done your comparison and analysis be willing to let the idea go if it is not a fit with your audience, your goals and your DNA.

Timing is Everything

I have been thinking a lot about timing in recent days. Ecclesiastes chapter 3 has the famous chapter on timing. It starts in verse 1 by saying, "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:"

Those words written so long ago still amaze me. In my own mind, I fight these words because I want the timing and seasons of an activity to be up to me. But when I read this I remember that I do not control the timing of so many things.

As that reality dawns on me and I consider again my role in the world, I am able to put myself in a right relationship with the God who has planned out the ages and is working out His will in our lives.

So what does this have to do with innovation? It is very simple. Timing is everything in innovation. Think about an idea that you have which you would like to bring into the world in a new and exciting way. The timing of when, how, why and where are critical.

For example, with some innovations it is very appropriate to launch them in a hard economic time. Think of an innovation that allows people to save money on gas or keeps their home utilities down. Other innovations would never fly. Imagine trying to launch an innovation in luxury pet carriers in a bad economy!

But there are other issues with timing as well. What if your innovation will take you away from your young family for days, weeks or months? What if your other commitments are keeping you from spending the time on your new idea?

As we look at our ideas and how we might move them forward, we need to be very sensitive to the Holy Spirit and His leading. Timing is everything and the right idea can be pushed forward at the wrong time. But if we are praying about our innovations and bringing them before God, He will show us the right timing.

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?

Little Things That Make a Difference

As I attended the conference, one thing came out over and over - little things make a big difference. Here is what I mean. When you are talking about relationships with people all over the world, little things that seem insignificant can mean a lot, for good or for bad.

One example is the conference call. When you schedule a conference call with a group from around the world, who picks the time? Is the US office getting the most convinient time during business hours?

So many times we are in a hurry to get something done. In our haste we overlook things that show another culture that they are not valued. This happens between any two cultures but as we try to work together it keeps us from building trust.

Those silly little mistakes communicate more than hundreds of hours of meetings and thousands of airline miles logged. So how can we pay attention to the little things?

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.

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.

Dr. Ralph D. Winter Awarded Liftetime of Service Award

Mission leaders are meeting September 24 through 27 for a triennial conference of the Mission Exchange, CrossGlobal Link and EMIS associations. At this special event focused on partnership with the Majority World, leaders took time to recognize Dr. Ralph D. Winter for his years of service to the Global Missions Cause. Dr. Winter received the award on Thursday September 25 during the evening session of the meetings with family, friends and the entire conference attendees participating. Dr. Winter is most known for launching the US Center for World Mission, the William Carey Library and the Perspectives on the Christian World Movement course. Marv Newell, executive director of CrossGlobal Link, and Steve Moore, president and CEO of the Mission Exchange, presented Dr. Winter with the award, describing his service as “pioneering”, “faithful obedience”, and “a world class educator.” Through his various roles as missionary, educator and missions leader, Dr. Winter has championed the cause of unreached peoples and the Global Missions Movement.

Majestic and Messy

Devotional thought for Friday
Marv Newell - President of CrossGlobal Link

Ecclesiastes 4
Four Advantages of Working in Unity
1. Better success - the advantage of a better yeild
2. Better stability - the advantage of helpful assistance
3. Better chance of survival - the advantage of companionship
4. Better security - the advantage of additional strength

How do we apply the concept of 2 being better than one in missions? What does it mean for our organization. Marv made a point that partnerships are better, but not easier. Essentially relationships honor God but are very messy. Are we willing to do the hard work of partnership even when it is much easier to do our own thing?

So are you ready to dive in?

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 4 - Is Status Limiting Your Strategy?

This morning Steve Moore lead devotions and talked about the challenges to Servant Leadership. One of the key points he made had to do with status. He said so many times status keeps us from being servant leaders.

He said that we get status in the following ways:
- Status by Position
- Status by Association
- Status by Information
- Status by Exageration
- Status by Education

These status issues keep us from serving others. They keep us from passing influence and opportunties to others. These issues keep us focused on ourselves.

Do you get your identity from your status? Are you willing to give up status for the larger Great Commission Cause?

Mission Next Idea 3 - Expanding Networks

So much of missions work is done in networks. Those networks - Lausanne, WEA, etc - drive ideas, strategies, partnerships. Those networks have been established over time and in the models driven by Western mission agendas.

So how do these venerable networks bring in the new movements within the Great Commission? As people from the Majority World join these networks, how do they plug in? How do the Western leaders of these networks continue to share their valuable history and experience while not dampening new ideas that are coming out of very different contexts and cultures?

A key element of this is trust. Will Western Leaders trust new partner's ideas in the Majority World and lend their name/credibility to these new ideas. I think that if established leaders will point to new ideas and stand behind them, new ideas will be given life.

One of the keys in a transition of leadership between old and young / West and Majority World is that the established leaders will value the new even if it lessens their status. Would you be willing to sacrifice your status and importance to bless a new voice?