4/14 Focuses on Youth

The Transform World movement is launching a new initiative called The 4/14 Window. The term plays off the familiarity with the 10/40 Window concept.

This initiative focuses on youth ages four to 14 around the world and seeks to mobilize the Global Church to reach, engage and empower this age group to transform the communities in which they live.

visionSynergy has been asked to play a significant role as a neutral third party and coach/facilitator in helping
this movement become a network of ministries and churches that touch this demographic.

Partnership education in colleges

At a national U.S. conference of seminaries and Bible schools visionSynergy was invited to present a vision for incorporating courses and other curriculum materials about Partnership in Christian colleges. Fifteen schools expressed immediate interest in either a three-unit college-level course or inclusion of a significant module on the “how and why” of a Partnership approach to Kingdom ministry.

We expect to see a number of these schools begin to use the collaboration materials later in 2009.

From Abstraction to Action

Capturing the post-conference energy pulse

“If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them” (John 13:17).

Network or partnership meetings typically finish up their conferences with a sense of direction and a set of action items that teams are to continue and complete. The group’s purpose and resolve are at their highest points right at this time. The groups have, in essence, created an energy pulse that can be harnessed toward great ends. Every group intends to carry forward its resolve!

All too often, these valuable energy pulses are left to wither and die. Conference experiences are frequently left in the dust as conferees return to their homes and workplaces, resume a backlog of work-and effectively seal off and shelve (for now) their work on conference goals. That “for now” often turns into a forgotten pledge.

The pulse, it turns out, is more vulnerable than we assumed. Moreover, a weak pulse suggests a serious health problem which can lead to death. Jesus, too, recognized this tendency for his disciples to fail to put convictions into practice. As he washed his disciples’ feet in the Upper Room, he said, “If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them” (John 13:17).

How can the post-conference energy pulse be captured? Active communication is key.

The answer goes back to the network or partnership facilitators’ responsibilities. Their leadership responsibilities do not actually end at the conclusion of the conference. To capture post-conference energy by conference participants, these leaders have a slim window to activate conferees to be true to their pledges of work on commonly agreed-upon objectives.

The time to gain traction on conference objectives is immediately following a gathering. Ideally, by the time conferees arrive back home, a personalized communication from conference organizers is waiting for them. This message notes their involvement in a particular working group and lists its immediate objectives.

The facilitator (or one acting in this role) encourages the conferees to plan now for how they can move forward on these efforts. This communication can point out what part each conferee can play and where/how each can contribute, even if all the conferees didn’t commit at the working meeting. The facilitator then offers to assist conferees if they need help getting into action and to address any questions they may have. The intensive communication doesn’t stop there. A second contact in a couple of weeks will reinforce the earlier call for action.

You and your group can continue the energy pulse with this short list of actions:

* Make contact arrangements
Prior to the conclusion of a gathering, discuss how the group will remain in contact with each other. Get addresses, work group membership, phone numbers.
* Create an online collaboration point
An online collaboration site is a “best practice” for groups that truly intend to continue their work between gatherings. One of the network’s most critical appointments will be a communication or Web volunteer. Recruit those who will act as Web site editors (to organize the site) and prompt discussion and community. Sign up conferees to use the service and orient them on how to contribute to it.

Many partnerships and networks have found Web sites such as Global Connexion and OpenaCircle serve well as central online collaboration points. They take very little effort to be “up and running,” because they are simple to establish and “brand” as a network’s site and easy for ordinary people to use and manage. These sites can provide sections for everything from posting topic-specific bulletin boards for discussion and prayer needs, to coordinating schedules/calendars, to publicizing projects and links to relevant resources.

*
Focus on the process, not the event
The network’s goal isn’t to hold a conference; rather, the goal is for the conference to galvanize and focus goals that can be realized through ongoing, sustainable, collaborative action.
*
Form a facilitation team
Identify a facilitation team that will manage the follow-up tasks. A facilitation team is always to be preferred, with a facilitator tying things together and keeping the motion moving forward. The members on this team typically serve in these roles: facilitator, communications/Web coordinator, and work group/task force leaders.
*
Establish work groups
These may be called task forces, etc. But they are the means by which specific objectives are established and through which those objectives are realized. Talk with work group leaders at your working meeting and have them send the facilitator their brief report on any positive activity taken or planned in their section-the greater the specificity, the better. If there hasn’t yet been any action, they can mention their hopes to get that activity going. These reports can be included in initial communications sent out to the membership that encourage individuals in the network to get to work.
* Maintain ongoing communication
It is essential to launch intensive communication with members in the first two to three weeks following the conference to map out agreed-upon objectives and tasks. Make sure the facilitation team receives lots of encouragement as it prepares a plan for regular communications about developments, next steps, future meetings, and resources. Depending on security considerations you may be able to use e-newsletters, online discussion groups, collaborative Web sites (as suggested above) or a mix of any of these elements.
* Enhance network value
As the network moves forward with subsequent meetings, its facilitation team can create a communications strategy to build up an atmosphere in the network that demonstrates the value of the network.

One way to heighten value is sharing the personal testimonies of what the network means to members and their organization. Here the aim is to help members realize that not only does the network benefit their own organization but that the cause itself can be furthered better through all the network’s members contributing back to the network.

This aim should reinforce these two points:

- What can be accomplished together is bigger than what can be done separately;

- A successful network will generate greater, deeper, and richer productivity.

Reports of the actual work being underway, actions taken, and subsequent positive outcomes are also tremendously useful to bring a sense that the network is resulting in definitive value to its members.

Rev. David Hackett is Associate Director of visionSynergy.

For more on partnership, collaboration and network development, see http://www.powerofconnecting.net/. PowerofConnecting’s free monthly Partnership eNewsletter can keep network members motivated with examples of success, triumph past failure, noteworthy partnership news, and more. To subscribe, go to http://snipr.com/eNLsignup.

Crossing the Will/Skill Divide

Doing mission in partnership is the faithful way to go, most people agree. It’s good witness for Christians to work together. We gain the benefits of greater numbers and resources in tackling the faith-sized mission and ministry we have on our hearts. And there’s the practical dimension: We avoid duplicating efforts where our ministry initiatives overlap significantly with other ministries.

The Will/Skill Divide
Many leaders appear to believe that creating a successful partnership is mainly an act of the will, of “getting around to it.” Oh, that it were so! Efforts built on an abundance of good intentions and good will, however, have floundered just as routinely as those without. This quandary begs the deeper questions: Can we accomplish enduring collaboration by running on good intentions? Or are there perhaps necessary, identifiable partnership skills-key principles to observe if groups are to work together successfully?

Doing partnership takes “will,” certainly. Without the conviction that we can do more together than we can do separately, any attempt to work together may be flawed from the start. The heart has to be in it.

But the heart has its limits. Good intentions start the journey but they lack power to actually reach the goal. People don’t know what they don’t know-and lacking that crucial information, it can be all too often a case of the blind leading the blind.

The Skills of Collaboration
That’s where networking skills enter the scene. Networking and partnership specialists have observed the same cycle over and over again-eager and willing organizations launching hopefully into collaborative ventures, only to bump headlong into predictable but unseen obstacles that trip up their effort. When failure comes, relationships are strained (sometimes never to recover), and collaboration is written off as impractical in the real world. For the participants, it’s back to their separate ways.

This pattern is tragic, not least of all because it is preventable. Networking skills are not quite like brain surgery, but like brain surgery, we don’t want someone operating on us who doesn’t have high-level, practiced skills. We want someone who has learned under great mentors and teachers. So it is with the delicate work of drawing together distinct organizations into a collaborative effort. Why do we think networking can be approached without learning from experienced practitioners in the field?

Collaboration Trajectory

Partnership, in short, takes will-and skill. It takes the will to persevere forward into the good land of stronger, broader ministry gained only by working together and the skills of successful collaboration to move groups of organizations past the many challenging roadblocks and barriers.

Navigating the Shoals with a Steady, Trained Hand
Like a trained captain who knows the boat and the sea, gaining the skills of collaboration help emerging networks and partnerships navigate the dangerous shoals by…

• Creating a level field for participation among ministries that vary in size, tradition, and approach yet share core convictions.
• Dealing with strong egos and ministries that tend to dominate or propose that others simply follow their lead.
• Preserving the sovereignty of each ministry while discovering new ways to work together.
• Countering the tendency to set unachievable objectives that break momentum and create a downward spiral.
• And dealing with a raft of other typically encountered problems.

Author Eric Hoffer writes eloquently about the hazards of substituting enthusiasm for “the self-confidence born of experience and the possession of skill.” He observes,

There is close connection between lack of confidence and a passionate state of mind, and, as we shall see, passionate intensity may serve as a substitute for confidence. The connection can be observed in all walks of life. A working man, sure of his skill, goes leisurely about his job and accomplishes much, though he works as if at play. On the other hand, the working man new to his trade attacks his work as if he were saving the world, and he must do so if he is to get anything done at all. The same is true of the soldier. A well-trained soldier will fight well even when not stirred by strong feeling. His morale is good, because his thorough training gives him a sense of confidence. But the untrained soldier will give a good account of himself only when animated by faith and enthusiasm. Cromwell used to say that common folk needed the “fear of God before them” to match the soldierly cavaliers. Faith, enthusiasm, and passionate intensity in general are substitutes for the self-confidence born of experience and the possession of skill. Here there is the necessary skill to move mountains, there is no need for the faith to move mountains. (The Ordeal of Change, 3-4)

Gaining the Skills of Collaboration
Where can one gain these requisite skills in partnership building and collaboration? The field of collaboration in the Christian ministry context is not well-plumbed. But substantial resources exist to help those who want to grow in their collaborative skills. Among the available resources that visionSynergy provides are the following materials that can serve as introductions for gaining collaboration skills:

* Butler, Phill. Well Connected: Releasing Power, Restoring Hope Through Kingdom Partnerships. Colorado Springs: Authentic, 2006. (Available through www.connectedbook.net and other booksellers). Comments from book endorsers: “Networks, partnering, and strategic alliances are hard to build but create incredible leverage…Phill Butler’s book is a practical ‘how to’ with exciting, real-life examples and the ‘why’ behind it all.” “If you didn’t know how to make partnership work well, you will now.”
* Addicott, Ernie. Body Matters: A Guide to Partnership In Christian Missions. Edmonds, WA: Interdev Partnership Associates, 2004.
* Bush, Luis and Lorry Lutz. Partnering in Ministry: The Direction of World Evangelism. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity, 1990.
* Denison, Jack. City Reaching: On the Road to Community Transformation. Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1999.
* Rickett, Daniel. Making Your Partnership Work. Enumclaw, WA: WinePress, 2002.
* Rickett, Daniel. Building Strategic Relationships: A Practical Guide to Partnering with Non-Western Missions. Pleasant Hill, CA: Klein Graphics, 2000.
* Taylor, William D., ed. Kingdom Partnerships for Synergy in Mission. Pasadena: William Carey Library, 1994.

Online Resources

* Networking Movement Resource Site www.PowerofConnecting.net.The PowerofConnecting Web site has a reservoir of articles, case studies and principles to help the reader gain the skills of collaboration.
* The Partnership eNewsletter. A free, monthly e-mail delivering news, commentary and inks about partnership and Kingdom collaboration. Subscribe to this eNewsletter.

Younger Leader Initiative Info

The emerging leaders for the global church sorely lack training in the skills and theory needed to undertake ministry collaboratively.

visionSynergy is allocating almost 60% of its resources to the task of educating and replicating genNOW leaders in partnership and collaboration skills and process. Materials, courses, curriculum, delivery media – visionSynergy is producing all these and more to impact the world Church’s incoming leadership.

Opportunities: $5,000 provides a full course in a new distribution channel. $50,000 provides major support for the NextGen Coalition leadership (staff and travel). Click to give.