My friend and I planned to meet last month at the airport train station. The good news was that my plane was early. The bad news was that my friend had not shown up. As I contemplated boarding the train we had intended to take, an African proverb came to mind: “If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together.”

Speed isn’t everything, I decided, and went back for a last check at the ticket counter. My colleague, moved to a later flight and with no way to inform me, had just turned up. We ran and jumped on board our train just before the doors closed. Only after we had traveled some distance did I find out that my friend knew where we were supposed to go but was uncertain of what to do on arrival. We were both glad that I had waited!

Doing more together

‘Going alone’ is, fortunately, a fading concept in missions. In the past there may well have been need of solo pioneers like David Livingstone marching off into the bush alone (although with a long string of porters in tow!). Today, ‘appropriate Christianity’ and ‘appropriate mission’ is often best described with the word ‘partnership.’

Preparing for the visits of the Doulos to South American ports in 1979, I tried to put into practice principles of cooperation that I learned from ship leaders. Looking back, I see that although I very much wanted to help the ship serve the churches, in practice my concern was to draw them into what we had to offer. Eventually, though, I realized that God was glorified far more when plans were laid together, in real partnership with local churches, yielding programs focused on the local needs that, by working together, the ship was best suited to help them meet.

Partnership can slow us down. It takes time to develop relationships and build trust. The broader vision that others have may seem to distract from my God-given focus. Some pastors and missionaries may consider the time needed to work together as just one more demand on an already over-crowded schedule.

But, as many have learned, effective kingdom partnerships centered on a shared God-given vision help us together to do better, and to do more, than we ever could accomplish apart.

My place in a shared vision

Partnership has to do with shared goals. While I may have a network of people that helps me accomplish my goals, a partnership is built around shared vision and outcomes we collectively long to see achieved.1

As such, commitment to partnership can help us bring glory to God and quit claiming credit for ourselves. If a North African young man comes to faith, does the credit go to the person who happened to walk with him those last steps of the evangelistic process? What about those who produced the radio programs or the Jesus film that impacted him a few months before? Of course the missionary would not have been able to stay in the country had it not been for those who helped him with education for his children, or the member care group that counseled him and his wife after a major crisis. And then there are the prayer mobilizers whose impact we know is vital and yet is very hard to quantify.

‘Credit,’ of course, goes to none of these—it goes to God alone. But partnership quite appropriately helps those who are called to these various ministry roles, and many others that could be listed, to fruitfully contribute and joyfully and appropriately know that God has used them in building his kingdom even if their contribution is several steps back from the front lines.

Partnership is vital in 21st century mission. Whether describing the way we relate to other churches and missions or as one of the ways we can look at ourselves internally, partnership is vital to Operation Mobilisation (OM). The temptation is to impatience and pride, to think that we should ‘take the fast train’ and go alone. On the journey of life and mission, though, staying together is of vital importance and all the more so when the vision we share has its source in God.

Dr. David Greenlee is OM’s International Research Associate. This column is part of a series on expressions of Appropriate Christianity. Comments are welcome at research@om.orgresearch@om.org.

1. For an excellent description of partnerships in missions today see Well Connected by Phil Butler, Authentic Media, 2006, and the related Web sites: www.powerofconnecting.net and www.connectedbook.org.