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Handshakes vs. Holding Hands

How to go from transactional handshakes with missionaries to feeling as though we are holding hands with them in the work?

The Great Commission, says Steve Moore, is too big to do alone and too important not to do together.

I have been reading On Mission Together by Richard Noble and he mentions something Bob Fetherlin said about missions becoming more than a program, but a passion. Sporadic contact, where a church “outsources” missions to missionaries is like a handshake. It is transactional, indirect, and lacks relationship.

Noble quotes Fetherlin saying missionaries should be seen as “co-laborers with whom the congregation collaborates.” (pg 27) We should feel a strong connection with those we have sent. We need to have a sense of holding hands, working together in partnership for the mission.

All of us who believe the Great Commission is our mission want to see the light of the gospel taken to dark places and communities of believers brought together.

But how do we go from merely transactional handshakes with missionaries to really feeling as though we are holding hands with each other in the work?

There is a framework we have used in The Alliance for a number of years that I believe makes the switch between handshake relationships to holding hands. There are five things every church can do with their “global staff” to foster a true sense of partnership.

These five activities of partnership are:

  1. Partner Care: Discovering the practical, spiritual, and emotional needs of missionaries. How do you discover those needs? Ask! They are people too, facing the same stresses and struggles you do at home.
  2. Strategic Prayer: Supporting missionaries through prayer.
  3. Doing Our Share: This means keeping missionaries on the ground and funding the ministry vision where they are working.
  4. Going There: Traveling onsite to work side-by-side on projects that help accomplish ministry goals. Missionaries love for you to come where they are.
  5. Staying Aware: Staying in touch with your “global staff.” It’s all about relationships!

Check out these links for each of these for more resources. If this sparked an idea in your mission perspective, I hope you’ll share these stories with people in your circle.

by Chad Smith, Midwest District leadership development and mission mobilization

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