The Upstream Collective: “Together on Mission with God: A definition for partnership”

“I thank my God … because of your part­ner­ship in the gospel.” Philip­pi­ans 1:3–5

In the pre­vi­ous blog post, we looked at some of the bib­li­cal foun­da­tions for cross-cul­tural mis­sional part­ner­ships. In this post, I will give a def­i­n­i­tion of part­ner­ship that clar­i­fies goals, actions, and com­mon­al­i­ties in cross-cul­tural rela­tion­ships in missions.

Accord­ing to the Oxford English Dic­tio­nary, a partner is a person with a joint share in some­thing or who takes part with another in doing some­thing. This rather bland def­i­n­i­tion empha­sizes the rela­tion­ship between two part­ners who hold a thing, goal, or activ­ity in common.

Believ­ers have a much more pro­found and excit­ing basis for part­ner­ship than mere mutual hobbies or busi­ness ventures—we have a common faith in the gospel, a common iden­tity as members of Christ’s body, a common purpose in the Great Com­mis­sion, and a common hope in our Savior’s return.