When I was a boy, I saw my grandfather start, build and then sell a series of businesses and he always did it with a partner. Some of them were very good but others never kept up their end of the bargain, but my grandfather believed you could accomplish more with the help of others than you could by yourself. He wasn’t really walking with the Lord in those early days, but he always seemed to have such wisdom from heaven. Partnership is an idea that He inspired in the hearts of men!
If we ALL ‘buy in’ to the mission of Jesus and do our small parts, I am convinced the results will be mind-blowing.
Over the last twenty years of making disciples across the world through our many training schools and our relational mentoring, He has given us a host of partners who have become some of our closest friends. A few years ago, after I had spoken at a local mission’s conference, Lukas Targosz and Stanislav and Eva Bubik were at our house. As our grown children sat and talked with these Czech world-changers {we’ve now worked side-by-side for 20 years}, it dawned on Callie and I that our children were closer to these partners than much of our own extended family. Partnership is sweet!
The New Testament has an interesting world for partnership –koinonia. Often, this word is simply interpreted fellowship, but the meaning is much, much richer. It literally means to share a common life to such a degree that you share a common mission. Paul used this word often. In Philippians 1:3-5 he says,
“I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership {koinonia} in the gospel from the first day until now.”
This church had ‘bought in’ to the mission of Paul to bring the gospel of the Kingdom of God to the world and partnered with him through consistent prayer and sacrificial giving. Paul later says that there were no others who partnered with him like his friends in Philippi. Partnership!
I think my grandfather’s wisdom rubbed off on me over the years. We have built and are building a community of partners around the world and here at home. If we ALL ‘buy in’ to the mission of Jesus and do our small parts, I am convinced the results will be mind-blowing. Thank you for being our Philippi. Thank you for believing in the mission Jesus has given us and for entering into koinonia with us for the sake of His Name!
