This is an article from the September-October 1996 issue: The Future of the Frontier Mission Movement

An Organizational Chart for Strategic Partnerships and Adopt-A-People Advocates

What Is This Chart All About?

An Organizational Chart for Strategic Partnerships and Adopt-A-People Advocates

A Description of the Chart

The chart seen on the next page involves two basic elements: A Home- based Resource Network and a Field-based Strategic Partnership. These elements, numbered 1 and 2, would be duplicated 146 times along the lines of the Gateway People Clusters of the Joshua Project 2000 List of Unreached Peoples. These elements are described below. , 1 The Home-based Resource Network with an Adopt-A-People Advocate and E-mail Conference.

These Advocates would be Cluster based and would act as a resource person for those churches wanting to be involved in reaching a particular cluster. Churches entering the system through the Adopt-A- People Guidance Program or the United Prayer Network would be directed first to the AAP Advocate. The Advocate would help the church find an agency with which they would be compatible from among those already working with the Cluster. 2 The Field-based Strategic Partnership with E-mail Conference

These Partnerships are designed to help agencies which are already working to reach the same peoples within a particular cluster to work cooperatively. These Partnerships could be initiated at the GCOWE '97 mission leaders meeting. A related e-mail conference would enable the agencies to communicate and coordinate on an ongoing basis after GCOWE '97.

Information Access Points Elements 3 through 5 would be common for all Clusters

The chart also includes three major information sources by which a church or individual might learn about adopting-a-people. These three elements would include:

(3) The Adoption Guidance Program:

This is a World Wide Web and e-mail based system with access points for churches and agencies. (Currently being developed by the AD2000 International Office.) Churches who access this system would receive general Adopt-A-People information and be referred to the Advocate for the Cluster they are interested in. Agencies would be referred to the Partnership Facilitator who could evaluate the legitimacy of requests for information as well helping agencies discover how they could participate in the existing Partnership.

(4) The United Prayer Network

Many churches will first learn about praying for an unreached people through the United Prayer Network and its Praying Through the Window III event in October 1997. Churches which wish to go further into full-scale adoption could be referred to the Adopt-A-People Advocate for the people or Cluster in which they are interested. The Advocate would then refer the church to an appropriate mission agency that can help make their adoption experience a success.

This system is designed to direct churches coming in through these two access points toward a positive adoption relationship with a mission agency working among their adopted Cluster or people.

(5) Home Office of a Mission Agency or Denominational Mission Board.

Churches which Adopt-A-People through a mission agency or their denominational mission board, as the US Center suggests, could be referred to the Advocate for the Cluster that they are adopting. This would help the church work together effectively with other churches that have adopted the same people or Cluster.

The Purposes of this System

The purposes of the system described in this chart are:

  1. To foster communication and cooperation among the agencies on the field and among the adopting churches back home.
  2. To organize the efforts of mission agencies and churches along the lines of the Gateway Peoples/Clusters
  3. To direct churches into a positive relationship with a mission agency as part of the Adopt-A-People process. ,
  4. To protect the security of agencies working on the field while providing for the active involvement of the churches in support of the work of the agencies.
  5. To provide a means by which mission agencies unconnected to any Strategic Partnership can learn about them and become incorporated into existing ones.

Whether it is a church or a mission agency this system is designed to effectively introduce and incorporate new churches and agencies into cooperative efforts to reach all of the unreached peoples. Your feedback is welcome.

We tried to reproduce the chart in email form but it never could be trnasmitted without distortion. So if you would like a copy of the chart in printed form, please write me at [email protected]

An Organizational Chart for Strategic Partnerships and Adopt-A-People Advocates For Each Gateway People/Cluster by Rick Wood

You and your church might learn about Adopt-A-People in one of three ways numbered (3), (4), (5)

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