May 01, 1997 by Mats Tunehag

An Effective Means of Mobilizing and Deploying Kingdom Resources, But Facilitators and Advocates Are Needed.

There is an unprecedented mobilization of Kingdom resources in all continents for the 10/40 Window. Sooner or later many of these resources will end up in the field. These Kingdom resources will meet in the field in one of two ways: in an orderly way or in a different way.

The God-given focus on the unreached peoples must not lead us to think that we're starting from scratch. There already exist many field initiatives, as well as mobilization and advocacy efforts in various countries. Thus we must try to understand the entities, issues, and some of the dynamics that are involved in the transfer of resources to the field.

A growing number of international partnerships already exist for many unreached peoples. These partnerships bring together believers and their Kingdom resources from around the globe. More than 250 ministries from nearly 50 countries are now participating in these initiatives. More than 30 additional partnerships among specific people groups will be launched soon.

These partnerships can briefly be characterized by four "I's":

1. International: They draw people and agencies from all continents into field-oriented partnerships.
2. Inclusive: There are Anglicans, YWAMers, OMers, Southern Baptists, Presbyterians, Pentecostals, and many others actively participating. And more partnerships are constantly being added.
3. Integrated: The partnerships integrate church planting, teaching, Bible translation, radio, relief and development, small business development, water projects, etc.
4. Intentional: These partnerships are not loose networks, but partnerships with a common purpose, where the partners work together achieving certain objectives.

Several Regional Partnership Consultations, held annually, are now active in and around the 10/40 Window. Several more will be launched in the next 12-18 months. They serve both as an umbrela for existing partnerships and a greenhouse for new ones.

These operating, field-driven partnerships give believers from around the globe an opportunity to meet others committed to the same people group. Through these partnerships they can effectively employ their Kingdom resources and cooperate in a common vision rather than duplicating efforts.

Mobilization of prayer and efforts to encourage adoption and advocacy of unreached people groups is extremely important. But these initiatives must have a field focus and should proactively seek to link up with operating and emerging partnerships and regional consultations. An advocacy effort with little or no link with existing partnerships will most likely be counterproductive.

The biggest bottleneck in seeing partnerships formed is the lack of Partnership Facilitators. Partnerships don't just happen. It takes a man or a woman with the vision and the skills to facilitate the formation and support the operation of international, inclusive, integrated and intentional partnerships. Thus we need to pray for, identify, train and support Partnership Facilitators.

Advocates are needed to mobilize Kingdom resources. Advocates and Facilitators must work together to create an effective linkage between resource bases and the field, between advocacy networks and partnerships.

Finally, two observations related to both facilitating partnerships and advocating/mobilizing for unreached peoples: Our ambitions to inform and connect, to create advocacy networks and link them with field-focused partnerships, must take security risks into consideration. Likewise we need to realize that not all Kingdom people and resource groups around the globe have access to or use electronic communication.

Mats Tunehag is the coordinator for the AD2000 Partnership Development Task Force.

For more information on developing a field-based partnership contact:

Interdev P.O. Box 3883 Seattle WA 98124-3883 USA Tel. (425) 775-8330 Fax: (425) 775-8326 E-mail: [email protected]

or

Interdev P.O. Box 47, Ashford Middlesex TW15 2LX England Tel 44/1784/420 695 Fax: 44/1784-420 696 E-mail: [email protected]

Brief Description of Some of the Tasks of Advocates and Partnership Facilitators:

Advocate

• Promote the cause of target people group or cluster to churches, agencies, conferences and individuals in resource bases.
• Disseminate information for people group; network agencies, adopting churches, Sunday school classes, home prayer groups, and student groups; direct churches in a positive relationship with agencies.
• Channel Kingdom resources to existing Regional Consultations and Partnerships.
• Work with and be accountable to Partnership and Regional Consultation facilitators to ensure field-based strategy;.
• Relate to and Coordinate with advocacy networks in other resource bases worldwide.
• Guard security.

Partnership Facilitator

• Facilitate the formation of Regional Consultations and Partnerships.
• Support the operation of Regional Consultations and Partnerships.
• Incorporate new agencies into the field-based Partnerships.
• Serve the region and the unreached people and cluster by seeking new people and resources through contact with the advocacy networks.
• Serve the field-based/focused ministries, churches and workers by encouraging mutual trust, communication, collaboration and interdependence.
• Relate to and Coordinate with advocacy networks in resource bases worldwide.
• Guard security.