Pre-Marital Counseling for Congregations in Partnership

-David Wesley

In earlier posts I have defined five patterns for healthy partnerships. I will be at a large church this weekend that invited me to speak to their congregation about aspects from my book A Common Mission that would help them as they begin a new partnership. I have chosen to re-frame the five patterns in terms of marriage counseling for congregations in two different cultures. There are many parallels since marriage is a cross-cultural partnership. Most important is the fourth pattern that reminds us that any successful partnership between congregations or individuals focuses on God and His mission. The following are some of my power point slides that I will be using:

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When Partnership Becomes Personal

Although they are still in the minority of transnational church partnerships, healthy patterns of congregational partnerships that focus on relationship are becoming more and more common. The following article written by a colleague and student at Nazarene Theological Seminary, Lynne Bollinger gives an interesting perspective of the relationship factor in partnerships: (see article at: When Partnership Becomes Personal )

A Vision of the Other

by David Wesley A recent article in The Guardian questions how efforts to raise funds for Africa such as the recent Band Aid video often portrays the difference between Africans and those giving the funding in disparaging ways. Conducting research that supports A Common Mission led to some unexpected discoveries. One of these was the way that Africans perceived their partners in the U.S. and conversely how those in the U.S. perceived their partners in Africa. Beyond interviews I collected videos, articles and other information in which those in the U.S. described their partners in Africa. Relationships that are heavily dependent on donors affect how congregations frame the ‘other’. Stories that are told and images used for securing funds may frame people in the host country in ways that depict the enormous difference between the donor and the recipient demonstrating bleak situations through the use of pictures that emphasize the extreme poverty. An issue of the Int...

Resources

Occasionally friends send me good resources that they have found related to short-term missions or partnerships. The following web-site is one of these. The core principles in this post are consistent with the five healthy practices of partnerships found in Common Mission. The video on this post is especially interesting: How to Get Long Term Impact from Short Mission Trips

Misión en Conjunto

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