In a lone ranger world, collaboration is the outlaw. It pushes against a rugged individualism. It slows things down. It is frustrating at times.
The larger your church, agency, or organization, the greater the likelihood you will become a lone ranger. The more we have, the more we believe we do not need others. Fight against this.
Cooperation is modeled throughout the Scriptures. In light of the 4 billion, collaboration is absolutely necessary.
Deaf Bible and Deaf Opportunity OutReach International are working together in a new way–doing more together than what they could do in isolated camps. An even more surprising example of collaboration on a massive scale is Wycliffe’s open source approach to Bible translation. (Read Bruce Smith’s vision and call for translators HERE, HERE, HERE, and HERE).
Are there challenges with collaboration? Absolutely! Just ask Wycliffe. However, the Kingdom benefits often outweigh the limitations of collaboration.
Collaboration does not mean compromise on vision or theological or missiological convictions. With agreed upon boundaries and accountability, collaboration is an opportunity to do more together to advance the gospel than going solo.
Has your team, church, or agency been too much of a lone ranger? With whom do you need to collaborate (Ecc 4:9-12)?
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David Platt was my guest last week on Strike the Match. Check out our conversation and subscribe at iTunes or through RSS.
