Green Sky Innovation

Green Sky

The Kingdom Builder's Perspective

INNOVATE FOR THE PURPOSE OF BUILDING GOD'S KINGDOM.

"We may have all come on different ships, but we're in the same boat now"

- Martin Luther King Jr., Anmerican activist

Ministry innovation is different from innovation anywhere else because we are applying it to building God’s kingdom. It is exercising the creativity and intelligence God has given us, but not for our own gain. The world focuses on innovation to get ahead, to make more money, or to make themselves or their inventions famous. We are called to make God famous and proclaim His name to the ends of the earth.

We have the privilege of working alongside God because we were first called into relationship with Him. Our understanding of God determines our understanding of everything. It shapes how we perceive ourselves, the purpose of our existence, and our relationships. A person’s decision to join God’s family or to reject God’s offer of grace is the most important choice anyone will ever make.

We are reminding ourselves of these truths because they are foundational. God wants a relationship with each of us. He knows us. He loves us. He created us with a purpose. He has designed us to be a part of the Body of Christ. You and I are citizens of God’s kingdom and only tourists here on Earth.

Being part of the Church is not about going to a building on Sundays or following the Bible’s rules in order to be a good Christian. It is about fulfilling God’s design to be in relationship with each other and operate in unity to accomplish His mission.

Every member of the Body is needed and we are called to love and serve one another.

As ministry organizations, partnering with others can be challenging and humbling. It can feel faster and safer to innovate alone. But functioning independently from one another is not God’s design. We are not intended to compete, but to collaborate

Who else is out there working towards the same goals? Who has the answers you need, the capacities you lack, or the ideas you might never come up with on your own? God’s kingdom is the most beautifully complex and diverse network in the world. We have access to everything we need and more if we work in partnership.

Spreading the Gospel is ultimately God’s work, and we are simply joining Him in that process. It is His kingdom we are building, so let’s innovate according to His kingdom values.

One Body, One Mission

For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

Romans 12:4–5

The Bible describes us as one body, diverse but united. We are one whole person, the bride of Christ. We often refer to this as the Global Church—capital C to show that it includes all believers and all churches. We are family! Wherever you are today, whatever language you primarily speak or culture you were born into—we are connected by the blood of Christ. God’s Word says we are brothers and sisters because we have all been adopted by God the Father. This metaphor of being one body is beautiful and a picture of heaven.

I wish that being the Church was easy all the time. It seems like there is always that one person who makes it difficult to love the whole Church. You know who I’m talking about. That one person who is difficult to connect with. Let’s call him Carl. If you’re honest, maybe you go out of your way to avoid Carl on a Sunday morning. He’s not the person you invite over to your house when you have the choice. Maybe his opinions are so different from yours that it’s hard to talk to him. Worse, maybe he’s opposing you, gossiping about you, or taking credit for your work. But Carl is part of God’s plan for the Church too. God designed our very DNA. He knit us together in our mother’s womb. He obviously knew there would be a few people like Carl who would be harder to get along with than others.

God knew that the Church is a bunch of broken, sinful, messy people together in one place. This inevitably leads to some hurt feelings or even deeper pains. So what was He thinking? How are we supposed to be one body and one big family when there are people we don’t even like in our midst?

To answer that question we have to stop focusing on ourselves, step back, and look at the big picture. All of creation exists to glorify God. That includes us as humans who are created in the very image of God. Remember Carl? He is made in the image of God in his own unique way. You and Carl both have an important job as members of the Body: to take the Good News of Jesus’s resurrection to the ends of the earth. The Church is God’s chosen medium for the Gospel.

Medium is where we get the word media: a format for conveying messages. Books, TV, the Internet, our voices, radio waves . . . these are all mediums. They are ways to send information. God’s chosen method of communication for His Gospel is us! The Church—His Body—is the way He is sending a message to the world. Not all mediums are equal. A handwritten note is a much more heartfelt way to send a message to a friend than a brief email. That should make us wonder: Why did God choose the Church to be His medium? God sent His own Son to deliver His message face to face. Why send the Good News through flawed human beings? It seems like there must be a better way. But in His infinite wisdom, God sent us out to carry the Gospel. We can rest in the knowledge that this is the best solution and that He will lead us.

I have personally experienced the impact of the Church as a medium for the Gospel many times in my life. While traveling to Central Asia to spend time with a church movement there, a man I had never met before named Daniyar picked me up from the small airport at 4:00 a.m. Getting into his car, I said, “I’m sorry it is so early for you! You had to get up in the middle of the night and drive so far to pick me up.”

Daniyar had driven two hours to come get me, and I was unsure if I would have done the same for a perfect stranger. But Daniyar replied instantly with the little English he knew, “I am happy to pick you up; you are my brother! You are family! I love you.”

I was stunned. What sacrificial love to go out of his way and be so inconvenienced for me, receiving nothing in return. He communicated the Gospel to me in that moment more clearly than five hundred sermons now long forgotten.

This exchange made me realize that something beyond my understanding unites Daniyar and me. God designed the Church this way on purpose. As we give of ourselves sacrificially for our neighbors, we create undeniable experiences of the power and truth of God’s love. This is why God created us differently, even though it might feel easier if we were all the same. It is far simpler to love people who are like us. We connect better with those who think like we do or respond the way we expect. But the power of the Gospel shows when we love those who are different from us. This is the work of unity, and it is a central task for all believers.

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Unity requires empathy. We naturally have empathy for those we care about. Think about your family or close friends. You defend them and think well of them. You assume the best of their intentions and actions. When they make a mistake, you comfort them and help them back on their feet. You’re their biggest fan and supporter in every endeavor, wanting them to succeed and truly believing they will.

Now consider this: God calls us to extend this kind of empathy even to strangers and to our enemies. We are to love the unlovable both inside and outside the Church. That is what Christ did on the cross. He loved us when we were far from Him. He forgave us when we were actively His enemies with no desire to change our actions or behavior. Jesus loved us first and gave up everything—His very life!—so we could be reconciled to God.

Loving, reconciling, understanding—this is hard work. But it is the work Christ did for us and the work He calls and empowers us to do for others. We are not only to love the people we like, but even the people who don’t like us. We are to choose unity daily, not just with those we agree with, but also with those who disagree with us. It is impossible to do this on our own, so when we do, that is a testimony to the Gospel’s power.

Carl and I may be completely different, but the Gospel has succeeded so long as we can still love each other as brothers in Christ at the end of the day. We can stay in relationship by keeping God’s intended purpose for our lives at the forefront. Carl’s win is my win and his challenges are my challenges because we are connected in the kingdom of God. I have the important job of loving and remaining unified with Carl. I can do this because any difference of opinion or difference in personality is far less important than the unity of the Gospel. My mission and your mission as Christ followers is to live out the Gospel in front of a watching world. Nothing could be more powerful than seeing radically different people come together and live in unity as the body of Christ. The world is so hungry for this, but only the Gospel has the power to accomplish it.

I know this is a struggle because I have lived it. Sometimes even the best motivations can lead us to places of disunity. I teach an online course called the Innovation Launchpad. I worked hard to design the course and ensure the content would serve people in ministries. Feedback from students was encouraging, and soon more people wanted to join from around the world. I wanted to focus on the project full-time and make it bigger and better. I saw so much potential and wanted to give it away to everyone as fast as I could. The problem was that no one wanted to help me. For a while, I felt frustrated, misunderstood, and unsupported. In my impatience, I considered striking out on my own. I imagined greater success if no one was holding me back or telling me what to do. I believed I could serve the Church better if I took the Launchpad and left. Some of these were good intentions, but they led me to a place of discontent and disunity. Notice how much this story focuses on myself. There are a whole lot of “I’s” and “me’s” in this paragraph and not even one “we.”

Ultimately, I decided not to leave because unity is one of God’s values. I had to admit to myself that despite seemingly noble motivations, my plan was divisive. It was better for the sake of the Gospel to work with others instead of trying to succeed on my own. So I accepted the “slowness” of staying where I was instead of seeking escape. I refocused on winning people over to the idea rather than dismissing them for not understanding. The project always belonged in God’s hands, not mine. I needed to be obedient and choose to remain in unity, trusting God to bring fruit from the project in His timing. This was absolutely the right decision, and I can tell you that since then the Launchpad has grown and an amazing team has come around to support it. But even if this hadn’t happened, unity was the right choice because it is God’s design.

The alternative to ministering together is working alone. But that is not the example Jesus left for us. When Christ began His earthly ministry, He assembled a diverse team of disciples and welcomed many followers to work together with Him to further the mission. Certainly Jesus could have traveled faster and easier by Himself. Dinner and lodging for thirteen? That can be complicated! But Jesus modeled that the challenges of working with a team are an essential part of His plan.

To not collaborate is to cut oneself off from what is ours by design and deny ourselves the richness that is the Body of Christ. Working together in unity is absolutely necessary for the ministry God has called us to. Of course there are small problems we can solve on our own. But the big ones, we most certainly cannot. The Church is called to care for many people and needs. Everything from a single mom having enough money to support her family to religious freedom being available in every country and everything in between.

Some problems have a clear and simple solution, while others are so complex they feel impossible to answer. If our goal is to innovate in response to the biggest kingdom problems, we must collaborate. We will need to invite people in, hear them out, inspire them, and also learn from them. Transformational change is the work of the whole Church—the whole Body. No one part can accomplish God’s plan alone. There are many things that can’t be done by one person, church, or organization. God knew that in advance. That’s why He sent Jesus to die for all of us, so that none of us have an excuse to exclude anyone. Each of us has the same right and privilege to participate in God’s work of being kingdom builders.

Messy though relationships and working together might be . . . it is the right messiness. It is the complexity we are supposed to be dealing with. It is a struggle to fight our pride and instead bring ourselves to God as a living sacrifice—choosing to lay down our desires, our hopes, and our hard work. But it is the right struggle because it aligns us with His perfect design for our lives. Unity in the Global Church is our greatest source of innovation. If the only thing you ever do is to seek unity, that in itself would be an innovative step for the Church and worth your time and effort. Jesus didn’t leave behind a creed, He left behind a Church. We are a community of sinful people, saved by grace, who are empowered to show grace to each other daily. Living in unity is not just a nice idea, it is an active choice and a discipline we must practice.

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Reaching out Your Hand

When Christ died on the cross, God made a way to reconcile humanity to Himself. He reached out His hands to us far before we ever wanted to reach back to Him. This picture of an outstretched hand is powerful for our work as kingdom innovators. It reminds us to reflect God’s generosity in our relationships. You reach out your hand all the time. When you meet someone new, you give them a handshake. You extend your hand when giving a gift or offering something. As you interact with others, consider: Are you reaching out your hand or pulling it back?

We all exist in a global network of relationships and connections that offer incredible opportunities for our ministries. But sometimes, organizations don’t know how to access them. Ministries are most often hierarchies operating in a network world. A hierarchy is a common structure you have encountered many times in your life. In a family, parents are in charge of their children. In a school, teachers lead students and a principal oversees the teachers. In a business, even the CEO reports to a board of directors. Whether you are in a large organization or a small team, there is some kind of power structure with someone at the top. That’s what being in a hierarchy means. This kind of structure is designed for efficiency and has clear lines of authority for managing people and decisions. You know based on your title or your responsibilities exactly where you fall in the hierarchy and who is above and below you.

Hierarchies are not the only way to get things done. Consider some of the memorable figures in history who brought great change: Martin Luther King Jr., Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther, and Mahatma Gandhi, to name a few. These men were central to the Civil Rights movement in the United States, abolishing apartheid in South Africa, Europe’s religious Reformation, and India’s rejection of British colonialism. These heroes were not solely responsible for the transformational changes they are remembered for. They were leaders of movements whose words inspired and actions set an example. But it was the collective impact of millions of individuals united by a common cause that changed the course of history.

A network of people is what can ultimately change institutions. Alone, it is almost impossible to directly affect a government, society, or organization. But many people collectively motivated can bring about incredible reform. The behaviors and results of change-making movements might seem mysterious. But it is actually something that has been extensively researched. The study of networks falls within a branch of mathematics called graph theory. Math cannot account for the spark that ignites a successful movement, but it can tell us how information and ideas will spread through that network and predict how it will behave and grow.

A network at its most basic level is a set of relationships. There are many terms to describe the parts of a network. For example, members are called nodes. A connected group of nodes is called a “cluster.” Your “centrality” within the network refers to how often information flows through you as the shortest path between other nodes. It is not essential for you to know all the terms, though you may find it interesting to study on your own. What is important are the implications of network theory for ministry and how they differ from how we usually operate.

Hierarchies accomplish work based on authority. Networks accomplish things based on influence. Hierarchies require people to be present (usually by paying them), but participation in a network is voluntary. For example, you are not paid to be someone’s friend or to serve at church. You do those things of your own free will and can stop doing those things if you wish. Networks feel very unstructured. Nobody is the boss, and no one can force you to participate. Instead, networks are built on the strength of relationships and influence is the currency. You gain influence by participating and by being connected to other parts of the network. Networks are powerful because they are flat, unlike hierarchies. Your job title or position doesn’t matter once you enter the network. Everyone has an equal chance to participate and build relationships and influence. You might be a small ministry, but you have the same access to the network and its resources that everyone else does.

Being a network influencer helps you be a better kingdom builder because it puts you into relationships with people and organizations you can partner with. When we try to do ministry by ourselves, it is hard to succeed. But if we are intentional about building genuine relationships and investing in others, they will be there with us—shoulder to shoulder—as we pursue our mission. Networks position us to collaborate for the sake of God’s kingdom.

We may be tempted to approach networks thinking only of what we can get out of them. They represent real opportunities and benefits. But we must not participate selfishly. It is the same as building any relationship in your life. It takes time and effort to be a good friend. You don’t count the cost. What matters is being present and genuinely caring about people. It is the same in a network. Eventually the trust you’ve built turns into influence. You earn the right to guide the network’s direction by speaking into the lives of the people within it.

We will become much more effective ministries when we recognize the realities of the network world and how to navigate it well. Otherwise, it’s like being part of a game you don’t know the rules to and don’t even know you’re playing. You are probably part of more networks than you realize. There are connections between you and other people at your church, in your job, and even between you and me right now. Although we are in different places and might not have met, we would probably find we have many common relationships through our networks.

Christianity itself is a global movement we as believers are all a part of. Jesus didn’t give us a handbook for spreading religious beliefs to non-Christians. Instead, He recruited disciples and left them with this command: “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you” (Matthew 28:19–20). Jesus’s master plan was to create a movement to spread the Gospel throughout the world. That is the work we are participating in. Your ministry has a specific way you are responding to Christ’s Great Commission.

Accomplishing that purpose will require you to activate people to recognize the problem you see and equip them to respond. Creating and navigating networks is essential if we hope to see our ministry impact continue into the future. Will the change you are working towards last after you are gone? Or does your vision depend on you and end if you step away? These are challenging questions that should cause us to seriously examine our methods. We can work hard to do what God has called us to, but if we haven’t invited others to share in that vision alongside us, it may not last.

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Jesus ensured His followers were trained and equipped so the work of disciple making would endure. Networks give us similar opportunities, and they are absolutely worth the investment. We can be better kingdom builders and better ministry innovators by participating in networks. We can create movements that build and sustain our mission. All we have to do is reach out.

The Beauty of Complexity

In her TED talk “Isolation Is Your Dream-Killer, Not Your Attitude,” author Barbara Sher tells a powerful story of how dreams can come true. She was leading a conference event and asked if anyone in the audience had an impossible dream they would be willing to share. A woman stood and said she had always wanted to go on a cruise, but had three reasons she could not go. The first was that she had no money and the second was that she had a daughter at home who needed full-time care. She had a third reason, but didn’t want to share it.

Barbara asked if anyone in the audience might be able to help. A man stood up and ran to the front saying, “I just won a single cruise ticket, but my wife won’t let me go by myself. You can have it.” Then a nurse stood up and said, “I need to volunteer hours for community service, but I haven’t found an opportunity yet this year. I could come and take care of your daughter.”

Barbara then said to the woman with the dream: “Well, it looks like your first and second obstacles are taken care of, what was the third reason, the one you didn’t want to say?” The woman shared that her daughter’s ex-husband was stalking her and she needed to be home all the time to protect her daughter. A man in the back of the room says, “What’s his name? I’m a cop.”

This shows what networks and relationships can accomplish. One of the greatest obstacles in ministry is that we often remain isolated from help that is all around us. People are naturally helpful when they hear of a need. I’m sure you can think of many times you have gone out of your way for someone, maybe even a stranger. When you put enough people together, their skills, connections, and resources can meet almost any need.

God intentionally puts us together in community for this very reason. The Church is designed to be a place where people care for the needs of each other. People come from different backgrounds and have jobs, knowledge, and skills that can all contribute to helping others. Amazing complexity is represented that can combine in countless ways to produce unique solutions to the challenges we face.

I’ve experienced the beauty of complexity at events called hackathons where software developers gather to design technology-focused solutions to meet specific needs. Hackathons were not originally ministry events, but people began to use this model to solve kingdom problems. Challenges presented at Christian hackathons might range from fighting human trafficking to using artificial intelligence to translate the Bible into every language. Small teams form around ideas and work intensely to develop solutions in just twenty-four to forty-eight hours. Prizes are offered for the best ideas.

At one hackathon I attended, I worked with a teacher who realized she could apply her research thesis about cross-grade learning to ministry. In response to the challenge of developing Scripture engagement solutions for children, our team worked on a crossword puzzle game that incorporated peer-to-peer evangelism. I might never have crossed paths with this teacher in my daily ministry work or learned about the effectiveness of older children teaching younger ones. The connection we made at the event led to partnership opportunities years later.

At hackathons, technology people, business people, and ministries are all represented. Imagine the amazing solutions that might emerge if we widened the circle even further. What ideas might artists, architects, writers, or nurses contribute? God’s kingdom includes every profession and every skill set. But we don’t always activate those people to help us in ministry.

Hackathons are examples of network theory in action. What I experienced working on those teams points to a very important principle: diversity is the foundation for innovation. We often believe only a few special people are gifted innovators. We think of those once-in-a-generation geniuses who create inventions that change the world. We call that innovation and admire it from a distance. But the truth is that we are stronger and smarter operating in a network than we are as a lone genius. Innovation flourishes when we leverage our strengths in community.

A clear illustration of how diversity leads to innovation is global economics. Harvard professor Ricardo Hausmann studies the economies of nations and the network dynamics between them. Countries behave a lot like people. There are many countries in the world, and they’re not all the same. Some seem smarter than others, are richer than others, or can do what others cannot. Some countries are able to innovate and solve huge problems, while others struggle to overcome basic challenges. A few countries have been able to send people to outer space, while in other countries most citizens will never be able to afford traveling outside their nation’s borders. But why is that? What makes one country’s economy and potential so different from another’s? The answer lies in diversity.

The countries who are most advanced have the most complex economies and the most diverse population in terms of knowledge and skills. This makes sense, of course. People who are farmers lack the technical skills and training to be airplane engineers. And if you’re living in an agricultural society, you probably don’t have specialized factories that produce jet engines and the parts needed to build airplanes. Instead, your country imports airplanes from a country that does produce them, and you export the food you grow in exchange.

Here’s where it gets interesting, though. The countries that produce airplanes might seem unique. After all, they can build something that other countries can’t. But it turns out that these countries don’t just make airplanes. They also have farmers and fishermen and textile producers just like nations with simpler economies. In fact, the advanced countries do all the same things that primarily agricultural ones do. The most innovative nations have the broadest range of activities represented in their economy. That diversity is the secret to their success. It is what allows them to build innovations like airplanes or Internet satellites or rockets to take their people to space.

Hausmann’s work shows that when countries have lots of different industries, they can eventually produce something few others can. Interestingly, he also shows that there is a path of connections from one industry to the next. It is difficult to jump from one area of knowledge to another without taking all the steps required in between. You can’t go from farming directly to producing airplanes. But if you branch out and build up all the adjacent industries, eventually jets are inevitable.

The link between diversity and innovation is a universal principle that applies both to economics and to ministry. Innovation is not the work of an individual, but the result of diversity. One person’s skills are less important than how many different skills we have represented. You don’t need one genius; you need lots of people with different knowledge and experiences that can combine in interesting ways.

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Cross-connections between diverse areas create new potential for innovative solutions. The more pieces you have, the more combinations and solutions are possible. Innovation is less like assembling a puzzle and more like building with LEGO bricks. To make a puzzle, the pieces all fit together in one specific way to make the final picture. But with LEGO pieces, there are infinite combinations to make all sorts of different things using the same pieces. The key is having enough pieces to build what you are envisioning.

Whether on your team or in your organization, diversity is what makes innovation thrive. If you find yourself lacking in some area, lean on your networks to find it. Being part of a network is better than being a genius. By connecting people together, we create extraordinary potential. There are answers to our problems in industries very far from ministry and ideas hidden with people we might never expect. The solutions we need may have already been invented, and we just need to find and apply them.

The best news is that we are already part of the most diverse network in the world. God’s kingdom is a nation without borders. It is a kingdom with every kind of person bringing their unique gifts and skills to serve God’s mission. It is a network of billions. The Global Church should be the greatest source of innovation the world has ever seen! We can accomplish anything as the Body of Christ. We have the diversity that is needed and God’s kingdom values of unity and love to help us navigate the complexity of collaboration. So let’s unlock this innovative potential and step fully into the network of the Global Church.

The Greatest Commandment

“Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Matthew 22:36–40

Jesus made one thing very clear: love is the only thing that is going to make any of this work. We can talk about network theory and the strength of collaboration and how nothing should be impossible for the Church. But when you look around at the churches in your community, that might not be the reality you see.

We’re really good at building our own little kingdoms. We are always making an effort to distinguish ourselves from others, and in doing so we create distance and draw lines. We set up conflicts, take sides, and stand behind labels. Just look at how many denominations there are within Christianity. Throughout history, Christians have been so divided about theology or religious practice that the only solution they could come up with was to start a new branch of their own religion! This is still happening today. Churches fall apart over disagreements, and people leave to follow a new leader. But this is not what God wants for His Body. The Bible tells us to “aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you” (2 Corinthians 13:11). Disunity damages our ability to live in community with each other and to share the Gospel with others.

OneHope, the international non-profit I work for, partners with the Global Church to reach the next generation with God’s Word. We reach more than 100 million children and youth each year, and this work is only possible in a spirit of unity. To help us and our partners develop effective Scripture engagement programs, we conduct research. Our Global Youth Culture study revealed some interesting insights on how the next generation views the Church.

From the inside, we know the Church can lack unity. But interestingly, from the outside we can be perceived as a united whole. As part of the Global Youth Culture research, we conducted in-depth interviews with teens in the U.S. Some young people said they had no religion, don’t believe God exists, and would not come to church even if invited. But this was not because God, religion, or the church were foreign to them. Nearly all American teens we talked to had some experience of Christianity within their family or close community. But some didn’t like what they saw.

Some teens talked about Christians who were judgmental, pushy, and hypocritical. They said churches were uncomfortable and weird with everyone singing and doing the same thing at the same time. Many teens viewed the Bible as a dusty old book that, at best, has nothing to do with life today and, at worst, is used to manipulate and brainwash people. Some saw religion as controlling and for the weak or stupid.

It was sad to hear what these teens thought of the Body of Christ. Some of them had been genuinely hurt by Christianity in the past and had reasons for why they wanted to stay away. What should our response be? Are we willing to own those hurts, even though we were not the ones at fault? Are we willing to apologize for those Christians who were judgmental and hypocritical? This is challenging!

It is hard to overcome a bad first impression. Research shows that it takes, on average, five positive interactions to make up for just one negative experience. That takes time and effort! It means if someone has a poor experience at another church, they’re going to need several great ones at your church to change their mind about Christians.

Not only is this hard, it might seem unfair. After all, you were not personally at fault. Your church didn’t misrepresent Christ. Yet we are one body. Christ calls us to love one another in the same way we love ourselves (Matthew 22:39). We have a lot of grace for ourselves. We know we have good intentions and are doing our best. But when others mess up, we can be quick to blame and criticize. We distance ourselves so others won’t think badly of us too.

We naturally assume the best of ourselves and too often assume the worst of others. I remember feeling offended when my wife and I changed to a different church and nobody followed up with us from our old congregation. Nobody asked why we left or checked in to see if we were okay. It felt like no one really knew us, even though we had felt very connected when we attended every Sunday. After reflecting on the situation, I felt convicted realizing that I also had not followed up with anyone else in the church or checked in on anyone who went missing. I had been upset that no one called us, but realized I hadn’t given my phone number to anyone or asked for theirs. It was as much my fault as anyone’s.

We naturally assume the best of ourselves and too often assume the worst of others. I remember feeling offended when my wife and I changed to a different church and nobody followed up with us from our old congregation. Nobody asked why we left or checked in to see if we were okay. It felt like no one really knew us, even though we had felt very connected when we attended every Sunday. After reflecting on the situation, I felt convicted realizing that I also had not followed up with anyone else in the church or checked in on anyone who went missing. I had been upset that no one called us, but realized I hadn’t given my phone number to anyone or asked for theirs. It was as much my fault as anyone’s.

Disunity happens because we are human, and human relationships can be frustrating. You might feel disappointed by other people, but they might not even know you had expectations of them. Or you might be the person letting someone else down without being aware of it. That is why we need to take seriously Jesus’s command to love one another. Loving others means having grace-filled assumptions towards them, just like we have towards ourselves. It means believing the best about others and being quick to forgive even when they make mistakes. But this is only possible if we are loving God first.

Truly loving God with all our heart, mind, and soul is what puts everything into proper order. It is what enables us to lay down our rights, even our right to feel hurt and offended, and be able to respond in love and forgiveness instead. We won’t always do this perfectly, but if we are allowing God to work in our lives, we at least have common ground to start from. As you and I actively strive to love God with our whole selves, it can’t help but draw us closer together in relationship as we do so.

Loving others as we love ourselves also means not walking away from them. After all, you never give up on yourself, right? Even when you fail, you hope that next time you’ll get it right. You need others to give you a second chance and support you in trying again. Believing in others is a critical piece of partnering well across God’s kingdom. Oftentimes we know how to do this personally, but not so well organizationally.

Sometimes I ask my innovation students if they have ever experienced poor collaboration within the Church. Almost everyone has an example to share. Partnerships can start out with the best of intentions and great potential, but somewhere along the way they go horribly wrong. The process may be filled with disagreement, miscommunication, conflict in vision, and ultimately disappointment. The project doesn’t turn out great, and no one wants to repeat the experience. These kinds of situations may make us want to retreat and work alone. It is easier not to deal with other people and their messiness. But is walking away what Christ would want from us? Quitting on each other is not loving like Jesus says to love.

If you or your ministry find partnership difficult, I encourage you to reflect on why that is. What are the barriers that keep you from working with other ministries? Ask the Lord to reveal any pride, unforgiveness, feelings of fear, or competitive thinking. Consider whether your posture and actions align with the Bible’s picture of love. Even the Psalmist David had to honestly ask, “Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts!” (Psalm 139:23). Searching our hearts is not a one-time activity. We need the Holy Spirit to work in us daily because apart from Christ we do not have the ability to love one another the way God commands.

Ministry innovation thrives on collaboration because that is how God designed us. If you are not working as a unified part of the whole, you are depriving yourself of connections and resources God intends you to have. Similarly, you are withholding your own contributions from the kingdom. It is a loss in both directions. We have access to so many skills, perspectives, and insights in the Body of Christ. You are part of the diversity required to come up with incredible solutions. What you bring to the Body is special and necessary. There are partners who need exactly what you have to offer to catapult their Gospel work forward. Similarly, others may have what you need to overcome a challenge or problem you face.

Ministry innovation thrives on collaboration because that is how God designed us. If you are not working as a unified part of the whole, you are depriving yourself of connections and resources God intends you to have. Similarly, you are withholding your own contributions from the kingdom. It is a loss in both directions. We have access to so many skills, perspectives, and insights in the Body of Christ. You are part of the diversity required to come up with incredible solutions. What you bring to the Body is special and necessary. There are partners who need exactly what you have to offer to catapult their Gospel work forward. Similarly, others may have what you need to overcome a challenge or problem you face.

“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another”.

John 13:34–35

The Man with a Vision for the Sea

A Poem

Philosopher