This video is session #6 of the YWAM IWT playlist, a series of videos including more than 12 hours of in-depth training in collaborative partnerships by Phill Butler.

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Kingdom Partnerships Video Seminar

Phill Butler, visionSynergy

SESSION 6:  Summary, Quotes, Questions

Summary:

Session 6 is about the key roles that the facilitation and leadership have in a partnership/IWT team.  It begins with research—learning about your city and its key people.  He has stories about how this work is done—how to help people to help you find the most important people to include in the partnership. Nothing significant is going to happen without real, sustained, intentional prayer, which requires building a team inside and outside to facilitate that. The initial vision must be BIG—God’s vision for this place —and you must be really committed to it or you might as well not begin. But Christians often fail at breaking that vision down into doable parts and figuring out how to do them.  That’s one of the breakthroughs in this partnership training.   Phill is trying to give you a roadmap and examples for how to do that.  The objectives must be short-term and achievable to keep people onboard and to move toward success.

Then Phill talks a lot about the day-to-day work of keeping the partnership on track. It requires accountability, communications, coaching and encouragement. Someone has to check up and give encouragement and help the partners to succeed at what they’ve committed to.  Facilitation is not JUST for the meetings.

The bottom line in the slow development of the partnership and its successful work is in building trust through experience.  Phill lays out the plan of how trust is built in the people—the people must prove trustworthy to one another. The purpose must be God’s purpose and also in line with the purpose of the ministries who participate. And the process must prove that it comes through in performance with what it has promised.     The facilitation team  has to constantly be checking back on all of these to see if all are healthy,  intact and working toward the goal.   

Notable Quotes:

1. People do not want to know what you want to do in their city. They’ve had all kinds of people come through with the next big fix or idea of  how to fix their city.
2. But I’d say the key to knowing the “influentials” is asking questions and listening.
3. CAUTION:  a few facts about [ your city ] do NOT make you an expert, but give you some credibility and some sense of entrée.
4. There’s no effective Kingdom collaboration without prayer—prayer on the outside on behalf of the collaboration. Prayer on the inside to make the collaboration work.
5. We were looking for a facilitator who said,  “Give me the Wolof people, God, or  I will die”  If you’re not committed to Cape Town at that level, forget it.  I’ll be really honest with you.  Because if you’re not willing to pay the price, you’re not going to stick with it, you’re not really committed, you’re not going to work hard enough.  At 5 o’clock you’re going to want to go play tennis……
6. Often in Christian work, we have the big vision, but never take the time to figure out how we get from A to B. But a partnership to be successful figures out what are the key things that have to happen.
7. The nemesis, the Achilles heel, where 80% of these programs fail is because we wind up the clock, then walk away. 
8. Trust is the critical foundation of everything you do. If you don’t remember anything else, remember: Trust in the people, the purpose and the process.

Questions for Reflection:

1. How much time are you willing to dedicate to the pre-project research on your city?  On the internet?  Talking to people to find the most influential ones who you need on your team?
2. What did you learn about what you  say and don’t say to find those people?
3. How would you begin to build your prayer network—-inside and outside the partnership?
4. What’s the big long-term vision you have personally for your city?  Do you think this is your team’s vision too?
5. You’ve understood that there are different skills needed in the partnership.  What skills do you have? Do you have the skills to do the research? Interviews? Meeting facilitation? Coaching and encouraging?  Leading prayer teams?  Helping others find their slot?
6. Once you’ve committed to the role you will play on the team, how can you be sure you’ll be reliable and trustworthy?
7. Since the purpose of the partnership must be in line with God’s purpose and your ministry’s, what do you see as your ministry’s main purpose?
8. What can you contribute to making the process trustworthy and effective.  What can your team do to ensure that others see it as transparent and  cooperative with clear objectives, communication, motives and commitment?