5 Essential Commitments for Sustainable Impact In A Cross-Cultural Setting
August 7th, 2024 | Scott White
Every church or organization that invests deeply in Jesus’ work wants to see lasting change -- lives and communities transformed. However, experiences of disappointing results are commonplace, even after investing years sending many short-term teams, expending buckets of energy and contributing thousands of dollars. Nonetheless, we’ve seen churches and organizational partners play an indispensable role in sustainable impact -- and here are 5 commitments that have made them successful.
1. Go as a Learner
When robust plans and generous investments fail to produce sustainable change over the long-term, that failure can often be traced back to a wrong posture assumed at the outset. Those seeking to fulfill their global mission through true partnership must begin with a profound understanding that we don’t have all we need to get the job done. Not only do we need God’s guidance and resources, but He intends to provide much of that guidance and resources through our on-field partners. When our approach is primarily shaped by a binary “giver-receiver paradigm”, we are putting ourselves on a track to create dependency, not empower sustainability. Recognizing that we need the insights and resources of our partners in order to fulfill our God-given mission, will help us approach the relationship and the task as learners. Being a learner means we’re willing to go a little slower and sit in the seat of the student, not just be the teacher.
2. Prioritize Personal Relationship
Healthy partnership fundamentally operates through high-trust relationships, and yet different individuals and cultures approach relationships in different ways. Western approaches tend to be efficient and transactional: “Demonstrate you’ve met our expectations through a detailed report and we’ll send more money.” Transactional relationships don’t engender the kind of openness and transparency that will be needed to really understand what’s happening in the ministry context and why it’s happening the way it is. If you want to grasp what your cross-cultural partners really believe and understand, you’ll need to spend the time to get to know one another personally. This means U.S. churches/organizations must clearly delegate leadership responsibility to one or more individuals within their organization who are skilled in cross-cultural relationships and will then invest in face-to-face visits and ongoing communication.
3. Empower Local Initiative
Addressing what we believe are areas of great need will not result in sustainable change unless our actions support the priorities and efforts of leaders within the ministry context. Often, what they feel is the greatest priority will be different from what we might perceive. Similarly, while it’s important to know what kinds of projects get our church excited or engage our people’s skills, partnership priorities should center on those things that can strengthen the actions of our local partners. Failing to align our efforts, from the beginning, with the vision and energy of local leaders will lead to ongoing disappointment that locals are not taking complete ownership of the work. Investing time and resources with our partners, rather than for our partners helps to ensure that we’re on the path of sustainable impact.
4. Keep the Long-Term in View
Short-term mission teams love to celebrate the completion of an important short-term project. However, those leading the partnership are wise to keep the long-term view in mind and focus on more transformational outcomes. Are more locals becoming involved in outreach and community transformation initiatives? Are we increasing the likelihood that local resources are able to meet local needs without dependency on our ongoing involvement? Is our involvement primarily about building capacity (or merely providing services)? Keeping the long-term picture in mind requires that we get clear on some transformational outcomes from the outset, and understand how a short-term project will (or won’t) contribute to that.
5. Persevere
Sustainable impact -- seeing the ways of Jesus take root in a whole community -- takes time. A commitment to persevere requires a willingness to take things slow and stick with it. Those things worth doing, don’t come easy. Communities devoid of the Gospel or plagued with generational poverty haven’t just recently fallen on hard times. Brokenness and spiritual darkness have become entrenched over many years, and it will take time for the Good News to spread, patterns to be uprooted and dysfunction to be healed. While it may not be possible, or wise, to make an indefinite commitment to a cross-cultural partnership, you should consider starting with an introductory period of no less than 3 years. Setting goals and benchmarks that allow you to celebrate progress along the way will help your church/organization persevere.
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