Saturday, December 6, 2008

Kingdom Partnership for Synergy in Missions edited by William D. Taylor


A little retro reporting here.  I wanted to share brief reviews of the two books I had to read for my missions course with those who were interested.  Here's the first book.

Title: Kingdom Partnership for Synergy in Missions.  William D Taylor, ed.


Pages: 270.


How it was obtained:  I bought it online for a missions class that I took online.


Time spent on the "to read" shelf: 0.


Days spent reading it: 2.


Why I read it:  I was offered a free course at Crown College for being a new worker in the Christian and Missionary Alliance.  I decided to take a course called Contemporary Issues in Missions.  I had to read this book for that class.


Brief review:  This book was a series of papers presented at a missions conference in Manila in 1992 that focused on the idea of partnerships.  Essentially it asks the question:  What is partnership in missions?  And then proceeds to answer that question from a number of perspectives.  The best part of this book is its intentional diversity.  Partnerships are discussed from Western and non-Western perspectives.  It talks about the difficulties of forming true partnership and what results can be achieved when two groups work together for the kingdom.

This is not a book for the average reader.  Its not even necessarily for those interested in missions.  It is a technical book about how partnerships work in missions.  Unless that interests you, stay away.  If that does interest you, this book has some great insights about how partnerships can be formed and continued.

Two primary things I learned from this book.  1.  Communication is almost always where partnerships break down, and it is often from misunderstanding the culture of the other party.  2.  An example of that is the word "accountability."  I have always thought of accountability as a good word.  People making sure that other people are following the Lord.  I think of a few guys gathering and praying together, etc.  Accountability in missions is often a code-word for:  "We give the money, and want to make sure you are doing what we want with it."  It has very colonial connotations in its meaning outside of the U.S.  This fascinated me and was a real eye opener for how ideas can express different meanings in different contexts.

Favorite quote:  Do not have one.


Stars: 3 out of 5.


Final Word:  Tedious.

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