Fellowship, Cooperation, Collaboration and Unity

For nearly 22 years now I've had the privilege of leading or co-leading one or more Youth Pastor Networks in our community.  It has been a great joy to have an impact in youth ministry this way and I believe the benefits to the Kingdom and our community are worth every minute (and trust me some of those minutes come with their share of frustration and/or downright disappointment) of my time.

One of the primary items I try to express and "sell" over time to my fellow yp'ers is a real working and functioning model of this thing called unity.  Certainly we start at a level of unity that exists simply because of our relationship to one another as brothers and sisters in Christ, but we all know that when it comes time to work together, really work together as in shoulder to shoulder, we have to expand on our relationship beyond just the spiritual connection. I do not mean to discount the Holy Spirit from this equation, in fact if He doesn't show up to help us learn to work together, we can forget it.  But it has to go beyond just a spiritual/mental acknowledgement.  Feet and hands need to come into play to fulfill what the heart and mind feel and know.

But what does it take? What does it look like? Beyond just a simple, polite "that's nice" you are doing that, I'll see you next week for coffee, how do we really move forward and gain the advantages for the Kingdom that I believe ONLY comes when we strap ourselves into the same yoke together?

How is trust (real trust, as in I know I can count on you to do your part in the way we've agreed upon), reliance, and interdependence developed amongst those who at the end of the day get their paycheck signed by different bosses, bosses who sometimes have very different agendas?

In my experience the best of the best comes when true collaboration is at hand.  Fellowship is nice, which means we come together, enjoy a cup of "java", share some ideas, seek advice, maybe even find some "safety" and hopefully pray for one another.  The beginning of relationship starts with fellowship but if we go no further than just the early base camp of fellowship, for the most part, we still do our thing as independent contractors for the Kingdom!  Better than ignoring one another and certainly better than fighting or hating one another, of course.  But still not, in my humble opinion, the kind of unity that John 17 calls us to embrace.

Not long after fellowship has started the next step of "unity" kicks in....cooperation: I've got 10 extra spots for that very hard to get to summer camp and I offer them to someone in the network....cool!  I've got a big event coming up and decide to throw open the doors to other YP's and let them bring their kids, awesome. A large number of examples of cooperation could be sighted here and all of them are great, and again certainly better in most instances than where we've been in the past, but it still falls way short of the potential promises contained within John 17.  Plus, do the math, if I cooperate with you in your event next month, are you going to cooperate with mine the following month?  What if there are 20 of us in our network?  We will still be left with priority and yes, perhaps even value decisions that will require us to say NO to more than we can say YES.  I mean seriously there are still only 24 hours in a day, and 7 days in a week.

And finally having experienced and "passed" through both of the 1st two stages, some in the group start to wonder if there isn't more.  A better way.  Something that makes more sense, and is workable within our physical and calendar restrictions.

And there is....and I call it collaboration.  But let me be clear it's a word I have my own definition for, because from a strictly text book definition much of what has been previously described could also be deemed collaborating.

In Fellowship, we just hang together and in spirit agree on what our task is about.
In Cooperation, I decide to set my agenda aside and join you at the level of solution...the event, the concert, the camp, the outreach, which drills down even further, but usually it means I simply agree with your date, your speaker, your band, your curriculum.

But in collaboration we come together around the need, the burden, the challenge, before ANY (or at least most) of the solutions (and their details) have been determined.

I drive by our city skate park everyday and my heart yearns to see some kind of outreach to our skaters take place.  I read, hear or learn about the violence or bullying taking place on one of the campuses my kids attend and I wonder if something can be done.  I'm concerned about my teens obsession with the latest trend, fashion, TV show, cult movie, video game, whatever, and consider finding some curriculum to address the topic.

And then a cool thing happens.  Back at the network, or during several of the lunches I'm having with fellow yp'ers, I find out they have been thinking about, crying over, praying for the solutions to the same kind of things.  We come together around the need, the problem, and through prayer, commit to finding a solution we can explore and implement together.

Details still have to be determined; who, what, where, when, and how have to be answered.  But not why, because why is the real starting point in the very best of collaboration....the skate park, the violence, the topic/trend/issue.

Was fellowship needed? Absolutely, because only through relationship can the best be accomplished.  Was cooperation helpful? You better believe it. In the same way that its hard to get to the top of the mountain if you try and skip the middle base camp.

But we don't want to stop at the first or second base camp.  We want to get to the top of the mountain and experience all that God has in store for us through the power of this thing called Unity.

“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. 


Blessings,


RJ