2019 Summit Recap
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As Angeline Munzara from World Vision shared during opening introductions, attending the CED Summit is “like being among friends that you know just get you. You can relax and share your experiences.”
53 participants from over 20 different organizations joined the two-day conference with an overarching theme of Collaborating for the Kingdom. Thursday focused on Strategies for working with the church in economic development and on Friday participants dug into Methods and metrics for evaluating collaboration. Thursday began with devotions lead by JoAnn Flett, Organizational Consultant to Partners Worldwide, who shared from Matthew 25 about welcoming the stranger and extending hospitality to the overlooked. She exhorted participants that “the Jesus we worship in church is the same Jesus we serve in our neighbor – whether our neighbor is the global underserved or those overlooked at our work, in our families, and our churches.” |
In the next session, Scott Arbeiter, President of World Relief, and Dr. Brian Fikkert, President and CEO of Chalmers Center, co-presented on the importance on partnering with the local church. Scott shared reasons to pursue this partnership, including a reminder that the local church is God’s plan to extend mercy, truth, and compassion around the world. NGOs can serve as the “bridesmaid” to the local church which is the bride of Christ. Brian Fikkert emphasized that if we believe that God is the key to holistic transformation, then our theories of change and strategies must include the place where people gather to hear about God – the local church. By working with an integrated view of humanity (that people are both spirit and body), we can reject common fallacies promoting a focus on either reducing material poverty or sharing the gospel.
The discussion continued with a panel of case studies on partnering with local churches and communities. Highlights included:
During the second half of the day, Dr. Genzo Yamamoto and Abbie Condie of Opportunity International led attendees through an orientation to their Holistic Community Assessment tool, a story capture method which equips both NGOs and local churches to better understand their communities. After breakout sessions on conducting interviews and scoring the tool, several participants brainstormed ways their organization could use the tool. The day closed with track discussions on participant-chosen topics and a time of prayer.
On day two, Dr. David Bronkema of Eastern University facilitated a workshop on measuring collaboration. He opened the day with a devotion on mutuality and reciprocity as we serve our neighbors, as seen in the early church in 2 Corinthians 8:13-15. As David shared, “loving our neighbor is not just helping in time of need, but welcoming and intentionally creating opportunities for our neighbors to contribute to us as full neighbors as well.”
This theme continued through the day as we heard from a panel showcasing ways to define and measure success in partnerships. Memorable comments included:
David Bronkema closed the workshop by leading participants through themes in existing relationship research and crowd-sourcing areas of consideration for organizations measuring collaboration. The core takeaway was that since relationships are central to partnerships, it is crucial to set aside time to both build relationships and assess the health of relationships before rushing to designing interventions and measuring programmatic outcomes.
The discussion continued with a panel of case studies on partnering with local churches and communities. Highlights included:
- "From the top leadership and the ground-up in the church – you need both! It’s like a partnership sandwich." Biniyam Ewnetu, HOPE International
- "Putting many partners together is possible if we view it like the body of Christ. Each part has its role." Bob Vryhof, Partners Worldwide
- "Faith leaders can influence mindset and cultural issues for the Kingdom of God that no NGO can influence." Claire Hancock, Tearfund
- "In partnership we must learn to honor our differences. The gospel is leaven – it is not white bread. Each bread may be different." Joseph Gerald Bataille, World Relief Haiti
- "In order to do the right thing, it’s not enough to think you are doing the right thing. Your partners also need to think you are doing the right thing! " Obadias Ndaba, Jimbere Fund
During the second half of the day, Dr. Genzo Yamamoto and Abbie Condie of Opportunity International led attendees through an orientation to their Holistic Community Assessment tool, a story capture method which equips both NGOs and local churches to better understand their communities. After breakout sessions on conducting interviews and scoring the tool, several participants brainstormed ways their organization could use the tool. The day closed with track discussions on participant-chosen topics and a time of prayer.
On day two, Dr. David Bronkema of Eastern University facilitated a workshop on measuring collaboration. He opened the day with a devotion on mutuality and reciprocity as we serve our neighbors, as seen in the early church in 2 Corinthians 8:13-15. As David shared, “loving our neighbor is not just helping in time of need, but welcoming and intentionally creating opportunities for our neighbors to contribute to us as full neighbors as well.”
This theme continued through the day as we heard from a panel showcasing ways to define and measure success in partnerships. Memorable comments included:
- "If success is the church meeting the community’s needs, then we need to ensure our measurement tools don’t just look at program outcomes but also look at how the church is growing in their ability to meet these needs." Courtney O’Connell, World Relief
- "'The church' can include Christians in many institutions, not just the official local church. We should also look to equip the church to work with local partners besides just our NGO. With diverse partners, evaluation must be tailored to the specific partnership." Genzo Yamamoto, Opportunity International
- "Successful partnerships are relatively rare: rocket launches have a higher success rate than strategic partnerships! The partnership selection process itself can be extractive, so even the process we use to assess partners should be mutually beneficial." Herb Ehresman, Compassion International
- "It can be easy for partnerships to have unequal expectations. Thus, a successful partnership should involve active collaboration from all parties. Partnerships should also take you somewhere – from Point A to Point B – so evaluation should measure progress." Jose Elvir, Partners Worldwide
- "Regular feedback gathering at different levels can illuminate intersecting themes, allowing us to improve an area that touches the highest-level (church leaders) and ground-level (church volunteers) partners." Phil Smith, HOPE International
David Bronkema closed the workshop by leading participants through themes in existing relationship research and crowd-sourcing areas of consideration for organizations measuring collaboration. The core takeaway was that since relationships are central to partnerships, it is crucial to set aside time to both build relationships and assess the health of relationships before rushing to designing interventions and measuring programmatic outcomes.
Thank you for joining us – and we hope to see you next year!
Featured speakers |
Summit participants included:
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For more information or access to 2019 CED Summit resources, please contact Gillian Foster Wilkinson at [email protected]