Global Partnership Resources - Mission Background

Below are documents and tools we feel can help your church or group as you consider a long term partnership with a church, group or partner with whom World Missions, CRWRC, Back To God Ministries, or Partners Worldwide works. Some are rough and some are provocative. Feedback and comments welcome! Please send them to Crystle Numan.

The Changing Church (video: Faith Visuals)

What does the church look like today? Unbeknownst to many, the global church has radically changed in demographics over the past one hundred years. These changes will become even more pronounced during the upcoming decades and will not just be demographic, but lead to cultural, theological and leadership changes.

"Double Vision" (download: PDF)

A Christ-centered Biblical worldview stands at the center of every activity of the Nehemiah Center. We talk about that worldview as the lens through which we see the world. But it is still your and my pairs of eyes, with our particular experiences and cultural formation that are looking through that lens. Nicaragua is one of several fields in which the CRCNA is learning how to do partnerships between church in the northern hemisphere and church and communities in the southern hemisphere. Could it be too much to expect that both Christians in the North America and Latin America might be able to see God’s purposes in our world with a little more clarity because they have learned “double vision” from each other? (Joel Huyser prayer letter March 2009)

What is Poverty? (video: The Work of the People)

If you lost everything, how long would it take you to get something to eat, find a place to stay, and a get some work? Brazilian crazy pastor, Claudio Oliver, offers up a definition of poverty.

World Missions and Partnering (download: PDF)

Partnering with others is so central to CRWM that when we re-did our Mission/ Vision statements a few years ago we included wording such as, "… leading the CRC…", and "…participating in Spirit-led mission with churches and other Christian organizations throughout the world…" Partnering with others is an essential part of our identity. Everywhere we work we do so in partnership with others. (World Missions) Editor's note: There's some mission jargon here that may be unfamiliar and the statement is broad and general in its point of view but there are some good basic values stated.

Defining Community Development (download: PDF)

Condensed version of CRWRC Core Learning module: Community Development and Transformation, Basic Principles and Practices. (CRWRC) Editor's note: This is a densely packed summary! It's got jargon, and takes some patience to work through. It's a good summary, with helpfully condensed concepts, but not easy reading for someone new to the CD scene.