Meet J & J

>> What does this customized ministry look like?  

As we get to know the national partner, we respond to where they are in ministry growth and to what the needs are. Some partners are more developed while others are establishing a foundation. Some need assistance with biblical training, while others need support in planning and assessment. And so we don’t come to a partner with a “set training.” Instead, we develop training and resources specifically for the partner based on cultural context and needs.

>> What are some examples of the national partners you work with? 

• A pastor of a church with a vision for church planting (Nepal)
• A leader of a coordinated effort including a medical outreach, education for vulnerable children rescued from trafficking, and a church plant (Nepal)
• A pastor with a biblical teaching strategy for remote villages (Nepal)
• A church planter among city slum communities, evangelizing people, and training up church leaders from the slum communities (India)
• A group of church leaders who need Biblical and ministry training (India)

>> What are some examples of times you’ve provided this type of support?

We were asked to partner with a people group called the Soura. They are a group of people in India who have established a network of churches, but have been largely isolated. Few of their leaders have any training. We provided teaching for the first ever pastors/wives conference. While their Bible translation was completed in the 90’s, they have focused on reading the text as information. Literacy has been slow, so this was an important step. They had little understanding related to practical life application of God’s Word. They specifically asked for training about what God’s Word says about the family. We customized training for their group about marriage, parenting, and Church body life as a family. They took materials we developed and replicated it in the 1,000 churches across their region. They’ve asked for us to assist with leadership training.

Another example is providing help for a partner working to evangelize and plant churches in slums. We worked with this partner to create a tiered strategy of training for young leaders, preparing them to plant and support churches.

>> How big is this team?

This team includes eight couples (4 on the smaller executive team).

>> In what ways do they support team growth/effectiveness?

The leadership team supports growth in several ways:

• Developing onboarding processes for new Live Global team members
• Creating resources for orientation, training, and engagement of team members.
• Communicating with new team members to assess fit and provide guidance
• Developing partnership process and guidelines
• Developing and implementing coaching and supervision strategy for Live Global Team members
• Developing Live Global policies and strategies

>> What is a “partnership” (how many people/organizations involved, etc.)? 

Live Global currently has partnerships established with about 120 national partners. This represents different levels of maturity. Some are individuals, while others have grown to the level of a larger ministry. A partnership is an intentional, collaborative, trusting relationship between autonomous ministries to accomplish shared ministry goals, using resources of North American churches to grow movements of nationally led ministries in gospel destitute places for Kingdom impact. 

>> What does it mean to be the director of such?

To be the director of one of these partnerships means we focus on the development of a regional location, in this case, New Delhi. The national leader has a multi-faceted ministry including evangelism, outreach, church planting, and training. Our role as “director” is to help develop the North American team there, providing coaching, support, and oversight for their work with the partner. This partner has a steady stream of short-term teams from the US, but has also had mid-term North American team members. We serve the partner, but we provide oversight for the North American team members. For example, a new team member is onboarding to join this partner’s work when travel opens up. We provided one-on-one orientation and preparation and will walk through his transition to the field. Once there, we will maintain care and oversight for his presence there. 

>> What is the Care Team? How many NA team members are there? 

The Care Team is our effort to provide care for scattered LG team members (North American). Our goal is to be proactive, rather than waiting to provide crisis care. We seek to cultivate on-going, relationally based care that helps individuals thrive personally and in ministry. Some team members serve with a national partner, but without a US team member. We have approximately 70 NA team members.

>> What types of work does this entail?

We work with an older couple in providing care. We have a strategy to “assign” team members (to one of the Care Team) who are new and to follow them through their first year of full-time ministry. We have monthly contact to communicate about their well-being in a holistic way. 

In addition, we are working to provide extra care to the larger Live Global team during COVID-19, since some team members experienced unexpected extraction or transience. 

We have also created some specific ways to nurture connections, specifically among the women. Our focus is on developing a culture of care with regular rhythms of relationships making it natural to provide loving fellowship and support for the Live Global team members, in spite of our global locations.

>> What are some examples of this?

• Essentially, we act as a communication liaison for national partners.
• Review of partner reports to gather information about needs, answers to prayer, and vital data 
• Development of updates for the Live Global website
• Coordination of information sharing by LG team members by region
• Creation of social media content on behalf of Live Global partners
• Project design and promotion for Live Global partner initiatives
• Providing content on behalf of partners for ABWE communications

>> How do you cultivate these connections?

In regard to North American Churches, we:

• Inform about multiple opportunities to participate globally
• Assist in direction and development of its global mission strategy
• Facilitate a vision trip or team to experience how God is working in a different context
• Connect to a specific National Partnership for relationship and ongoing ministry together

>> What does this look like? Do you spend a lot of time visiting churches and working with staff/congregations?

There are some LG missionaries who spend a lot of time with NA churches. Because of our travel and focus on national partners, we provide this especially for our support churches. Our plan would be to travel rather extensively to spend time serving the National Partners.