Keys to Powerful Collaboration in the Kingdom of God
— by Shae Bynes
We are both created and called to collaborate with one another in the Kingdom of God. We need the creativity, the shared resources, the accountability, the strengthening, and the pure Holy Spirit outpouring that is found when Christ-centered people. And we are called together on one accord with a shared purpose.
I call this Kingdom collaboration—it’s the action of two or more people working together toward a common purpose for the glory of God and eternal impact in the marketplace.
There are a variety of ways to collaborate with others and have a mutual contribution of resources (e.g. time, finances, thoughts/ideas, physical labor, people) to progress on a shared objective.
The collaboration can be a formal partnership, joint venture, project, investment (long-term or short-term), or simply a collaboration by way of informal conversations, connections, referrals, and other contributions.
Over the past decade, I’ve participated in Kingdom collaboration in all of these ways, and there are some key mindsets that made these collaborations fruitful by the power of God’s grace.
Mindset #1: “I have no agenda other than God's agenda.”
Laying aside our personal agendas in order to pursue God’s agenda for collaboration allows the Holy Spirit to move freely within our relationships with others. Instead of coming to a collaboration with assumptions and presumptions over what has to take place, how it's going to take place, and what the collaborative relationship is going to look like, we can allow the Holy Spirit to flow and move in our hearts, to move in others' hearts, and to move us toward the direction that's on the King's heart. Prayer is a powerful fuel for keeping the main thing the main thing within a collaboration as it helps keep hearts knitted together in a spirit of unity.
Mindset #2 “I own nothing.”
In the Kingdom of God, we’re not an owner, we’re a steward (manager) of what God has entrusted to us. We’re also called to be distribution centers, maintaining a posture that is willing and able to both receive and give so that God can get things to us, and God can move things through us.
Mindset #3: “I sow into the Kingdom, and I reap from the Kingdom”
Often collaborative partnerships are looked upon as quid pro quo arrangements. An important truth is that in a Kingdom collaboration, you are sowing into the Kingdom, and you will reap from the Kingdom. This means that it won’t always look like an equal contribution or exchange of resources. It also means there are times when you’ll be the largest giver/contributor in a particular collaboration, but you will receive from a completely different collaboration with other people. There is freedom and progress when we realize that God is the Source, and everyone and everything else is simply a resource.
Mindset #4: “I am abundantly supplied. There is more than enough. My God is limitless.”
Maintaining an abundance mindset, with an understanding that God Himself IS Provision (Jehovah Jireh) keeps us from comparing ourselves to others. It also eliminates our desire to compete with others or fail to contribute to partnerships in the way the Holy Spirit is leading based on a fear of personal loss. We can truly allow God's perfect love to cast out our fears of being taken advantage of.
Mindset #5: I have something to offer and something to learn.
When we value and eagerly esteem the God-given gifts of others, we receive the goodness that comes from them. It’s important that we come open-minded and open-handed in our engagements with others. No matter what table God has blessed us to sit at (literally or metaphorically) or to create ourselves, we will experience His best. But only when we are confident in what we carry by His grace and humble enough to admit that we don’t have all the solutions.
Collaborations will not always come together perfectly in the way that you hope. And they won’t always yield the outcomes you hope for. But I’ve found that it’s worth it to invest in connecting authentically with others, to be intentional about cultivating collaborative relationships, and to remain open to God’s divine orchestration.
God is moving powerfully through the body of Christ in the marketplace, and I truly believe that just as we’ve seen in the scripture, when people of like mind and like heart come together, with the spirit of unity, nothing is impossible for them.