If you want to go far, go together: The Beauty of Partnership

By the Rev. Ken Howard
FaithX Founder and President

“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
–African Proverb

I’ve always loved this African proverb. 

I love it because it sets before us a truth that’s not always self-evident in our culture, with its emphasis on an “I-did-it-my-way” rugged individualism.

When faced with a task, it always seems to us to like it would be more efficient (e.g., quicker) to just do it ourselves. It also requires less patience – another thing in short supply in our culture. 

More efficient… except when it isn’t. While that may be true in the short run, at some point along the way, at least some of us learn that in the long-run it isn’t even more efficient, let alone more effective. Cumulatively, we get less done, less effectively because we can’t be equally good at everything we do. And we learn that it is more cost-effective to focus on our strengths – the things we do best – and invite others to partner with us to do the things they do best. In that way, a partnership is greater than the sum of its parts.

Though Paul doesn’t specifically use the term partnership in describing the church, his description of the Church, writ large, or a local congregation as a body in 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 sums up the term partnership nicely. Each member celebrating and deferring to the unique gifts of the other members.

It is in that spirit that FaithX developed its partnership approach. We know that the gift we bring to the table is data-grounded missional discernment. We bring tools and processes that can help a congregation or judicatory identify its own strengths and weaknesses, explore the opportunities and challenges of the neighborhoods they serve, and prayerfully discern from that data how God may be calling them to serve the world around them.

That’s where FaithX partner organizations come in. FaithX engages partnership in three different ways:

Organizational Partnerships. One example of this is our work with Stewardship Realty, whom we work alongside of, helping the congregation maintain its missional focus while they help the congregation negotiate the details of building renovation, repurposing, or sale. Another example is our work with other organizations in the development of tools and processes, like our partnership with ECF and later Worship Times developing and upgrading our online suite of vitality assessment tools: the Congregational Vitality Assessment, the CVA Judicatory Platform, and the Judicatory Vitality Assessment.

Our Referral Network. These are trusted organizations, vetted by FaithX to help in specific areas of needs. Examples include: Worship Times (for web design and communication) and Administer Justice (for congregations feeling a call to legal justice ministry.  

Judicatory Partnerships. This program allows partnering judicatories to receive a 10% discount on FaithX services and products for their congregations and themselves by designating FaithX as a trusted service provider.

Our most recent judicatory partner is the Catholic Diocese of San Jose, California, for with whom we are engaged in a process to assess the vitality and sustainability of all their congregations and parochial schools.

Interested in exploring any of these opportunities further? Contact Steve Matthews, FaithX’s Director of Partnerships at steve@faithx.net.