S2 Ep8: Becoming a Person Who Partners Well

humility really is at the heart of these partnerships that really flourish. I don't think that anyone likes to be patronized. Partnership can go horribly wrong and it can go fabulously well. Partnership with our relationship, I have no enough time for that. It feels very good, it feels really cool to have that power hand. What would it be like if we truly considered every believer as co-equal? But maybe met together, it was just like love it for sight. God bless our hearts, we're going to like Jonathan and David. I'm Kareeda Chen and this is Mission Shift, a podcast where we explore the changing face of global missions. Join me and my co-host Josh Irby as we explore this new era of global missions and what part each of us might play. We started out this season with the story from an African missions leader describing what it's like working with partners from the West. In this story, Elephant crushes his friend mouse and his exuberance. This image has guided a lot of our conversation. We don't want to crush our friends as we work together in partnership. But now we want to introduce another story about a mouse, one told by Aesop. The story captures some of the key principles we've discovered about partnership, about power, and about working together across our differences. A lion lay asleep in the forest, his great head resting on his paws. A timid little mouse came upon him unexpectedly, and in her fright and haste to get away, ran across the lion's nose. Roused from his nap, the lion laid his huge paw angrily on the tiny creature to kill her. "Spaire me, beg the poor mouse. Please let me go and someday I will surely repay you." The lion was much amused to think that a mouse could ever help him. But he was generous and finally let the mouse go. Some days later, while stalking his prey in the forest, the lion was caught in the Toils of a Hunter's net. An able to free himself, he filled the forest with his angry roaring. The mouse knew the voice and quickly found the lion struggling in the net. Running to one of the great ropes at Bounton, she nodded until it parted, and soon the lion was free. "You laughed when I said I would repay yous at the mouse. Now you see that even a mouse can help a lion." As we wrap up the season, the story captures so much of what we've learned. God has given all of his church everywhere a contribution to make. Everyone has something to give. This is the global reality. In this new era of global missions, the lion needs the mouse. And those who once seemed to be mice are beginning to look like lions. And those who thought themselves to be lions are being confronted with their own needs. This is the mission shift we need to take into account. Andy McCullough has this to add. I think that there is a narrative change that needs to happen in the West. You know, one of which, as you're aware, is the fact that the Western churches are minority, really, on the planet, compared to the African church and the East Asian church. You know, there's more Christians in China than there is in the US or whatever. You know, all of those kind of statistics. And so I think it's definitely time for the West to understand that the church in the West is a small part of the global body of Christ. And the Christianity at the moment is more global and multicultural and multilingual than it's ever been at any point in history. And so I do think that narrative is really important. Having said that, I think the 30% of the world who would still be an unreach spaces is still something that shalls really loudly at us as Christians that we have to respond to. And so should there be an end to missionary sending? Absolutely not. But does it need to be done in a radically different way? Yes. This leads us to the key question of our final episode this season. Brian Virtue, who wrote his dissertation on negotiations across power inequality states the question well. What does it look like to be someone that can partner across power in a way that led to flourishing? Recognizing that there's no situation that we're going to find that power is not at work? I think we've arrived at the question that we've been trying to get to all season creda and I really appreciate the way that that Brian puts us. Is it look like to be the kind of person who can partner well across these differences of power, differences of culture in a way that really helps accomplish God's mission? Because we can talk a lot about stories, we can talk about statistics, what works, what doesn't work, but really what it boils down to is the most important thing is for us to look at ourselves. It's like what kind of person should we be? Do we want to be? And then how do we make that happen? And isn't that what God calls us to into discipleship? Anyway, isn't this what discipleships all about? Not about what we're accomplishing for God or what we even think about God even as important as that is? But who we're becoming as we follow Jesus, as we come into relationship with God, that person we're becoming is what will be true for us for eternity. That's right. We don't just survive overnight as perfect partners, right? It's a process. And so, you know, that's kind of our hope and what we've talked about so far is number one, realizing that need, right? We've talked about the awareness factor. And then now what we'd love to do is be able to start talking about how do we now begin to move and be excited about that process ahead? Let's know what we want to do, right? Create a layout, this argument of the kind of person that we need to be in partnership and really to answer Brian's question. And fortunately, we did many hours of interviews and we've only used a small portion of what we've heard from all of our guests so far in the seven episodes previous. And so, we're going to hear from our guests their perspective on the kind of person we need to be in partnership. Yeah. So, Josh, I think what we need to do is we're going to look at the person we want to be knowing that the reward is that as we are on this mission together, we're going to be greater together. Why don't we start with one of the lessons the lion learned in the story above? If we're going to be a person who partners well, we need to see the need in ourselves. Let's go back to Andy as he describes the experience or attitude that we want to avoid. So, you see people can turn up with all the skills and all the right ideas and all the strategy and everything, but sometimes there's something in their attitude that is a little bit either I'm coming from the West and I know all the answers or a little bit of other rising, like, you know, these people are their my target group and my project. So, it's what task-focused sometimes rather than relational and sometimes it's judgmental so people come in and they go, "Oh, I don't, you know, look at all the sins in this culture that I'm coming to." And so, all of those, I think, are kind of an expression of cultural arrogance. I think Andy does a great job here describing a lion's attitude at the beginning of the story you shared earlier, Krita. I mean, what in the world would a mouse have the decade contribute to my life? I'm a lion. We see that also in mission, don't we? Oh, for sure, in so many ways. And we may not laugh out loud or roar out loud like the lion did, but we for sure have those thoughts going on in our head, whether we are aware of it right away or if it's just showing up and how we speak to people, how we conduct ourselves, we definitely have that experience like the lion did. Yeah, I'm glad we're starting here because this is kind of like a fork in the road moment in regard to the kind of person we are in partnership in missions. And, you know, if we go one way, the way of cultural arrogance, we're not going to end up in the destination we want to be. Because if we go that way, we don't see the need in ourselves, we don't see how other people can help meet that deed. We've become almost automatically judgmental, task oriented, not relational, it just it just happens if we choose that direction. And so I want to avoid that direction so we can go the other way towards the kind of partnership we want to have. Absolutely. And when you put it that way, it seems like it's a no brainer, right? It's like, of course, I want to go that way, but it definitely takes a lot of intentionality and purpose for us to stay in that direction. And we've talked about this throughout this season that partnerships are relational and relationships are built on that connection as we come and we offer ourselves to each other in a way. And if there's no space of need, then we can never receive from someone else. That's right. And I think too often, as we've heard, we only see what we think they need. Instead of taking a step and pausing and going, what is it that I need? What is it that we need? Yeah. And I remember when we were talking with Steve Addison about his book on Luke's Letter of Acts, there's obviously huge themes of power in acts of the power of the Holy Spirit. There are miracles happening. Silver and gold have I nun but what I have I will give to you and suddenly the guys walking around and praising the Lord There's so much power in Acts, but Steve brought up the idea that there's actually the theme of weakness in Acts as well Then there's this other theme. It's called the weakness and suffering of the messengers What's that about you know Paul two years in Gile in Caesaria and then oh then he gets a ship ring And a snake Get in Malta and then another two years of Gile in Rome You know is and he's the whole time is chain to to us probably a light shame of the everyone's bit You know what's that about? And it's about the triumph of God, but what is Paul get out of that you know apart from an internal reward He's learning To a length the father to form the life of Jesus in him and the weaker he becomes the more Spiritually powerful he is and the more the gospel advances while he's in prison So this is the other side when we talk about movements of God So here's Paul he's in prison He can't even feed himself He has the need that someone has to bring food to him to provide for him He can't travel he's sending out other people to be his representative He can't physically be in those occasions and hug those people talk to them resolve problems. He's relying on other people And what Steve's arguing here is that the weaker he became in those ways the greater his need increased the more Spiritually powerful he became in a way. Yeah, there's something there for us today. They're most definitely is I think it allows us To show up and embrace our weakness and we embrace our weakness suddenly we're able to see What others are able to offer us and the opportunity for that greater together? That's when it happens And now we're not talking about the kind of embracing of our weakness that is the woe is me I have nothing to offer right kind which most people in the West as Andy has highlighted are not close to endanger of falling into that bit but it is a Confident awareness of the reality of my need and weakness. The God made me incomplete For a reason I think of that word like being dependent on yes You know not we're not depending on ourselves, but we're depending on others But really comes down to we're depending on him the Holy Spirit, but also we're depending on other people God makes us intentionally incomplete So that we have a need for the body and other people in the body And he allows us to be weak so that we have to rely on his strength and the strength that he's put in others Yeah, and I think when we think of weakness in that way, it's actually a really beautiful thing You know, but I think so many times we think of weakness as such a negative thing so that we don't want to think about that So as we see our weakness it dilutes the power differential and it moves us from worldly inequality to spiritual equality Sloughco Haji's describes this distinction. I think that partnership should be Among equal entities or and especially in Christian world. I think that things are Little different in I guess that in business world you can have One side in partnership that has more Resources or more finances or more influence than that side could be seen as a Boss side if I can say that way, but in the Christian world there should be only one boss God Jesus So it should be partnership under his leadership or his authority So I guess love goes saying that all lions are submitted under the lion of Judah under the true lion the boss God And as we do that then our weaknesses Make the way for equality in our partnerships. Yeah, absolutely and we need to be the kind of person who sees the need in ourselves That's really important and the second thing we need is that we also have to see the power in others This is lion in the second half of the story He's realized his need but through his need he realizes mouse has power Mouse has the ability to chew through a rope which is a pretty good skill to have in a friend when you're caught by the hunters Right, and it was in such an unexpected way, which I think also translates very well And what we're talking about is sometimes we may think that there's nothing that others can offer But we will be surprised almost a hundred percent of the time we will be surprised because there is that mouse Who is going to be able to do the thing that we Number one didn't think that we would need but also wouldn't have been possible for us to do ourselves We've talked about this also the idea that we run the concept of power through the grid of what is most valued in our culture So for us in the US for example, it runs through the grid of money That's probably number one. He has the most money has the most power Maybe position maybe the logical education Organizational size and strength many of these things that Well, surprise we happen to have the most of in the world or have historically had the most of their resources There's so many other Powers that are in others that are essential in the mission of God You know one thing that automatically comes into my mind when you say that is When I've been around people who don't have those resources that you just listed One of the greatest things I see come out from them is the attitude and the posture of humility And that in itself when you've been around people who have that it is so powerful How would add to that the power of prayer? Yes People who realize their dependence on God often pray much more powerful prayers than those who might be more dependent on their physical resources Yeah, I mean that ties into what we just talked about is because they see that they are dependent on something else In themselves. They don't have what they need and time back to our quote earlier from Steve the ability to suffer That's one that we don't like to talk about in in the West much, but the ability to suffer for the Lord is a is a strength is a power Yeah, I mean in my culture there's actually a terminology that is used about eating bitterness It goes back. It's a reference towards this very thing that you just talked about the ability to suffer In fact, as you know often times the Americans do represent greater resources, but greater resources is not the ticket then to greater power and authority in a given situation This is such a good word from forest and I've experienced this personally As we've gone through the process of interviewing and wrestling with these topics. I've seen my own ability to recognize the power and others and ability to recognize my own weakness grow and to be honest I've now realized that I think for many years I was always quick to see the power in others like other people had power and I saw in myself very little power or no power at all especially as an Asian woman and now I've learned and I've seen how I actually do have power and it is humbling for me to have to acknowledge that and for me to have to process that moving forward because there are other ways that that power comes out even as simply as being an American or sometimes being the leader of a team like those things inherently bring power I've been blessed with a pretty rich theological tradition growing up with a father who's a pastor A lot of exposure to the Bible and then having a theological degree But being in contact with people that maybe have less theological training than I do But realizing that all this training has developed certain muscles Theologically, but I got some really weak muscles in other areas Just an example the theology of suffering which we are not very good at Elucidating in our American context right and that also just having training does not mean you walk in and suddenly You're the one who's in charge or knows everything Absolutely because there's so many things you don't know and so many strengths in the other person And then another example that's very common here in America I was talking recently with the missions pastor who oversees a million dollar budget But they're giving away every year And he's someone who really wants to partner well and is wrestling with the idea of how do I show up? With a million dollars Mm-hmm and not Grab the reins of power. How do I make wise decisions to be responsible with? This money that's put forward by the church but also to recognize the power and the people that we're partnering with And these are not things that you listen to one to eight episodes of a podcast and something you got figured out Right. This is a wrestling match It sure is You know, I've wrestled with the power that I have in the freedom to think, believe, and express whatever I want. I mean, that's power. And it really didn't hit me until I was serving in a country that wasn't the case for the people there. So, you know, again, I think there's just more to it when you sit in this kind of space, you realize that this really, it's a struggle. And there's so much that we have to wrestle with. Yeah, I'm adding to my to-do list to go back and listen to episode two on Powering Global Missions maybe weekly, because I need to think through these things and recognize how power is showing up in ways maybe I'm not seeing. So, I think that the kind of the summary of this is that the most powerful lion is the one who recognizes the power and others. Yes. And the weakest lion is the one who believes that others are weak. Right. It's almost biblical as if Paul was saying, you know, when I am weak, then I am strong. Maybe that's true in Missions as well. You know, we're not saying you need to be something different from who you are. We're not saying the lion needs to shrink his size and become a kitten or something like that, right? It is what it is. What we're talking about is our perception of ourselves and of others and how that perception causes us to relate with others. That matters in Missions. So what we've seen so far is that in order for us to be the kind of person to partner well across power differences, we need to see the need in ourselves and we need to see the power in others. There are two other characteristics we want to highlight. The first one is that we need to be a person who sees God at work through his global church. Yeah. If you are coming for the first time to some country region, I would say be open to learn and don't come with agenda. So come to observe, do not rush, do not go too quick too soon. I would say also do not give promises which you are not sure that you can fulfill. I know on the cases I can say quite often that some people from out of the country would come into the country and with desire you know they would say what put on our heart to come here and to do something and we are looking for partnership and then they would give some promises and that would never happen. So don't rush with the promises, lay it, learn, be open to here, don't come with your agenda and let Lord lead the steps. Slavka who has been on the receiving end of many people coming in from outside and is someone who is at work in his country to see people come to know the Lord and grow in their faith. It is such good advice for us here that we need to come learning because there is something to learn in every place that we go. We have to remember that God, He is already working, things are already happening and so if we don't go in with that kind of attitude we are going to miss out and we are going to come in again with that kind of attitude of power. I love his mention of agenda as well because you really can only focus on one thing at a time and if your eyes are focused on your agenda, we are driven people and we want to accomplish circles and we are focused on our agenda, you can't at the same time focus on what God is doing in the community which might be different than your agenda. You can almost act like you are looking at what is going on but really you are just trying to find the hold that your agenda will fit in and what we are saying here is God is at the work, have eyes for what God is doing through His global church which is active in the place where you are. Yeah, it is interesting because you and I and a lot of the people that we are talking to, we are people in global missions and we have said this a lot is that because we are in it we should be able to have the best eyes to see what God is doing around the world but I think a lot of times what happens is we are still very focused on what our thing is and we spend a lot of time planning our thing and I mean here I just want to add I don't think it is wrong for us to have our thing but we maybe go into where we are going and say how does our thing fit with what God is doing and what they are seeing happen right here and maybe I don't know maybe if it doesn't fit toss it out the window if we have been working on it for a long time but that I think is what it means is let the Lord lead the steps and I love the Sloughgo set that and I want to I want to actually put a little like sign in front of me is let the Lord lead the steps you know as a big reminder you know. I would encourage you to what Mary said in episode 6 about knowing that God is at work in every place and almost being of it fearful that the last thing we want to do is squelch what God is already doing. Right. Sloughgo encourages us to use our eyes to learn. Jim Reid who started and leads two pennies ministries talks about what we should do with our ears. You may remember two pennies from last season and their work in Ghana. To be most effective and to have a partnership work the very first thing that we have to do is listen all the time. That's the biggest reminder for us is that when we go in we have to recognize there's no filter there's no one saying hey now be careful we have to do all that work ourselves and prepare ourselves to go into a thing and be humble and listen first. Listening has come up over and over again in every interview for two seasons now and I think there's a reason why is that if we just did this one thing if we just listen first and maybe second and third I think it would really change the way we partner. No I don't know about you Josh but when I hear about listening the first thing that came into my mind was we talk about conflict resolution or in marriage we all know like listening to your spouse, listening to each other, listening to your kids, listening is just hard. And so I want to put that out there but it also is not hard right. It's simple too and the fact that if we just remember go in, listen, don't speak yet, listen. I think this gets to the heart work of missions. We can talk a lot about strategy of missions, we can talk a lot about theology of missions, we can talk a lot about other things but there's a hard work to missions and that's what it takes to be the kind of person who can lead across these power differentials in a way that really causes everyone to flourish to build some mutual partnerships. It's a person whose heart has become one that can listen. Yeah. I mean yeah don't want to sound like a broken record but yeah that word humility comes up again in my mind of in order for us to be the kind of people who listen well referring back to what I just said whether it be in marriage, in their kids, in friendships, it comes from a place of humility realizing we need to listen to each other in order for us to work together well in order for our relationship to be greater together right. And so it's the same here. Susan O'Malley, the crew director for the South Pacific who develops partnerships in a context of radical language and cultural diversity offers a biblical foundation for this necessary work of heart formation. Just a rock solid relationship, Jesus, that's critical. You're walking off the Lord and as you study his scriptures and pray to them and then you just have a daily walk with the Lord. He's the one that's leading you guys because yes I think true for the fans too how Jesus was willing to come down and be a man and to walk among us and even die across how much of an example that is to cross cultural mission work, you know, he gave up all that he had to come down and to amongst us, live amongst us and then sacrifice by dying the dead on cross. And I've never camped that was in culture to do that. Your worth, your self worth has to come from your relationship with Jesus. Your joy comes from a relationship with Jesus so the fruits of the spirit are coming out as robust in your walk with the Lord. Now as a result of walking well with Jesus, God grows your humility and your willing and a joyful way to partner with people. Let me see if I can summarize what we're hearing so far. Justin reminds us that it starts with Jesus and our relationship with him and that from there and that solid relationship with him and identity of ourself, we can come in and listen. We can come in and see what God is doing and that changes the way we relate in partnership. So where do we go from here? What are we trying to build? We're trying to build a partnership that's founded in a relationship and that means we have to first be a person who sees relationship as the goal. We had a couple really simple principles. We said number one relationship first. Partnerships aren't easy. There's going to be problems. People will get upset, confused, angry and if you start with relationships and you build trust in them. understanding, then you're standing shorter to shoulders you tackle those issues versus coming against one another. This relationship first principle that Greg brings up I think really ties back to episode seven, CRETA, on short term missions. Greg was overseeing the sending of a whole lot of short and mid-term missions, but that didn't exist outside of his relationship with CCH. In fact, that relationship defined and shaped and changed and grew that partnership. So there's something there about short term trips existing in relationship that makes a huge difference in the way that those short term trips play out practically. Yeah, and that actually came out when we were talking with Andy McCullough. I think you can have short term trips in the context of long term relationships. It's almost like relationships provide the good soil that fruitful partnerships grow in, right? Whether they be short term, mid term, long term, it doesn't matter. Without good soil, things won't grow. This actually leads us back to where we started this episode with Brian Virtue's question. How do we develop leaders who can be the kind of leaders that are partnering well and partnering in ways that lead to lasting and long-term relationships and fruit? It's not just about partnering for just mission results, but partnering in ways that lead to lasting relationships and long-term impact and blessing. So, Greta, when you mentioned this last point that relationship is a goal, I had this momentary check, even after all this time of talking about relationship and partnership, is relationship the goal? Is it mission the goal? Did you have a similar check? I did. I think it seemed like we were saying something different, but really we're not. What we're really saying is that in order for us to see God's mission take place and become greater, become what we're hoping it should be or what God has intended it to be, we do it in relationship. It goes together. It's not mutually exclusive, it has to happen together. The relationship part is key to allowing us to see that happen. You know, as you're saying that, I'm thinking through my redemptive history perspective and this idea that there was a time when there wasn't this mission that we're doing, this time before time when the Trinity existed in perfect relationship. There was relationship before there was mission and I'm thinking about one day when Jesus comes back and we are every tribe of tugging nations standing before the throne in relationship with each other with God and there won't be a mission there because the mission will be accomplished. Maybe it's not wrong to say that relationship is the goal and mission is part of the means to get to that goal. Yeah, because I had picture what is meant to be is at the very end we are all in relationship standing before the throne of God worshiping Him together. And so if that's what we're driving towards, if that's where we come from, and that's where we're going towards, it seems like it might make sense for that to be the key component in the mission itself. It would be a shame to drive over a relationship on a way to accomplish a mission which is getting us to relationship. Yeah. I mean, without it, nothing would be possible. If we even think about it, what was the purpose behind Jesus coming to earth dying on the cross? It was in order for us to have relationship with Him. So relationship truly is key. It's being a person who sees relationship as the goal, even in the midst of the mission means I don't treat other people as an object, but as a subject made the image of God. I treat them as someone who has something to offer, which we've talked about before in terms of the power and others. We in our intersection with each other, as we work together, we're co-powering each other. That's the term that far as to introduce this to. We're building into each other and together on an arm, we're going about God's mission. Yeah, I'm just so struck that there's no way, really, there's no way that I can do that if I'm not becoming more like Christ. The can't happen if I'm not trusting in the Spirit. And working together in partnership with that kind of attitude led by the Spirit following Christ, you really see something greater happen when we're together. And that's this idea we were talking about, greater together. We are greater together. We do greater things together as the body. Yeah. We just think together that is a relational term. And that as we come together as the body, the Lord will do even greater things to us. Amen. This idea of greater together is not just about experiencing the joy of what we do together, but about seeing God better. Here's how Sophia Wang says it. Let's see this richness, this beauty that comes from understanding a God who wants to be seen from many facets like a diamond, right? If you only seen it from one side, we're actually missing the fullness and the beauty of the glory of God and we're missing that. And that's why it's so vital to get to the heart of that conviction saying, actually, I don't just want you. I need you. I need your perspective because I don't see from that point of view. I know I personally experienced this, Krita. I grew up in the South where we consider ourselves hospitable, but then I traveled to the Balkans and I went to the homes of Creations and Bosnian's traveled to Albania and literally had people kill the fattened lamb for us to eat. I came to understand hospitality in a new way through their eyes and through those relationships. What I think it caused me to do is understand God's hospitality better and the way that he welcomes us in a way that was so much deeper than I understood before. Yeah, that's so beautiful. I think about when I was very much in a relational context when I was living in East Asia and building relationships with friends there, their pace of life was way slower than it is here. So God, He slowed me down tremendously. And in that process, it allowed me to really change my mindset and see that He doesn't just use me to get things done. In essence, what He's doing is He's allowing me to see more of Him and changing me in the process. And He doesn't use those relationships just to get more done. He uses those relationships to help us see Him better and make the whole journey more fun. Absolutely. You know, in the letter Philippians we've been talking about, it is the most joyful letter that Paul wrote. And He's in prison, He knows He's going to die and He is joyful. And why is He joyful because of the partnership? I thank my God because of you and because of your partnership in the gospel. For joyous in the Lord always, I think, and I say rejoice. And when we approach partnerships in the way that we're talking about of seeing God at work, seeing relationships, seeing our own need and seeing the power and others, it just makes the whole process more joyful. Yeah, I mean, just even here and you say that right now, Josh, it brings this big, big small demand face because I have had a taste of that and I want more. So here we are at the close of eight episodes and about 25 hours of interviews and many conversations. Partnership is such a complicated question. But a comment from Brian Virtue who did doctoral work on partnership and power makes me think that maybe it's simpler than we think. One of the humbling things of doing a research project like this is to write for your 400 pages and then realize it's like in some ways they just summarized as love your neighbor as yourself. There it is. What kind of person partners well through the challenges of power and culture? One who loves their neighbor as themselves. We've brought to you two stories, elephant and mouse and lion and mouse. One is a warning and one is an opportunity. We've explored the choice between continuing old patterns of partnership or adapting to current realities. It's been eye-opening for us and we hope it's been the same for you. Our exploration has showcased the incredible power of unity and collaboration emphasizing the profound impact achievable when we value each other and unite for a common purpose. Throughout these conversations we've witnessed inspiring stories of individuals and organizations transcending boundaries and combining strengths to address significant challenges in partnership. Our discussion echoes a fundamental truth. The need for humble listeners actively growing in Christ's likeness, confident in God's work through his people and his word. It's a symphony of diverse voices, cultures, experiences and resources harmonizing towards something greater together. And we've been challenged to look within ourselves. Embracing our weakness and recognizing our need for each other is key to unleashing our full potential. We must acknowledge the power in others and see God at work through his global church. Co-powerment and relationships should be our goal. Rooted in the greatest relationship we have, our connection with God. We build into each other as we work towards God's mission. This is a spiritual journey. As we see God, depend on Him, love our neighbors as ourselves. God is patient, valuing the relationship more than the task. Let this bring us joy, not burden. And as we conclude this season, we extend gratitude to those who shared their wisdom with us and with you, our listeners who joined us on this journey. This isn't the end. It's an invitation to be greater together. Our prayer is the same one Paul had for the church in Rome. May God who gives us patience and encouragement help you live in complete harmony with each other as a spitting for followers of Christ Jesus. Then all of you can join together with one voice giving praise and glory to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you for being a part of Missionship. Thanks for listening. Music and mixing by Scott Crawl. Stay connected with us at crewcru.org/missionship. If you enjoyed today's episode, please like and review this podcast wherever you listen. We would appreciate it if you were to share it with others who may be interested in coming on this journey with us.