Advisory Services
Developing missional networks is our expertise
VisionSynergy specializes in the work of empowering Christian organizations to collaborate in ministry by developing and strengthening strategic networks and partnerships in critical areas of world mission.
At any point in time, we advise the leadership of about a dozen international ministry networks and partnerships which, collectively, involve hundreds of Christian organizations. Through these collaborative initiatives, partners work together to share information and resources, and ultimately, accomplish significant shared goals.
The basis of our work is not just theory or theology. Over the past 30 years, members of our team have formed, facilitated, or advised more than a hundred multi-lateral and multi-national networks and partnerships which have achieved major breakthroughs in their various areas of ministry.
We know from experience that God’s people can actually work together in tangible ways to make real and lasting changes in the world.
We serve as a catalyst, coach, and consultant
We function in three key capacities as we help Christian leaders maximize the effectiveness of their missional networks, partnerships, and other collaborative initiatives:
Catalyst
Through a wide circle of connections with global ministry leaders, we identify priority areas of world mission where collaboration has the potential to create genuine breakthroughs. We assist networks to identify and connect with potential partner ministries and to identify and recruit potential facilitators or coordinators for the group. As initiatives move forward with their plans, we guide them through the initial stages of launching their strategic network or partnership.
Coach
We work with the leadership teams of networks and partnerships to strengthen their ability to effectively direct and coordinate the activities of their groups. We serve as a “sounding board” for leaders, providing timely and relevant advice so that they can successfully form and facilitate their collaboration. Through an executive-style coaching relationship and customized training, we guide leaders in goal-setting, key decision-making, and building internal capacity within their groups.
Consultant
After the networks or partnerships are up and running, we offer guidance on how they can address a wide variety of operational issues in order to avoid major pitfalls and become more effective in accomplishing their shared goals. As appropriate, we facilitate key meetings, make strategic recommendations, and participate in hands-on work with major projects. Some of the key common issues we address include: meeting management, assimilation of new partners, conflict resolution, mobilizing effective workgroups, funding and budgeting, evaluation and reporting, communications and technology, etc.
What Ministry Leaders say about our work
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Tim Taylor
Mission Pastor & Initiator
Nepal Unreached Peoples Network
“I’ve told you many times, thank you, for helping me with the partnership formation meeting to engage the 10 UUPG’s [unengaged unreached people groups] in Nepal. ALL 10 UUPG’s of Nepal are now engaged! Obviously, not all ‘reached’ but all of our groups are now engaged! As we know, all of the credit goes to Jesus, but all of my thanks goes to you. I want to reiterate how much I appreciate you taking the time and the risk to invest in an unknown guy in Fort Worth, TX. Your investment is yielding eternal fruit in Nepal.“
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Jim & Carla Bowman
Founders/Directors
Scriptures In Use
& Bridges Training Network
“[In our recent review of SIU’s history] we were quick to remember the significant contribution that you have made to our ministry. We are delighted that God allowed us to work along side of you to make a difference to so many who once were in darkness, but now have come to the light. We wouldn’t have been where we are today without you.“
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Clyde Taber
Facilitator of the Visual Story Network, involving 170+ agencies & 1250+ people as a global community of visual storytellers leading a movement so everyone can
encounter Jesus and His Kingdom
“A big thanks to you … Your input always keeps me mindful that we must engage the troops and give them opportunity to own the movement. It is extremely helpful when you are able to see the common themes that emerge in our discussions and then be able to isolate the priority issues. I appreciate your ability to call people to dream, but then translate the dream into tangible practice. Thanks to VisionSynergy for fanning the flame of movements!“
What Kingdom Investors say about our work
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Hugh Maclellan Jr.
President
Maclellan Foundation
“For years I have believed in and supported Kingdom partnerships. Partnerships that clearly define roles and outcomes increase effectiveness and reduce duplication. To conserve resources and get the most effective results, it is increasingly important that ministries work together. Because of this, we strongly support the work of building effective partnerships for evangelism and church planting.“
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Fritz Kling
President
Kling Philanthropy Group
“Next week, I’ll be speaking to a group of missionaries, and I’ve been told that one of the main topics for the conference will be partnership. It occurred to me what progress has been made, for partnership to be a central theme and one which everyone recognizes as a priority. For many years, you were leading the charge on this topic, and receiving only blank stares or even resistance. How things have changed!
I felt then, and feel more strongly now, that you were ahead of your time in seeing the importance of partnerships, or what I call “mutuality” in The Meeting of the Waters. I’m often asked which one of the trends I wrote about is the most important, and I think it may be Mutuality. It’s invisible, it slows efforts down, it’s frustrating … but it’s God’s way and impossible to ignore. Thanks for sounding the alarm so broadly, loudly, consistently and insistently. The good news is that reinforcements have arrived!“
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Rob Martin
Director
First Fruit Institute
“For more than 25 years I have been engaged in granting to Muslim outreach and I can say without equivocation that the most impactful granting I did in the area of Muslim evangelization and church planting came from our foundational granting to VisionSynergy and its predecessor organization, Interdev. It was this granting that made possible so much of the direct field granting that I later was able to accomplish.
The model is familiar to you: put all of the ministries interested in a certain Muslim people group in a room, give them some basic guidelines and training in partnership, nurture their nascent efforts towards cooperation, and the result is that you will see incredible God-led results occur. I witnessed VisionSynergy, from its beginning, take that model and grow another powerful version of partnership – that of networking ministries’ individual models into effective forces to help drive the results of partnership towards even greater impact.
The grants were hardly ever easy to make. My board, like yours, had real questions: Does this really work? How can we know? Why can’t it pay for itself? For us, finally, the proof was in the results. In our case, seeing was believing. We witnessed the results in Interdev partnerships we had underwritten and in the VisionSynergy networks we had helped underwrite.
The granting to the ‘logistics’ of missions is hardly the stuff of legend – except to the missions who depend on mission aviation, radio, training institutions, and partnership facilitation for the success of their fieldwork. The funding paradigm of the logistics missions and the field missions has proved to be the single most effective way of getting the work to where the need is.
Let me sum up this, perhaps, overly long endorsement this way: Like any good investment portfolio, a certain amount of diversification is necessary for the overall success of the investor. The work of VisionSynergy is necessary so that the fieldwork, where the rubber meets the road, can be accomplished.“
Want to leverage the power of partnership?
We believe that God is always at work around the world, moving His people toward community and collaboration. That’s why we so often find that the dreams stirring in one person’s heart are the same dreams stirring in another person’s heart. If you want to learn more about how to leverage the power of partnership in your own ministry context, or how to get involved in the work of bringing others together to advance the Gospel, contact us!
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