By Christy Richardson Collins (Baylor University School of Social Work, 2005)

Collaboration should be a win-win situation for everyone involved. Government, faith-based organizations and congregations are all in the service-delivery system of helping people. Don’t think of other community agencies or government entities as organizations to work around—instead, find ways to share resources to enhance your and others’ service programs. Below is a list of promising practices to launch and sustain effective collaborations.

 

Activities Inside the Congregation

 

 

Your congregation needs to be ready to collaborate before effective partnerships can be forged. As pastor, there are at least five key activities for you--or designated leaders--to engage in.

Almost every church has a core group of committed individuals who volunteer and serve the wider community. But what about the rest of the congregation? As pastor, you have an opportunity to share important messages in your sermons and leadership development with the entire church body—even to regional and state denominational groups—about serving “the least of these.” Not every congregation chooses to make service to the poor a priority. But if your congregation does, or is open to that potential, look for ways you can reach your parishioners with information about such transformational ministry. The surprise here may be that it is your congregation that is transformed!

Many leaders of FBOs we interviewed said their volunteers from congregations often did not understand the societal and cultural environments of those whom they served. The most prevalent perception they brought to the program was that these participants should “pull themselves up by their own bootstraps.” Volunteers from congregations need to be informed about the socioeconomic realities and the culture of the populations they serve. As the pastor, you can be a primary educator about the nature of poverty, social justice, and compassion from the perspective of faith.

Third, identify a “signature outreach.”

As pastor, you know your congregation and where its collective heart is. One church in the FASTEN research project agreed that a particular service opportunity should become its “signature outreach.” In this congregation, people wanted to serve as a response to their understanding of what it means to be faithful. If your church membership shares a similar vision, guiding them into identifying a specific outreach is an excellent way to build unity and focus within the church as well as visibility within the wider community.

One concern we heard often from FBOs is that leadership of church committees changed frequently—sometimes as often as every other month. Obviously, this made any real progress in building relationships and collaboration more difficult. As pastor, you can provide leadership training and big-picture directives for those who accept these key positions within your church. Important in this process are several factors: realistic expectations from the beginning; clearly defined roles and responsibilities; training; opportunities to process experiences and information; and follow-up at agreed-upon intervals.

Because your congregants are going to be serving mostly as volunteers, it is important for them to have a nurturing and supportive home base. One congregation in our study had a monthly meeting for all its volunteers to gather and discuss their experiences, while still respecting the confidentiality of those whom they served. Volunteers need a safe place to process without judgment their fears, concerns and misunderstandings. They also will want to share victories and insights. This is a rich opportunity for you as the pastor to help your parishioners make connections about service, learning and faith.

When the congregation has vision, direction, committed leadership, and volunteers, joining with organizations outside the church that have similar missions or serve the same target groups may enhance the church's outreach efforts. As a pastor, you can use your connections to help you identify potential partners. Often pastors are visible and active members of their communities. Think for a moment of all the circles in which you function: civic or nonprofit boards, hospitals and extended-care facilities, education committees, city government, neighborhood associations—to name a few. How could your contacts in these arenas develop into potential collaborations? Which of these groups might be interested in supporting your program? Make the most of your community connections.

Once you have identified a partner, your next step is to formalize the relationship. Experienced practitioners recommend that you put all collaborative agreements in writing. One way to do this is to create a Memorandum of Understanding that both organizations sign. In the faith vernacular, this might be referred to as a Covenant Agreement. Such a document serves both parties well by avoiding confusion and miscommunication at a later time.

Especially since the nation’s welfare reforms in 1996, more congregations are choosing to collaborate formally with government entities. Partnering with government, our faith-based interviewees emphasized, requires an additional degree of intentionality. For one thing, you must be prepared to articulate what role faith plays in your service provision. (Obviously, you should not compromise your approach to service to gain favor in the government’s eyes. You will need to assess beforehand whether a formal partnership with government is feasible, given your mission and strategy, allowing you to maintain the integrity of your faith-based approach while respecting the regulations imposed by government.) Be able to express how your faith-based nature brings unique value-added to your services. For example, given your congregation’s rich human resources, you may be able to offer clients a more personalized and flexible care, offering them compassion, love, and dignity in a way that public bureaucracies have difficulty matching.

In addition, as veteran practitioners stress, collaborating with government will require excellent record-keeping skills on your part. When you receive government funds, you will likely need to learn the government’s system for tracking data, which is critical for being eligible for additional money. In fact, funders may be more interested in your “record keeping” than in your “faith keeping.” Be willing to be flexible and open-minded about changing your current system; the long-term payoffs can be worth the effort.

Implementing these time-tested suggestions can help you avoid mistakes and invest in a worthwhile collaborative effort that is mutually beneficial to your congregation and the larger community.