“The non-profit that I run feels strongly called towards collaborations across organizations. We lean into this with our eyes wide open, as we know through experience that with any partnership, there will be natural tensions, obstacles and challenges. Over the past year, we have been exploring a new partnership that seems to be blossoming in some particularly significant ways for both of the organizations involved. Because of this significance, we decided to spend some time together to intentionally seek the Holy Spirit’s guidance for our collaboration.

Each of our organizations brought three executives and board members together for a discernment session with Attune. Coming into the session, each person had prepared themselves to really seek God with an open heart and mind. Together, we named the strengths and possibilities that attracted us to this collaboration, and also named the potential areas of brokenness and risk that could get in the way of our joint work. Though many of us were meeting each other for the first time, it was amazing to hear the transparency, vulnerability and alignment that surfaced as we listened for God’s voice together. By the end of the session, there was a unanimous sense of what the Holy Spirit was showing us. We walked away with three guiding pillars, which have become not only the sub-themes for the initial project that we’re working on, but also for our partnership more broadly. 

It’s now been several weeks since that session, and as we’ve gotten into the nuts and bolts of this joint project, several challenges have already presented themselves. While it’s no surprise that we’ve run into challenges, it has been surprising to see how – at least so far - we’ve been able to navigate through each tension point with relative ease. Some of this is because we have these core pillars to return to. There hasn’t been a meeting where we haven’t pulled out some element of these guideposts to shed light on the issues at hand.

Probably the bigger factor, however, is the deep sense of unity and calling to this collaboration that both of our organizations now hold. It just feels like a true partnership – in a way that I don’t know I’ve ever experienced before. It almost doesn’t feel like we’re working for two different organizations. 

It feels like one family. It feels like the Body of Christ.”