In a world often fractured by centralized power and polarized politics, the Scandinavian nations—Sweden, Norway, and Denmark—tell a different story. These countries, consistently ranked among the world’s most trusted and happiest democracies, have crafted a governance model that thrives on distributed power, local empowerment, and relentless collaboration. This is the tale of how Scandinavia’s polycentric […]
partnership
Reimagining Missions: Paradigms Paths & Partnerships
GUEST POST / CASE STUDY BY KIRK FRANKLIN Facing momentous change, missional leaders and practitioners face daunting complexities and remarkable new opportunities. Long-held patterns of sending and receiving are giving way to vibrant, interdependent, collaborative efforts spanning languages, cultures, contexts and continents. Instead of relying solely on inherited structures or leadership models of a bygone […]
Who’s at the Table?
GUEST POST BY BRENT FULTON The notion of polycentric leadership has become an important topic of discussion within the global Christian community. In an era of missions “from everywhere to everywhere,” with more cross-cultural workers being sent out from non-Western countries than from traditional sending nations, it is imperative that the contributions of all be recognized and […]
Recommendations for Mission Practice
GUEST POST BY COALA2 This year a group of Majority World Mission leaders gathered to discuss and make recommendations for better practices in mission for the future. Their encouragement of polycentric mission to empower local initiative and leadership is inspiring!
Collaboration not Control
Rethinking the international agency model in the pursuit of mutual mission sending partnerships with the majority world GUEST POST BY MICHAEL PREST The Challenges of the International Model For all the talk of polycentrism in mission circles today, in international mission organizations, it is often the multinational structure that persists. Internationalization strategies that added sending […]
Polycentric Leadership for Kingdom Movements (Part I)
Joseph W. Handley, Jr. Abstract One of the simplest definitions for a Kingdom Movement is that proposed by David Garrison in looking at Church Planting Movements: “a rapid multiplication of indigenous churches planting churches that sweeps through a people group or population segment” (Garrison 2004, 21). Over the years, the terminology has changed but in essence Garrison’s definition captures […]
