Michael Oh declared, “The greatest need in the Great Commission community is globally coordinated collaboration.” It happens that he’s the executive director/CEO of the Lausanne Movement, which is all about Great Commission globally coordinated collaboration.
Eldon Porter declared, “Perhaps the greatest challenge for the global church today is to know how to best work in unity.” It happens that he manages Linking Global Voices, which is all about getting the global church to know how to best work in unity.
These are from the January-March issue of Evangelical Mission Quarterly. Oh was quoted by Marvin Newell.
Now, I don’t mean to be critical at all of these two wonderful people or these two terrific organizations. I’m just using this to point out that it’s easy for nonprofit leaders to make bold, sweeping declarations about the needs of the world, and to put the need they address on the top of the heap. Someone working to feed the hungry might say, “The biggest problem in the world today is food insecurity!” Someone working on the climate crisis might say, “Nothing in the world today is more important than the climate crisis!” Someone working on education might say, “The greatest need in the world today is for more and better education!” And so on.
I want to be careful how I address this. Nobody’s lying here. A case could be made for any of these and more. Each of these leaders is declaring something they very much believe to be true, something they believe to their bones. I guess I just want to point this out, and ask us all to consider being a bit more humble in our rhetoric. That’s all.
And BTW, Jaffarian’s Little Ezine is the Most Important Publication in the World Today!
(… just kidding …)
love, joy, peace … Michael
www.michaeljaffarian.com. Michael is a freelance consultant to nonprofits, with an emphasis on research. Contact him for a free, one-hour consultation. emichaeljaffarian@gmail.com.
Vol. 1 No. 14
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