The Sending Collective (Canada) is an intentional, experimental initiative in “deep and generous collaboration” by the Canadian Home Offices of five (5) like-minded missionary sending agencies.
Our primary goal for this initiative is to explore opportunities for courageous and generous resource sharing in order to more effectively serve our Lord and His church in Canada in the pursuit of the Great Commission.
Our vision is to generate familiarity, trust, and common initiatives to expand and improve our Home Offices’ capacity to serve Canadian churches and mission workers.
We are resisting unhealthy competition between Kingdom partners and instead seeking to model courageous and generous sharing of strengths while receiving assistance with our shortcomings.
Some collaborative projects are already underway, and there is a growing list - we call it the Roadmap - of collaborative initiatives.
In light of the state of the Canadian church, and by extension the state of cross-cultural global missions from Canada, we believe the time is right to catalyze intentional cooperation between like-minded mission agencies.
A primary desired outcome of the Sending Collective is to encourage and strengthen the Body of Christ. We also hope to address shortcomings and redundancies among like-minded Kingdom partners.
The five initial member agencies of the Sending Collective (Canada) are:
While we are open to additional member agencies in the future, we believe five is sufficient to test ideas while wrestling with significant complexity. Even these five initial agencies have plenty to work out as we consider establishing common systems and practices!
We are thankful for all our US and International Offices! Specific leaders in offices outside Canada have been informed of the Collective initiative in Canada - they are supportive, hoping that this leads to “much good fruit” in Canada.
We want to affirm that the Collective (Canada) is not an effort to disassociate with our counterparts in the USA or around the world. We will continue to keep in close touch and collaboration with all our global counterparts, welcoming their insight and support. And yes, in some cases, they are also interested in exploring if parts of this collaborative model might be contextualized for use in other locations.
The initial focus of the Collective is the collaboration of Canadian Home Offices, and we do not anticipate any immediate, significant changes for mission workers serving in overseas or North American ministry contexts. (It has been noted many times that collaboration already takes place “on the field” - we hope this continues and advances, but it is not our immediate priority.)
All mission worker’s assignments (including purpose, location, and duration) continue to be the responsibility of their respective member agency. We therefore anticipate that Canadian mission workers will continue in their present ministry assignments, including those who serve in leadership roles. In the event of adjustments in Home Office operations/procedures due to Collective initiatives, the respective Home Office(s) will seek to ensure that mission workers are not negatively impacted.
We certainly hope Collective initiatives will eventually positively impact ministry contexts worldwide. A primary desired outcome is the strengthening of vision for global missions and joyful participation of local churches in Canada. While we do not see the early success of the Collective measured in “cold, hard numeric metrics” (recruitment or fundraising, for example) we do pray that our efforts will in time lead to a healthy expansion of mobilization of Canadian Goers and Senders.
Organizationally, SEND Canada is serving as the Managing Agency for the Collective and the other four organizations are Participating Agencies. All the entities remain separate, and so retain legal and charitable status with separate Boards of Directors.
The Collective is being guided initially by the Integration Management Group (IMG) comprised of a decision-making leader (Executive Director or Managing Board Chair) with assistance of an experienced project manager. The IMG meets every two weeks to oversee the emergence of the Collective.
Additional wisdom and perspective is contributed quarterly by the Advisory Group which includes one Board member from each organization. It is wonderful to see the breadth and wisdom of this group, and the warm unity as we come together to share generously!
We envision growing familiarity and camaraderie between our office teams leading to generous sharing and blending as we serve our very wide country with small teams. By sharing our capacities (both talent and resources) we hope to strengthen our services and possibly realize some significant efficiencies.
Collective member agencies are invited to a) propose and b) consider participation in various Collective initiatives (see Five-Colour Model for main categories). Most of these proposals initially impact agency operations in Canada. Each Collective member agency maintains autonomy to determine the relevance and wisdom of sharing in any initiative(s). We note that some initiatives (such as sharing talent) do require deep and lasting commitment, which is prayerfully and carefully considered.
In time, we hope the Collective will offer positive opportunities for the Home Office personnel of member agencies. Ultimately, through sharing, blending and coordinating based on understanding and trust, we anticipate less overwhelm and greater opportunity to focus on strengths and specialized expertise.
Initially, we do not expect significant impact on our Senders. Before long, however, we hope to improve and broaden our services for Senders (especially Sending churches and donors) through sharing our capacity, networks, and even coordinated travel planning. Our desired outcome: many local churches inspired and equipped to help engage in God’s global Kingdom mission!
The Sending Collective will “Launch” in January 2023 with an Announcement to constituents of the five agencies.
Online presentations for internal stakeholders will be held the week of January 30.
Some collaborative projects have been initiated, and others are in the works. You can learn more on the Preliminary Initiatives page.
The mandate of the Integration Management Group (IMG) is until September 30, 2023, by which time some key decisions will be made as to the viability of the initiative.
Please continue to explore the website. If you still have questions or would like to give feedback, we'd love to hear from you!