Well Connected: Releasing Power and Restoring Hope (Paperback)

by Phill Butler (Author)
Key Phrases: more partnership resources, kingdom collaboration, partnership facilitator, Holy Spirit, Core Idea, Effective Partnership Structures (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
The practical guide to inspire and inform those who want to help God’s people work together – in their neighborhoods or around the world.

Jesus’s words in John 17 represent one of the church’s highest values: "May they all be one as you and I, Father, are one." Yet divisions occur from the highest levels of the church to street level projects, often neutralizing effectiveness and undercutting the credibility of Jesus’s message. This book helps any believer turn the ideal of John 17 into reality. It provides solid grounding in the principles of partnership, abundant case histories, and empowering "how to" suggestions for lay person and ministry leader alike.

About the Author
Phill Butler started his professional life as an international radio/television journalist. He spent many years with ABC News then was involved in managing and consulting in broadcasting. Over the last 30 years as head of Intercristo, first, then Interdev, he has worked in over 70 countries and has published over 100 articles, papers, and monographs on communications and missions strategy. He now heads visionSynergy, an initiative focused on international network development for strategic ministry. He lives in Seattle, Washington, is married to Sybil, and has two daughters and three grandchildren.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Authentic (March 1, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1932805540
• ISBN-13: 978-1932805543
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #596,976 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars de-putting asunder, August 19, 2006

By	David A. Baer (Indianapolis, IN USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Phill Butler gives us one of those books that takes an action sport or skill that is usually performed on an intuitive or visceral level and reduces it to a formula.

Don't get me wrong. This is not a criticism. Many of us need precisely such a formula that provides a handle, a method, or a path. Butler has given us that, and is to be thanked for doing so.

Six more or less balanced sections move from top to bottom as they view the complex dance that leads to partnership among Christian churches, parachurch organizations, and related missional groups:

One: The Big Picture
Two: The God Design
Three: Behind the Scenes
Four: On the Way
Five: Working It Out
Six: Special Cases, Special Opportunities

After telling his own story in an introduction, the author utilizes Part One ('The Big Picture') to build a case for partnership based on both pragmatic and biblical principle. In the first instance - and since 'all truth is God's truth' - Christians have much to learn from the business world and its own experience of strategic alliances. What's more, we ought to anticipate that many of the dynamics that lead to success or failure in that arena will also prove to be operative in our own.

With respect to biblical instruction on partnership, Butler believes that partnership is akin to unity and that unity is near to the Father's heart. It may work, and that's all to the good. But it's also *right*, Butler would seem to argue, and that's almost justification enough for the significant and sometimes grueling exertions that true partnership requires.

Finally in Part One, the author defines the menu of alliances that are commonly available, subjugating structure and talk to matters of mission as he does so. Butler has a penchant for graphs, many of which repay careful analysis. He introduces his first one here in a visual that anticipates his perception that certain commonalities in form and process produce the possibility of discerning laws of partnership, though I am not aware that he uses such terminology.

In Part Two ('The God Design'), Butler unveils the theological conviction that drives his work. Many Christians launch facile declarations about 'unity' that mistake intense preoccupation with the matter and location of one's calling with a fractious spirit. This is an unfortunate and undeliberated conclusion, and one that Butler comes perilously close to adopting as he explains why unity is God's idea before it is ours.

Yet he skirts the danger by his confidence that unity is not only God's idea but God's project, thus only worthwhile as God births its, nurtures it, and teaches it to flourish. It is not essentially a feat of human engineering and is to be seen as a process that is watered by human laborers insofar as they offer prayer and relationship in service of its growth. In my judgment, Butler hits the mark with these observations and escapes the tendency of elevating partnership for partnership's sake to the top rung of an organization's strategic planning ladder.

Part Three ('Behind the Scenes') fleshes out how vision, prayer, and relationship join together like three strands of a strong rope.

It was not until reading Butler's Part Four ('On the Way') that I was persuaded I'd depart this book with something valuable in hand. Here WELL CONNECTED morphs into a practical manual for partnership-building to which I will refer frequently by taking it down from the book of well-thumbed manuals perched within reach on the shelf above my desk. In these pages, the author distinguishes himself as someone who has done the thing rather than as a dreamer of fine dreams that lose their pertinence by Thursday afternoon's leadership meeting. If you read only one portion of this book, start here.

Parts Five ('Working It Out') and Six ('Special Cases, Special Opportunities') move the discussion in the direction of case studies and special circumstances. In doing so, they link closely to the fundamental declarations of Part Four.


Phill Butler's WELL CONNECTED is not likely to be of service to you as a quick read. However, if you find yourself in leadership of a church or Christian organization, you probably already undertand that today's world is not kind to those who go it alone. If you embrace that apparent fact, then this book can prove a valuable manual as you seek to build the right partnerships for the right purpose at the right moment. It's value will only be multiplied if the coterie of leaders at the head of your organization covenant to read it together.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Just the best on the topic, June 10, 2006

By	A. D. Whittaker (UK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

A vital book on a vital subject - how to actually co-operate across organizational or denominational barriers on Christian projects which would be impossible alone. I liked the frequent case studies and practical advice, all offered in a gentle spirit, obviously from many years of experience.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars For those who desire maximum impact !, May 22, 2006

By	Charles D. Mustine (Columbus, OH USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Well Connected is a terrific book for anyone desiring to having maximum impact on their neighborhood, community, nation or world. Phill Butler's unique combination of journalism skill, partnership expertise and love for the Gospel makes this book a must read.