Well Connected: Releasing Power, Restoring Hope through Kingdom Partnerships [Paperback]

Phill Butler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2006

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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"It's a must read."
-- Bob Buford, Founder and Chairman of Leadership Network, Author

"No person in the modern history of missions has worked with greater creativity and relentless purpose or with greater or more strategic fruit for his labors. ... This is one of those very rare books which became an essential classic the day it was born."
-- Ralph D. Winter

"Phill Butler brings a passionate, realistic and hopeful perspective to Christian partnerships. He understands the challenges partnerships face and brings a wealth of experience and insight to understanding how they succeed. Well Connected! does not try to present a nifty superficial solution but instead communicates vision, wisdom and hope. For Phill, partnerships are about people, processes and prayer. As he states, we're made for partnerships, and God moves when we work together. I pray this book will inspire and aid many.
-- Dean Hirsch, President, World Vision International

"Everything you need to know about hands-together and about hands-on for Christ's kingdom. Some people look at our world and ask "why?" Phill Butler looks at the way our world could be and asks "why not?" If the apostle Paul was ministering today, he would recommend this book."
-- Leith Anderson, Pastor, Wooddale Church

"Phill Butler and partnership are almost synonymous. For years, he explored, tested, and successfully implemented the biblical concept of partnership to advance the church's ministry. Follow Butler's law of kingdom collaboration and experience joy, unity, and release of power. This book is long overdue."
-- Tetsunao Yamamori, Author, Director Emeritus, Food For The Hungry, International Director, LCWE

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 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
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #566,019 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 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
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Well Connected: Releasing Power, Restoring Hope through Kingdom Partnerships (Paperback)

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.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This Book Puts a Handle on Community Transformation, July 27, 2006

By 

Joseph E. Walsh "Joe-blog-developer" (Sacramento, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Well Connected: Releasing Power, Restoring Hope through Kingdom Partnerships (Paperback)

"Well Connected" has truly given me the kind of insight that brings community transformation into the realm of real possibility! I know worship and prayer are the key ingredients for transformation, but what are also the practical steps that really enables me to get a handle on getting started. "Well Connected" gave me the answers! And it really wasn't something new ... but how I needed to be reminded. Everything starts with relationships and then carefully and spiritually moves forward to collaborating and partnering about the work in our community that's on God's heart. And what we're discovering is, God already had in the community all the ingredients to accomplished His purposes for our city. We had just never connected the dots (real people and ministries). Now God is helping do just that ... and "Well Connected", by Phill Butler, is the catalyst God is using to help pastors and non-pastors learn and grow together in new Kingdom partnerships! This is going to help YOU a lot!
~ Joe Walsh, [...]Sacramento, CA

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Expect Problems With Partnerships, October 13, 2009

By 

John W. Pearson "John Pearson Associates" (San Clemente, CA, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Well Connected: Releasing Power, Restoring Hope through Kingdom Partnerships (Paperback)

"They'll know we are Christians by our love." (How's that working out for all of us?)

What if the next verse to that song read, "They'll know we are Christians by our partnerships?" (Oops. That's not working out either.)

Here's the deal. Many Christian organizations--even in their mission statements--proudly proclaim that they are partners with the local church. Others have a "Director of Strategic Partnerships & Alliances" on their teams. But gut-check time: how competent are we in building and sustaining God-honoring partnerships?

There's help. Phill Butler's classic book, "Well Connected," is your Partnership 101, 201, 301 and 401 course and baptism into the hope of John 17: unity in the body of Christ.

You may want to just read the summary (Chapter 1) and then delegate your reading to a team member who will review the book at a future staff meeting. The appendix is worth the price of the book, especially the five-page "Partnership/Network Diagnostic/Evaluation Tool" for your current presumed partnerships. Or you can rate yourself with 10 questions: "Are We Good Partnership Material?" If you score 60 or less (100 is possible), Butler suggests you host a leadership meeting to look at your scores and discuss improvement options.

Finally, the "15 Critical Principles" of partnerships are excellent. For example:
#2. Lasting partnerships need a committed facilitator.
#4. Effective partnerships have limited, achievable objectives in the beginning.
#5. Effective partnerships start by identifying key felt needs among the people being served. (See "The Customer Bucket" in Mastering The Management Buckets: 20 Critical Competencies for Leading Your Business or Non-profit)
#8. Effective partnerships are even more challenging to maintain than to start.
#15. Effective partnerships expect problems and pro-actively deal with them.

If you're "partnering" and have never read this book, your partnerships could be dramatically enhanced in just one reading.