Most churches that support missionaries do so at a respectful distance. They give financially, they pray in general terms, and they receive the occasional newsletter. Crosslinks, the Anglican mission agency, is asking whether that is enough — and their answer, gently but clearly, is no.

The distinction they draw between 'gospel patronage' and 'gospel partnership' is illuminating. A patron provides resources from a position of relative comfort and distance. A partner is invested — in the people, in the place, in the specific work being done. Partnership means praying for the particular people that your missionary is trying to reach. It means understanding the context, the challenges, the small victories. It means the missionary's work becomes, in some sense, your work too.

This is a demanding vision, and Crosslinks is honest about that. It requires churches to invest time as well as money, to develop genuine relationships rather than transactional ones. But the reward, as the article suggests, is a richer experience of mission for the whole congregation — a sense of being part of something larger than the local, of participating in God's global purposes.

For churches that support Crosslinks missionaries, or indeed missionaries from any agency, this article is worth reading and discussing together. The question it poses is simple but searching: do we know the names of the people our missionaries are trying to reach? If not, perhaps it is time to ask.