The Practice of Partnership

This study explores the relational dynamics between Western evangelical missionaries and Jordanian evangelical leaders. It sits within mission studies and contributes to postcolonial debates by examining how a long-established Arab Christian community relates to the younger missionary-sending churches of the West. Two background chapters first examine these contextual milieus shaping each group: the historical, theological, and institutional environments forming their assumptions, priorities and approaches to ministry. Using a qualitative design, the research draws on two rounds of interviews with both missionaries and Jordanian pastors. The analysis identifies three interrelated areas shaping these relationships: the formation and legitimisation of missionary and pastoral identity, the exercise of power within institutions and partnerships, and the everyday practices through which individuals negotiate, adapt, and at times resist these arrangements. Critical realism provides the broader methodological frame, allowing attention to both the visible patterns of ministry and the deeper structures and mechanisms which originate and sustain them. Two analytical chapters explore how structure and agency interact within these themes, guided by theoretical insights from Michel de Certeau and theological orientation from Lesslie Newbigin. A final constructive chapter brings these perspectives into dialogue with Martin Buber’s relational philosophy, drawing on participant voices to show how mutual presence, humility, and hospitality can reshape institutions, renew individuals, and nurture more mutual forms of partnership. The findings indicate that mission relationships remain shaped by enduring asymmetries, historical, economic, theological, and organisational, but also by the creative agency of those who work within and sometimes against these constraints. Dialogical relationships, it concludes, hold transformative potential, opening space for shared learning, mutual respect, and a more faithful practice of mission.