Rooting for Rivals by Peter Greer and Chris Horst is one of those books all of us in ministry need to read. The premise of the book is simple: when nonprofit groups work collaboratively, generously, and across organizational boundaries, putting aside rivalry, great things can then transpire. All of us who work in the nonprofit world know how obvious this is, but we also know it should be practiced more frequently. I’m glad Peter and Chris finally wrote what we all needed to hear.
Despite the lovey-dovey image of the nonprofit world, it can sometimes be as ruthless as the business world. There is competition for donors, attention, even market share. There can be intense jealousy when other organizations succeed, and all this selfishness can eat away at the goodness of our mission.
Imagine if instead we were rooting for our rivals. I appreciated the questions listed in chapter 5:
- Do you celebrate when your rivals succeed?
- Do you ever revel in your rivals’ struggles?
- Do you like when your work leads to someone else’s success?
- Do you celebrate if you see other organizations flourishing by using your strategies and model?
- How protective are you of your ideas? Of your plans, procedures, and policies?
Sadly, I’ve been guilty of some of this bad behavior. But there are times when I’ve behaved with the “Kingdom First” agenda the book calls for.
Here’s a fun story from my ministry work. Years ago, a group in Belize approached PathLight and asked how we did what we did. Rather than hide our methods, which I admit was my first temptation, we were an open book and encouraged the group to use whatever they could learn from us. Boy did they! Years later we hear about a ministry called Belize Hope, and they were doing nearly exactly what we were doing! Even more, their website was filled with language nearly identical to PathLight’s!
Now, we could be frustrated when a “rival” does this sort of thing, and at first I did roll my eyes. But that was just a fleeting reaction. Instead I encouraged our team to reach out to the folks at Belize Hope.
And this is the fun part. After several conversations, Belize Hope merged with PathLight! We expanded our ministry in an entirely new part of Belize, helped with their leadership transition, took on two amazing staff people, and did this while both sides modeled grace during the transition. It was a win-win-win outcome. All because we encouraged a “rival” to succeed when they first approached us years before.
The authors of Rooting for Rivals encourage readers to share a copy of the book with a rival leader. It’s a great idea, so I’m buying multiple copies to give away.
The book is available for preorder on Amazon, though I was lucky enough to have Peter Greer send me a prerelease copy. Order yours today, read it, then give it away to your rival!
PS No, this does not mean I’ll ever, ever root for the Dodgers. That’s just heresy.