Inland Revenue has released an issues paper on the taxation of charities and not-for-profits, and it is now open for public submissions. The consultation document considers whether certain tax concessions available to the sector continue to be effective. It also explores whether tax obligations can be simplified, and compliance costs minimised. The Government will consider feedback and decide whether any changes should be made to current rules.

Consultation closes on 31 March 2025.

The consultation document can be found at the link below. See the document for details of how to make a submission.   

See further discussion in a video of a webinar by Parryfield lawyers at https://www.youtube.com/watch?... or https://events.humanitix.com/m...

Kia ora,

Chris is travelling, this is my first editorial!

This issue of MI link focus on Collaboration.  Our new vision follows three words- Connect, Collaborate and Catalyse.  We will seek to Connect members, Collaborate together and out of that Catalyse new ministry.  So therefore it seems appropriate to look at how to Collaborate. 

Tom Atkins nudges us to develop the conversational tools to really collaborate and promotes his book, Collaborative Dialogue.  Sina Steele and Caro Newton from WEC give us a story of Collaboration from the Send.  Chris Ponniah lays out the benefits and means to Collaboration.  I got inspired to write a little of my experience of seeking to live from a Kingdom perspective, and we have links to 3 articles from L4 about collaboration.

Blessings

Ben Poulton (MI Admin)

Wycliffe NZ is hosting a  Bible Storytelling workshop on Saturday 29 Marchat Eastwest College, Gordonton. This one-day workshop teaches how to craft and tell memorable and accurate Bible stories, as well as how to teach and lead discussion from them.
For more information, visit https://www.wycliffenz.org/events  

To register, contact admin@wycliffenz.org

Collaboration, Cooperation and Competition  Tom Watkins

Reflections on a meeting

The Management Team meeting was addressing the failure of an important procedure. When Joel began proposing a solution, Matti introduced a different approach, to which Joel responded, “That’ll never work” and began explaining why. Matti interrupted to demonstrate why his approach was flawed. For 30-40 minutes they heatedly competed for speaking space to explain, justify or fault one another’s reasoning. Others voiced support for their own preference or kept their heads down. Eventually a vote narrowly favoured Matti’s solution.

Later I met my client Rob who I’d been observing at this meeting. I was coaching him to become increasingly aware of the inner mindsets and outer practices that enhance or impede collaboration. He’d made small but significant shifts to transform his approach, especially for navigating conversational complexity. What had he noticed about the discussion?

“It was an embarrassing, time-wasting debacle!” he said. “Joel and Matti had good ideas but neither listened to the other and no-one helped them to. They got no credit for trying to help and the good bits were overlooked. We quarrelled and competed instead of looking for a way forward. Now there’ll be greater reluctance to discuss thorny issues. Nearly half of us disagreed with the vote so it’s bound to come unstuck and need revisiting. Right now I guarantee everyone’s telling people who weren’t present, their personal version of the events - and not in a good way!

Cooperation and competition differ from collaboration

Many people are accustomed to discussions regarded as collaboration but which actually comprise cooperation: differences dealt with by majority vote, by yielding reluctantly to impositions of others’ wishes, and going-along-to-get-along. Cooperation is often necessary for collaboration, but they are not the same thing.

Collaboration is based on... 

There is a well-known whakataukī, or proverb, in te reo Māori that reads: Nā tō rourou, nā taku rourou, ka ora ai te iwi. It means ‘with your basket and my basket, the people will thrive’, it speaks to the sharing of resources and knowledge, and how working together is far better than working in isolation.

What a suitable proverb for missions in Aotearoa New Zealand! As a small country with many different mission organisations, this quote is very appropriate. Alone, as individual organisations, we can only achieve so much, but together, we are able to effectively reach more people with the story of God’s heart for mission.

One of the specific ways Eastwest College and WEC have seen this idea of “collaboration over competition” in the past year has been through our partnership with The Send, a global ministry focused on activating Christians for missional action. As a missions training college, Eastwest College chose to collaborate with The Send because we strongly resonated with this missional kaupapa and our desire is to see Christians equipped to go from Aotearoa to the world...

Harnessing Collaboration, Fulfilling the Great Commission.                Chris Ponniah 

Collaboration among mission agencies and organizations affiliated with Missions Interlink NZ (MINZ) is crucial for improving the effectiveness of mission efforts both locally and globally. ...

Keys to Inspiring Collaboration

1. Identify Common Goals

Successful collaboration begins with clearly defining shared objectives. Mission agencies must engage in open dialogue, discussing their missions, strengths, and strategies. Identifying common goals fosters alignment and enables targeted efforts on specific demographics or community needs, maximizing impact.

2. Foster Relationships

Trust is the foundation of meaningful collaboration. Agencies should create spaces for informal interactions—networking events, workshops, and prayer gatherings—that allow leaders to connect, share experiences, and build relationships.

3. Host Joint Training Programs

Collaborative training sessions can boost the skills of participants from various organizations. Shared workshops on member care, health & safety, cultural sensitivity, or fundraising build capacity while fostering camaraderie.

4. Engage in Shared Accountability

Accountability is key to maintaining healthy collaborations. Agencies should establish clear roles, responsibilities, and timelines for collectively agreed-upon initiatives. Regular check-ins can help track progress, celebrate successes, and identify areas for improvement. This transparency builds trust and fosters a culture of mutual support.

5. Mobilize for Crisis Response

Collaboration becomes particularly powerful during crises, such as natural disasters or humanitarian emergencies. Agencies can work together to quickly mobilize resources and provide aid, ensuring that assistance reaches the affected communities efficiently. A coordinated response increases effectiveness and speed in addressing urgent needs.

6. Celebrating Success and Growing Together

We need to celebrate the incredible successes of our collaborative efforts and foster deeper connections among our network of like-minded agencies, organizations, and individuals. To enhance collaboration within our community, we can take several meaningful steps...

Who is the King? Ben Poulton (ISMNZ, MI Admin)

For 14 years I was in YWAM working with a short Bible school. Every year we taught through the Bible and one topic we always covered was the Kingdom of God. I recall as a student writing out every verse from the whole Bible about the Kingdom of God, answering questions, analysing episodes from history according to a list of principles etc, then for years I marked the homework on this and each year listened to teaching on it. But when I moved to Nepal to run this Bible School, suddenly I was the school leader, and I had to make everything translatable to group of people who mostly hadn’t been to high school, so they could go back to their church planting area and teach people who might not even be able to read. And I realised I still didn’t know how to explain the Kingdom of God, which seemed like a very complicated thing, with a lot of verses and principles. So, the first year I invited a guest speaker. But finally I had to teach it myself, so I asked God, “How do I explain the Kingdom of God?” The simple question that came to me was, “Who is the king?”

So in Nepal wherever I taught I started asking the question, “Who is the King- of the family- of the church?” Most often they said the husband was the king of the family, and following that logic the pastor was the king of the church. But there can only be one king- Jesus! And we’ll have a very different perspective about how to treat others if we see everything like that. So we can ask the same question about our ministry, our church, or institution- “who is the King?” If it doesn’t look like Jesus is the King, then how can it be the Kingdom of God?

Following from this, if Jesus is the King of your ministry and mine, then Romans 14:4 applies, “Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To his own master he stands or falls.” We have one master, one King, therefore we ought not judge each other, compare ourselves or compete. We’re all on the same team, so we can celebrate each other’s success!

What does this mean practically- well when I meet a new student on campus and they say they are looking for a church, I ask them what kind of church they are looking for, and help them find one that suits them, I may not even mention my own church. When someone enquires of us about joining a mission organization, do we tell them what we do? Or do ask them what their calling, passion, gifting and vision is and help them discern the best fit for them, and then celebrate even if they join another organization? Because Jesus is the King.

One of the standout memories of my time in YWAM was visiting Intervarsity’s Urbana conference in 2003. Urbana is run every 3 years to recruit each generation of university students into missions. Over 15,000 students gather and over 300 mission agencies and Bible Colleges try to recruit them. Some missions were incredibly specific, like contextualized TV in Arabic, some like YWAM were very broad, but God was working in the midst marshalling people into their part of Kingdom ministry.

So for me, collaboration means remembering, who is the King?

Here's a selection of articles on Collaboration from the Lausanne Movement website.

Note: the following add for the Webinar series sponsored by Missions Interlink Australia is hosted from Australia and occurs at 3.30pm MELBOURNE TIME.