At the Medford Gospel Mission, I often write about how our program is intentionally relational—focused on restoring broken relationships with God, self, others, and creation. What I don’t often talk about is our relationship with other organizations in our community.
Our mission to reach the lost and gather the reached doesn’t resonate the same way with everyone. Many local churches understand and support our work. Numerous businesses give generously. Local government agencies appreciate our willingness to help address homelessness from a faith-based perspective.
Then there are other local non-profits.
We truly strive to maintain friendly, working relationships with other non-profits in our community. There are many organizations doing excellent work in their respective areas of expertise, each guided by their own mission statements. Because of this diversity, it’s simply not possible to agree with everyone on everything.
At the Mission, we understand our niche. We believe God has the power to radically change the life of anyone who puts their trust in Him. As a result, our program looks very different from secular approaches to homelessness. We do our best to stay in our lane—being honest and upfront about what we believe, what we do, and why we do it.
It’s not always easy knowing that others may disagree with you. But in my experience, when you’re honest about who you are and what you believe, people often respond by building bridges where appropriate. When that happens, it opens the door to respectful and productive relationships.
Over the years, this approach has allowed me to serve on a City of Medford commission addressing homelessness. I’ve also participated in multiple steering committees and work groups that helped establish the low-barrier campsite, extreme weather shelter, and navigation center. In these settings, I’ve been able to share a different perspective on both the problem and its solutions—and, more importantly, to share how God changes lives.
Practically speaking, cooperation often looks like sharing resources. When we have an abundance, we share with other non-profits—and they do the same with us. This has allowed us to provide and deliver thousands of meals to organizations whose missions differ greatly from ours. We also open our free clothing store to agencies and non-profits so their clients can access quality clothing. Nightly, individuals served by other organizations join us at the Mission to dine in our Main Ingredient Restaurant.
These are real examples of how non-profits can work together—even when their values differ significantly.
Over the years, some organizations have asked to take these relationships further by formalizing partnerships. We have always declined. While formal partnerships may provide greater access to resources, we’ve consistently chosen friendly working relationships that do not require compromising our values or risking our religious liberty.
Recently, a large local non-profit that does remarkable work fighting hunger in Southern Oregon contacted us again, requesting an official partnership. While they have access to far more resources and strong relationships with grocery stores, we once again chose to remain friends rather than formal partners.
In the past, this relationship has been mutually beneficial. We’ve shared food with their pantries when we had extra, and they’ve passed along perishable items to us rather than discarding them. That’s how genuine, no-strings-attached relationships work—people helping people, even when missions don’t perfectly align.
This time, however, the relationship came with a requirement: formal partnership or loss of access to certain pantry relationships unless we submitted to annual inspections and additional oversight.
I understand their position. Their relationships with government-funded agencies bring necessary layers of bureaucracy. But those layers interfere with the simple, trust-based relationships we seek to maintain.
We don’t desire relationships that dictate who we can work with or require us to compromise our autonomy. And that’s okay. We will continue forward, trusting the Lord to provide. We will keep sharing when we have abundance and remain faithful to proclaiming the incredible things God is doing every day as we continue reaching the lost and gathering the reached in our community.
Partner with us in God’s work of relational restoration.