Is Partnership the “New” Paradigm for International Student Ministry?

“Some men came, bringing to him a paralyzed man, carried by four of them” (Mark 2:3). 
 
A story that has long intrigued me is that of the 4 men who brought a paralytic to Jesus in the village of Capernaum, on the northern shore of the Sea of Galilee, as recorded in Mark 2:1-5.  Because of the crowds blocking the front door to the house where Jesus was, the intrepid band of brothers hauled their patient up to the top of the building, dug a hole through the roof, and lowered him to where Jesus was! 
 
It’s entirely possible that 1 person alone can carry another.  Firefighters do it all the time using the fireman’s carry method. During my military service, I once carried a fellow soldier – while rappelling down the side of a cliff. However, it’s highly unlikely that a single person could’ve done what the 4 men did. (Unless your name is Corporal Desmond Doss, the combat medic and Medal of Honor winner who, in 1945, singlehandedly rescued 75 wounded infantrymen by lowering them down a steep escarpment known as Hacksaw Ridge at the Battle of Okinawa.) The task that confronted our 4 friends in Capernaum required partnership, teamwork, and resources; it required collaboration and coordination. 
 
Bearing God’s Presence Involves Teamwork
 
This aspect of teamwork reminds me of the Kohathites, the clan of Levites tasked to carry the Ark of the Covenant, which represented the presence of YHWH, the Lord (Numbers 4:1-20). For example, we read in 1 Chronicles 15:15, “And the Levites carried the ark of God with the poles on their shoulders, as Moses had commanded in accordance with the word of the Lord.” While it’s often implied that the task required 4 Levites, one at each end of the 2 poles, it’s not precisely clear in Scripture that that was indeed the case, and there may have been more than 4 carriers at one go. 
 
That said, it’s intriguing that in Ezekiel’s vision of the heavenly chariot in Ezekiel 1, there were “4 living creatures” accompanying the chariot bearing a manlike figure who bore “the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord” (Ezekiel 1:28b). Whether 4 bearers or more, the point remains that the job of carrying the ark of God involved a dedicated team of servants whose specific calling and mission was to bear the symbol of God’s very presence. 
 
The Body Bears the Head
 
Indeed, so critical was the role of the Levites that when King David sought to bring the ark to Jerusalem using a cart, God’s anger burned against Israel because David and company did not do it in the prescribed way (2 Samuel 6:7). From David’s perspective, the cart was a tool of expediency and efficiency. Arguably, the Levitical practice of carrying the ark of God could serve as a foundational model of worship and arguably of ministry and mission as well, that is, the Body of Christ as the appointed bearer of God’s presence and witness. 
 
Which makes perfect sense, since the human head – my head for certain, I presume yours as well – sits atop the body. And if Christ is the Head of the Church, He intends for His Body, the Church, to “carry” Him – although all too often we find it’s the exact opposite, i.e., it’s Christ who carries us. Yet He wants to be “carried” by a dedicated team of servants each called and commissioned to that task – and that’s you and I, all of us, for we are part of the priesthood of all believers (1 Peter 2:9). All these parts of the Body are expected to work together, such that, “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’ And the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you!’” (1 Corinthians 12:21). 
 
Partnership: A Model for Ministry?
 
What all of this suggests is that worship and service to our Most High God are not meant to be pursued on a solo basis. Indeed, if it took 4 Levites or 4 seraphs to carry God’s presence, and 4 guys to carry a paralyzed man to Jesus, then perhaps different international student ministries need to work together to bear witness unto our Lord. 
 
The Great Commission in Matthew 28 is simply too huge a task to be completed by any single organization, denomination, church, or ministry. And if that vision in Revelation 7:9 that compels us all – that “great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb” – is so grand and so vast a vision, it’s clear that it is not meant to be realized by lone rangers, each doing their own thing.

---