Leading Across Cultures E-Book

James E. Plueddemann

• Herausgeber: IVP Academic
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Seitenzahl: 341

Beschreibung

The worldwide church is more interconnected than ever before, with missionaries going from everywhere to everywhere. Africans work with Australians in India. Koreans plant churches in London and Los Angeles. But globalization also creates challenges for crosscultural tension and misunderstandings, as different cultures have conflicting assumptions about leadership values and styles. Missiologist James E. Plueddemann presents a roadmap for crosscultural leadership development in the global church. With keen understanding of current research on cultural dynamics, he integrates theology with leadership theory to apply biblical insights to practical issues in world mission. Savvy discernment of diverse cultural underpinnings allows multicultural teams to work together with mutual respect for more effective ministry. The author shows how leaders can grow from an individualistic egocentric practice of leadership to a more global-centric approach. The future of the global church depends on effective multicultural leadership. God has called people from various contexts to minister and lead in every land for the sake of the gospel. Whether you are teaching English in China, directing information technology in Africa or pastoring a multiethnic church in North America, discover how you can better work and lead across cultures.

Leseprobe

Leading Across Cultures

Effective Ministry and Mission in the Global Church

James E. Plueddemann

www.IVPress.com/academic

.

InterVarsity Press P.O. Box 1400 Downers Grove, IL 60515-1426 World Wide Web: www.ivpress.com E-mail: [email protected]

© 2009 by James E. Plueddemann

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without written permission from InterVarsity Press.

InterVarsity Press® is the book-publishing division of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA®, a movement of students and faculty active on campus at hundreds of universities, colleges and schools of nursing in the United States of America, and a member movement of the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students. For information about local and regional activities, write Public Relations Dept. InterVarsity Christian Fellowship/USA, 6400 Schroeder Rd., P.O. Box 7895, Madison, WI 53707-7895, or visit the IVCF website at www.intervarsity.org.

All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, Today’s New International Version™ Copyright © 2001 by International Bible Society. All rights reserved.

While all of the stories in this book are true, some names and identifying details have been changed to protect the privacy of those involved. Sidebar reflections are used with permission.

Design: Cindy Kiple

Images: peter zelei/iStockphoto Rich Harris/iStockphoto © Andrea Haase/iStockphoto

ISBN 978-0-8308-6630-4 (digital) ISBN 978-0-8308-2578-3 (print)

.

DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF REV. DR. BYANG KATO (1936-1975)

My friend and leadership mentor . . .

His dream for evangelical leadership development continues to influence millions.

His vision included Bangui Evangelical School of Theology, the Nairobi Evangelical Graduate School of Theology, and the Accrediting Council for Theological Education in Africa.

He led through vision and by example as General Secretary of the Evangelical Churches of West Africa and the Association of Evangelicals of Africa.

His heart-cry was that “African Christians be Christian Africans” and that leadership be culturally African while holding to the ever-abiding message of Scripture.

Byang Kato was a godly visionary who left a legacy of leaders for the worldwide church.

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Part I: Multicultural Leadership in the Worldwide Church

1: Leadership for a New Day in World Missions

2: My Pilgrimage in Leadership

3: Why Crosscultural Leadership?

Part II: Leadership and Culture

4: Leadership, Cultural Values and the Bible

5: Leadership and Context

6: Leadership and Power

7: Leadership and Individualism

8: Leadership and Ambiguity

Part III: Contextualizing Leadership

9: A Theology of Leadership

10: A Theory of Leadership

Part IV: Global Leadership in Practice

11: Developing Vision and Strategy

12: Developing Global Leaders

Epilogue: Leadership in the Global Church

Notes

Recommended Reading

Index

Praise for Leading Across Cultures

About the Author

More Titles from InterVarsity Press

Acknowledgments

It takes a community to write a book. Trinity Evangelical Divinity School provided the opportunity to write by generously granting a sabbatical. Thank you, Dean Tite Tiénou and the Board of Regents. I’m grateful for the TEDS doctoral students who have enriched and broadened my ideas about crosscultural leadership.

Joel Scandrett of InterVarsity Press listened to my early ideas and encouraged me to submit a book proposal. Al Hsu has continued to give encouragement along with helpful insights to improve the book.

I am especially grateful for colleagues who took the time to carefully read the manuscript and graciously critique the book while making valuable suggestions: Howard Brant, Greg Campbell, Charlie Davis, Duane Elmer, Dave Horsey and Craig Ott.

Thanks to David Malone and the Billy Graham Center of Wheaton College for giving me a place to write, kindly allowing me to use an office in the library.

Our daughter Shari and son Danny, born in Nigeria, cheered me on in writing this book. As “third-culture kids” they continually enrich my life with their dedication to multicultural goals and relationships.

My talented daughter-in-law Tabitha challenged me delightfully. Her comments included, “Papi, this is the most boring sentence I’ve ever read,” and “You are the world’s expert in the use of the verb ‘to be.’” She would then proceed to suggest three or four dazzling alternatives. If you read any brilliant sentences in the book, they were probably edited by Tabitha.

The book would not have been possible without Carol, my wife and beloved fellow pilgrim. I’m thankful for her editing ability and I’m grateful that our lives have been interwoven at each step of the journey.

When I was twenty-five years old I thought I knew a lot about leadership. I’m glad I didn’t write this book then. Over the years, the Lord has provided rich experiences, wise counselors and opportunities to study and teach theories of leadership. I will mention many significant mentors later in the book.

Introduction

We live in the most exhilarating era of world missions since Acts chapter 2. The worldwide body of Christ is growing rapidly, spreading widely and interacting more than ever before. Missionaries are going from everywhere and serving everywhere. But the globalization of the church also presents dangerous possibilities for crosscultural tensions, especially regarding leadership values. Church leaders must learn to cooperate with people who have radically different assumptions about leadership. From a human perspective, the hope for the worldwide church depends on effective multicultural leadership.

Today’s generation of leaders in the global church must learn new skills and be willing to discard some of the styles that made them so effective in monocultural leadership. Learning to lead in the multi-cultural context will be disconcerting. Geert Hofstede, a pioneer in leadership and culture, writes:

Learning to become an effective leader is like learning to play music: Besides talent, it demands persistence and the opportunity to practice. Effective monocultural leaders have learned to play one instrument; they often have proven themselves by a strong drive and quick and firm opinions. Leading in a multicultural and diverse environment is like playing several instruments. It partly calls for different attitudes and skills, restraint in passing judgment and the ability to recognize that familiar tunes may have to be played differently. The very qualities that make someone an effective monocultural leader may make her or him less qualified for a multicultural environment.[1]

The challenge: Christians from every nation are interacting with each other and cross-pollinating the worldwide church. Yet increased cooperation has potential for fresh tensions within the body. High on the list of misunderstandings is a clash of culturally diverse leadership values and styles. As we understand the cultural underpinnings that influence our views of leadership we will be able to work together with mutual respect.

My hopes for the book: I pray that the ideas presented here will be used of the Lord to foster mutual understanding, cooperation and enhanced ministry as leaders from around the world work together more effectively. Through eyes of faith, I picture multicultural teams partnering with beautiful harmony so that the body of Christ grows and is strengthened in every way. The stakes are high! I pray that believers from around the world will work together with such love and understanding that all people groups will be radically changed by the power of the gospel.

The plan of the book: I write from the perspective of twenty-four years of crosscultural leadership experience. Those years include mistakes, for sure. I also write from the perspective of a social scientist and academician who is committed to the full authority of the Bible. This book will seek to integrate biblical principles of leadership with social science research and experience to the end that the practice of leadership is enhanced and the worldwide body of Christ is strengthened.

Intended Readers

As I interact with crosscultural practitioners, I find that virtually all have faced frustrations stemming from leadership misunderstandings. I picture the following people who could profit from the book:

missionaries from anywhere in the world serving short-term or long-term in any other culture

students and professors interested in leadership and culture

mission pastors seeking to implement crosscultural, church-to-church partnerships

church missions committees that equip, select and support the missionary force

youth pastors and others who face the challenge of leading cross-cultural short-term mission trips

pastors of multiethnic churches

executives of mission agencies who partner with leaders in other cultures

pastors and parachurch ministers who receive missionaries from another culture

crosscultural business people working under the leadership of those from a different culture

theological educators involved in crosscultural leadership development

crosscultural relief and development workers serving with local leadership

mission mobilizers from scores of sending countries who seek to challenge believers with God’s command to make disciples in the whole world.

Definition of Missionary

The word missionary has mixed connotations. For some people, missionaries are heroes and spiritual giants, worthy to be put on a pedestal. At the other extreme, missionaries are thought to be religious fanatics who destroy cultures and stir up sectarian strife. Many times, they are stereotyped as being from the West and having white skin. More recently the idea has surfaced that all believers are missionaries. I remember a missions conference with the theme, “You are either a missionary or a mission field.” I recently visited a church that featured a large sign over the exit: “You are now entering the mission field.” Some Christian organizations define a missionary as anyone needing to raise support. A prayer letter from a Christian camp announced that all the camp staff were missionaries, meaning the camp didn’t pay them a salary. One of my American friends jokingly defines a missionary as anyone who receives a tax-deductible receipt for the cost of their travel.

Most missionaries are neither spiritual giants nor destroyers of culture. They go out from every country in the world, they have a unique calling, and they are not defined by whether they raise support or not.

A missionary is anyone, from any country, who leaves home in order to proclaim the gospel, usually in another culture.[2] The term is derived from the concept of “apostle,” or “sent one,” so by definition, missionaries move beyond their home ministries.

In the Old Testament, priests had local responsibility for taking care of the temple, while prophets spoke the word of God both to Israel and to the nations. Jesus’ disciples were also called apostles or “sent ones.” They were called to leave home, family and occupations for the sake of Jesus and for the gospel (Mk 10:29). New Testament pastors, elders and deacons were responsible for local house churches, while “apostolic bands” left home to preach the gospel. During much of the history of the church, parish priests led local congregations while religious orders[3] carried the gospel to distant places. Put simply, missionaries are people who leave home for the sake of the gospel.[4] While differences between local and nonlocal ministries become fuzzy at times, the basic distinction helps to avoid confusion of roles.[5]

Christians living or doing business in another country are not necessarily missionaries unless they intentionally seek opportunities to share the gospel.[6] Yet, communicating the gospel is not the only thing that missionaries do. They do in fact hold verbal proclamation of the gospel together with meeting human need. Through the centuries missionaries have holistically proclaimed Christ as they healed the sick, built schools, provided clean water, initiated agricultural innovation and spoke out against injustice.

When an Indian family moves away from their own culture in south India to the Islamic North in order to do the work of evangelism and discipleship, they are missionaries. Chinese family members setting up a market stall in Afghanistan for the sake of taking the gospel westward are missionaries. An Australian English teacher in China who looks for informal opportunities to share the gospel is a missionary.

Definition of Leadership

There must be hundreds of definitions of leadership, each one reflecting philosophical, theological and cultural values. People from a goal-oriented culture might define leadership as accomplishing the task through other people. Leaders from a relationship-oriented society would prefer to define leadership as the ability to build alliances and friendships. Societies with a low tolerance for ambiguity insist on a precise definition, while those with a high tolerance for ambiguity would likely not bother with any definition.

Recently the U.S. News & World Report editors selected their choice of the best leaders. They defined a leader as a person who “motivates people to work collaboratively to accomplish great things.”[7] The selection committee used three criteria for the best leaders: (1) they set direction; (2) by “building a shared sense of purpose,” they achieved results that had a positive social impact that exceeded expectations; and (3) they cultivated a culture of growth by inspiring others to lead.[8]

Since there is no divinely inspired definition of leadership, I will show my theological and cultural bias with the following description: Good leaders are fervent disciples of Jesus Christ, gifted by the Holy Spirit, with a passion to bring glory to God. They use their gift of leadership by taking initiative to focus, harmonize and enhance the gifts of others for the sake of developing people and cultivating the kingdom of God.

My prayer is that God will use this book to fan into flame the leadership gifts of people in every land for the delightful and challenging task of multicultural leadership.

Part I Multicultural Leadership in the Worldwide Church

Part one calls for a fresh look at the influence of culture on the theory and practice of leadership in a globalized church. If the worldwide body of Christ is to work together in harmony, a crosscultural understanding and appreciation of leadership differences is essential.

1 Leadership for a New Day in World Missions

Christian mission in the twenty-first century has become the responsibility of a global church.

Samuel Escobar

I was a bit reticent about conducting official business in my supervisor’s living room so late in the evening, long after office hours. As I waited, a rerun of Hawaii Five-O blared on the television in the corner, and the room was packed with more than a dozen pastors all waiting their turn to consult with my Nigerian boss.

As the director of theological education for this large West African denomination, I was responsible for the administration of twenty-one Bible colleges and seminaries. I often needed to consult with my boss about major decisions, so I made regular appointments through his secretary. Seldom did we meet during the scheduled time. Most often he would be away on an emergency trip, or an important pastor or village chief would show up at the last minute and usurp my time slot.

On this night I was frantic. I needed a decision from my boss for a crucial board meeting. My flight left very early the next morning. One of the Bible colleges had run out of money halfway through the last semester, and the board was recommending that we close the school and send the students home! I needed to tell my boss this news and get his advice. After missing another appointment he simply told me to come to his house that evening. Even though I felt it would be rude for me to interrupt his personal and family time with my official business, I went. As I entered his living room, I noticed every chair was filled with pastors coming to him for advice or decisions. I waited my turn, somewhat embarrassed to overhear what seemed to be confidential conversations about various church discipline problems, but no one else seemed uncomfortable. At that moment I sat there feeling frustrated, impatient and confused about Nigerian leadership style.

The Challenge

The good news is that the body of Christ has been planted and is growing in every country of the world to the extent that churches in the non-Western world are now the majority. The globalization of the church and the general accessibility of cheap air travel have led to unprecedented international interconnectedness.

Millions of short-termers travel from scores of countries every year to just about every country of the world.

Tens of thousands of long-term missionaries from Africa, Asia and Latin America now serve in every country of the world.

Christian colleges and universities are becoming intentionally globalized.

Urban centers worldwide are forging new multicultural ministries.

Global business people often see their work as ministry.

A high percentage of missionaries are working under the leadership of national church leaders.

Hundreds of churches are forming mission partnerships with other churches around the world.

Whole denominations in the West are coming under the direction of African leaders.

Crosscultural leadership development may be the most important task in missions.

This globalization of the church brings fresh challenges. Many individuals and organizations remain unaware of cultural leadership differences, often leading to confusion and bitter misunderstanding.

In spite of profound yet hidden differences, many pastors naively lead short-term teams and attempt to create crosscultural partnerships. I have noticed a growing number of voices suggesting that anyone can do crosscultural missions. Missiologists call this “the amateurization of missions,” while the amateurs call it “the democratization of missions.” Mission pastors rightly react against purists who would like to require that all missionaries have a doctorate in anthropology before serving in another culture. The other extreme is even more dangerous. I’ve heard youth pastors tell their mission team, “Just be yourself, and everyone will love you.” This is a formula for crosscultural disaster. After being burned by bitter cultural misunderstandings, church leaders are recognizing the need for a deeper understanding of cultural differences in leadership.

For God’s people to work together effectively, implicit assumptions about leadership need to be made explicit. They must be evaluated in light of sound social science research and biblical principles. The church in the North and South, the East and West acts out of unconscious and often confusing assumptions about leadership. We must appreciate the differences and challenge some of the misconceptions in order to work together as the worldwide body of Christ.

You don’t have to travel from Australia to Afghanistan to bump into cultural leadership differences. Remarkable variations exist in the same country, even a few blocks from each other! Cultural assumptions about leadership between young business graduates and very senior executives frustrate both age groups. Those growing up in rural communities experience leadership shock when they share office space with colleagues from London, Manhattan or Lagos. Disagreements between ethnically diverse neighbors are often the result of conflicting cultural values. Several research studies indicate that women and men tend to lead with dissimilar cultural values.[1] Radical differences exist between the leadership culture of a for-profit corporation and that of a volunteer association.[2] First-generation immigrants are puzzled by the leadership expectations of second- and third-generation children. Anyone who leads or is led—in other words, everyone—is inescapably impacted by cultural assumptions about leadership.

Our global economy thrusts together people with radically divergent assumptions about leadership. Thomas Friedman writes of the fascinating manufacturing history of his Dell computer. In story after story, he describes computer components made by British-owned companies in India, China and Malaysia; by Japanese and Taiwanese and Irish-owned companies in China; by American-owned companies in Malaysia; as well as by companies in the Philippines, Costa Rica, South Korea, Thailand and Israel.[3] The globalization of business has spawned hundreds of studies investigating the effects of culture on leadership. These insightful analyses provide a rich source for forging understanding and cooperation in the global church.

Mission agencies today are increasingly and delightfully multicultural. This is a moment in history when the whole church faces an unprecedented opportunity to reach out to the whole world. I witnessed a mission team in northern India made up of Canadians, Guatemalans, Japanese, Koreans, North Americans, Ethiopians and Indians sharing the gospel with Muslims along the Ganges River. The message of the gospel takes on significant credibility when communicated by such an international team. The skeptic who says that Christianity is a Western religion must give pause when those communicating the good news come from diverse cultures. World missions must be multicultural because the gospel is for everyone and the Great Commission is for all believers. But being an effective multicultural leader is not easy, especially when false expectations and hidden assumptions exist about what it means to be a leader or follower.

Tens of millions of business people, scholars, migrants, immigrants and refugees are flooding countries that traditionally contained one or two dominant cultures. Countries such as Korea, China, Brazil, India and Nigeria are now contributing astounding numbers of missionaries worldwide.[4] This brings phenomenal opportunities for crosscultural church cooperation—along with serious challenges.

The following scenarios illustrate the interplay of leadership and culture. Some names and places have been changed, but these are actual stories from my personal experience that reflect the challenges of crosscultural leadership.

Scenario 1: North Americans in Peru. The short-term team from a North American church spent months preparing to partner with a church in Peru. Church leaders in Peru asked the multigenerational church team to conduct a marriage enrichment seminar. The American team recruited people who had the experience and training to teach a marriage-enrichment seminar, and they worked hard to adapt their materials to Peruvian culture. But when the Americans arrived in Peru they were told that the marriage-enrichment seminar had been cancelled. Brian was furious at the apparent dishonesty of bringing a well-trained team all the way to Peru, with all the planning, costs and time involved, just to cancel the program. But Margaret, who didn’t speak a word of Spanish, decided that she would simply get to know the Peruvian family in whose home she was staying. Long into the night, she found ways to communicate, as she and her host family shared photographs and stories about their families. Margaret came back a changed person, with many new Peruvian friends. Brian came home frustrated and resentful. What was the difference? Perhaps Margaret understood that some individuals and cultures are goal-oriented while others are explicitly relationship-oriented.

Scenario 2: Multicultural team building in Liberia. As a silent observer, I sat in a back corner of the living room in northern Liberia and listened as missionaries discussed strategy. Tension grew as Canadians, Koreans, New Zealanders and Nigerians debated what it meant to be a team. The Nigerian missionary suggested that the team do everything together; the Korean missionary urged a daily 5 a.m. prayer meeting; and the New Zealand family suggested that a once-a-month reporting session would be enough. The Canadian was miffed at the Korean for intruding into morning family time, and the Nigerian was peeved at the New Zealander for being uncooperative. The conversation grew more strained. What was going on? Cultural values of individualism versus collectivism most often lie hidden below the surface, yet have a significant visible impact for crosscultural teams.

Scenario 3: Long-term planning in Nigeria. My Nigerian boss approached me with a problem. The mission had given him an ultimatum: the national church needed to produce a detailed five-year plan before the church would receive any more financial support for projects. My boss was a well-educated, bicultural person who fully understood what the mission wanted, but he wasn’t convinced that a detailed five-year plan was a good idea. “We don’t know what will happen to the Nigerian economy or the political situation five years from now. We don’t know if there might be a ‘people movement’ that might call for sending Nigerian missionaries to an unexpected part of the country.” He asked me to help him draw up a five-year plan that would satisfy the mission and still allow flexibility for the Nigerian church. Is such a request possible? Cultures with a low tolerance for ambiguity clash with those embracing a high tolerance for ambiguity, and this can lead to tension among leaders in planning and evaluation.

Scenario 4: Team tensions in Uruguay. Alejandro was a Colombian missionary happily serving in Uruguay on a church-planting team that included a South African, a Singaporean and a German. The team worked beautifully for the first year. When the church began to hold services, Alejandro was appointed to be the interim pastor until a Uruguayan could take the position. But as soon as he became the pastor, his leadership style changed and he no longer consulted with other team members or held team meetings. It seemed as if Alejandro had shifted from being an egalitarian team-player to a paternalistic leader. The high-performance multicultural team fell apart. What happened? Cultural expectations regarding perceptions of high power distance versus low power distance often lead to challenges for mission leaders in multicultural teams.

Scenario 5: Second-generation Japanese in Chicago. A large and growing Japanese church in Chicago called a new senior pastor from Tokyo, Japan. The church was excited to have a man who was well known as a powerful preacher and a widely respected leader. The new pastor spoke some English, but was more comfortable preaching in Japanese. Older church members had spent most of their adult years in Japan and were quite comfortable with the new pastor. But many of the middle-aged members, though born in Japan, had been in the United States for so long that their Japanese language ability was not fluent. While they fully understood Japanese leadership values of respect and obedience, they had also become comfortable with a more egalitarian style of leadership. Their children, second-generation young people in the church, didn’t speak Japanese and had profoundly absorbed the American youth culture. The senior pastor was perturbed by what he perceived as a lack of respect from the young people, while the youth seemed to be embarrassed by their “uncool” pastor who didn’t know English and wanted to tell them how to run a youth group. The clash of leadership values between a high-power-distance, collectivistic culture and a low-power-distance, individualistic culture is a challenge in many immigrant churches.

Joys and Challenges of Multicultural Leadership

We live in an amazing era of missions. Newly planted churches in the so-called mission-receiving countries are growing rapidly, embracing the Great Commission and sending out record numbers of their own missionaries. The slogan “from everywhere to everywhere” has become a reality where missionaries are sent from nearly every country of the world into hundreds of crosscultural settings. Following are some of the more recent developments in world missions.

Development 1: From everywhere to everywhere. Missionary teams venture out from many countries and cultures. While leading a vision seminar in Sudan, we met Samuel and Rebecca. Samuel, from India, is married to Rebecca, from Taiwan. Their financial support comes from churches in India, Singapore, Taiwan and Indonesia. Recently, the churches in Sudan sent out a call for a hundred teachers to come to Southern Sudan to teach the Bible and help develop church leaders who have just emerged from a decades-long civil war. SIM[5] missionaries arrived from the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States. The missionary arm of the church that relates to SIM in Nigeria dispatched twelve Nigerians, the SIM-related church in Ethiopia added eight Ethiopians, and the church in Kenya sent four Kenyans. What a joy to see missionaries from the East and West streaming forward with boldness and sacrifice to partner with missionaries in Africa to meet a desperate need for leadership development in Sudan! Such global mission teams face the challenges of different cultural assumptions about leadership. Asian leadership styles differ greatly from those in North America, and Sudanese leadership expectations differ from those of Nigeria.

Development 2: Short-term missions. International short-term mission teams are growing at such a rate that no one seems to be able to keep up with the numbers. Youth pastors are expected to be able to lead crosscultural mission trips if they hope to get hired or keep their jobs. Short-term missions has become a global phenomenon. Not only do several million short-term North American missionaries make yearly mission trips, but groups also go from Korea to Afghanistan, from Chile to Niger, from Guatemala to India, and so on. Again, tremendous challenges arise in the leadership functions of planning and organizing interactions between cultures. Often the short-term teams have little crosscultural experience. They are caught off guard by leadership differences in planning and implementation. At the same time, leaders receiving the short-term teams are often unprepared for clashes in cultural values. An Asian, African or Latin host might be taken back by the directness, boldness and informality of a visiting American or Australian team.

Development 3: Church-to-church partnerships. Church-to-church partnerships demonstrate another increasing trend. Leadership challenges emerge when churches in Taiwan, England, Colombia or the United States seek a partnership relationship with churches in cultures with radically different understandings of leadership. The very concept of “partnership” is loaded with cultural expectations that can puzzle both sides of the agreement. The idea of “equal partners” is foreign to most of the world. Partnership in much of the world assumes a junior and senior member. Usually churches from wealthy countries are expected to be the senior partner or the patron, even if they don’t want to be. When a local church becomes involved in a crosscultural partnership, leaders must understand cultural differences. What are the implicit assumptions about what it means to be a leader, follower or partner?

Development 4: Leadership development strategies. Missiologists once defined missions solely as world evangelization, or reaching the least-reached people groups. The nurture of newly planted churches and leadership development were thought to be of secondary importance or even a distraction from “real” missions. Today, however, missiologists realize that a crucial task of world missions is the nurture and development of leaders. Whole mission agencies have sprung up with the primary objective of doing leadership training. Megachurches often conduct leadership seminars around the world. Such seminars may make the naive assumption that leadership is culture-free and that anyone from any culture can teach it. They often claim they are teaching the “biblical model” of leadership, not realizing that the way they read the Bible is already influenced by their cultural theories about leadership.

Development 5: Working under leadership of another culture. In the colonial era it was assumed that the missionary would be the leader. But in today’s world the expatriate missionary more often works under national church leaders, or under missionaries from countries with radically different assumptions about how to lead. For all the thirteen years my wife and I served in Nigeria with SIM, I gladly served under the leadership of Nigerian directors. But I was often caught off guard by unexpected assumptions about leadership values. I struggled to unlearn many of my hidden assumptions about leadership and to embrace new ways of leading and being led.

When I finally got my turn with my boss in his living room that evening and explained to him the urgent matter of the Bible school’s imminent closing, he thought for a second and then said, “Come with me.” I followed him to his office about a block away. He opened the safe and gave me a briefcase full of Nigerian currency equivalent to over 20,000 U.S. dollars. “This should be enough to keep the school open for the rest of the year,” he said. I was astounded. I asked him where he got the money, and he told me that people in the United States had given it to him to build a much-needed addition to his small house, but the Bible college needed it more than his family. I asked him if he wanted a receipt, but he just waved and said, “No, I trust you.” The students, teachers and board members of the Bible college were jubilant when I climbed out of the small mission airplane the following day, carrying a suitcase bulging with cash.

My gifted Nigerian supervisor taught me valuable lessons about leadership. I thought he was rude to disregard appointments; he taught me that time is not to be dichotomized into artificial blocks. I was embarrassed to go to his private home on official business; he taught me that location was not to be separated into official and private space. I assumed that money was divided into personal and business categories; he taught me extraordinary generosity.

Summary and Conclusions

The glorious existence of the interconnected worldwide church compels critical reflection on leadership and culture. For the worldwide body of Christ to work in unity, we must look afresh at hidden assumptions about cultural values regarding leadership while we pursue biblical principles that affirm and challenge these values. I believe we can be both biblical and flexible in our philosophy and practice of leadership. My prayer is that leaders around the globe will humbly learn to work together as we look toward the day when people from every language, people and nation will sing hallelujahs at the wedding feast of the Lamb!

Some of my friends and mentors have agreed to contribute vignettes about what they are learning about crosscultural leadership. These reflections can be found between chapters.

In the next chapter I will discuss some of the things I am still learning about leadership. One of my friends suggested that I title the chapter “My 1001 Greatest Leadership Mistakes.” I thank the Lord for those who patiently mentored me in my leadership development. Much of my philosophy of leadership has grown out of these experiences.

Reflections on multicultural Leadership

Dr. Joshua Bogunjoko, Deputy International Director for SIM (Serving In Mission) with responsibility for Europe and West Africa

Crosscultural leadership has taken us beyond our own cultural preconception of leadership to appreciate the view of leadership from very diverse cultures. My wife, Joanna, and I are from Nigeria, and we began our missionary career as physicians in Niger. After further study in Canada, we were asked to serve in a leadership role with the international team of SIM. It has been a delight to be able to come alongside people from so many different backgrounds and cultures, working and walking together to encourage and support effective ministry.

The difficulties of working in crosscultural ministry are more or less a flip side of its delight. The different cultural understandings that bring such richness to crosscultural leadership also bring the greatest challenge. This includes balancing different ideas and expectations of leadership roles among different cultural groups and even among people of similar cultural groups who do Christian leadership differently.

There is also the challenge of the language of leadership. The way people understand and interpret concepts such as servant leadership and consultative or participatory leadership all differ from culture to culture and from experience to experience. These differences are not only between people of different cultures, but also between individuals from similar cultures. Diversity of thoughts and ideas brings richness and beauty. The delight of working crossculturally is that we get to see and know other peoples’ differing ideas. Sometimes, we may actually be saying the same thing in different ways.

Choosing to be learners is what helps us most to understand different perspectives on leadership. Crosscultural leadership is a school from which you never graduate. I don’t think anyone comes to crosscultural leadership with a superior or inferior view of leadership; we just all come with different views. It is my responsibility as a leader to learn from others what their views are and why, and to help them understand where I am coming from. This can only happen by being honest about my own need to know and understand others, to be vulnerable and open, seeking to understand before trying to be understood, being an empathetic listener and showing true respect for cultural differences in leadership practices, models and styles. I need to ask clarifying questions to be sure that I am being understood, as well as to ensure that I have understood.

I have also learned that leadership in general and crosscultural leadership in particular is not about my success, but about walking with and helping others succeed, whatever their cultural peculiarities may be and whatever their callings are. It is about helping others be all that God has called them to be as much as I can help in that process. Since no condition is permanent, a follower can become a leader someday, and one needs to be prepared to accept with humility the leadership of someone who had previously worked under his or her leadership.

I have learned that there are no superior or inferior cultures or cultural approaches to leadership; there are only different approaches. No particular culture’s approach is inherently bad or unbiblical, and no particular culture is completely biblical. I have learned to ask questions, to ask not only what and how, but why. The “what” helps me understand what is expected. The “how” helps me understand the culturally appropriate approach, but it is the “why” that helps me understand the culture itself. It is the “why” question that unmasks the deep cultural value behind the “what” and “how.”

I confess that I owe a significant part of my growth as a Christian to opportunities to serve in leadership roles, especially crosscultural leadership. I have had opportunity to evaluate my own cultural leadership norms and my own cultural heritage. This in turn allows other cultural views to help me draw new conclusions and adopt new attitudes as I continue to learn and lead.

2 My Pilgrimage in Leadership

Show me a great leader, and I’ll show you a hungry learner.

Henry Blackaby

Crosscultural leadership is a school from which you never graduate.

Joshua Bogunjoko

When I was a young child, my strict German grandfather often reminded me, “Anything worth doing, is worth doing well.” But the proverb frequently backfired. I realized that I could do few things well so I didn’t even try to do them. Later in my career, my doctoral mentor, Ted Ward, modified the proverb to say, “Anything worth doing is worth doing poorly . . . the first time . . . and better the second time.” He emphasized that the important lesson of that proverb is to ask, “Is it really worth doing?” And if so, “Can we learn from our mistakes?”

There is a story about a little boy from the cattle-herding Fulani people in West Africa. Like children often do on a trip, he asked his father, “How much longer until we get there?” to which his father answered, “Never. We are nomads.” I used to think I would eventually master the art of multicultural leadership. Now I realize that my pilgrimage has just begun. As I look back on my life I’m amazed and embarrassed at my innocent ignorance. Yet the pilgrimage isn’t over. We aren’t home yet, and we must keep learning.

When we first arrived in Nigeria I was intimidated by veteran missionaries who had many years of experience. Howard Dowdell, my unofficial mentor, challenged me with the idea that “there are two kinds of missionaries—those with twenty years of experience, and those with one year of experience repeated twenty times. The difference between these two kinds of missionaries is that the first learns from experience.” He helped me to see that experience without reflection is not necessarily educational.

While I still have much to learn about culture and leadership, I owe a debt of gratitude to those who have taught me. I’m sorry to admit that most of what I have learned about leadership and culture has come through making mistakes. I wish there were easier ways to learn, but as long as we take care to let our mistakes be instructive, we can hope to become effective crosscultural leaders.

Learning to Be a Follower

The summer after I graduated from high school, I worked at Turners Fruit Farm in Saginaw, Michigan, along with dozens of migrant workers from Mexico. At 6 a.m. every morning we became soaked in the morning dew as we picked strawberries and cucumbers and then hoed long dusty rows of sweet corn. Since I was the only one with a U.S. driver’s license, I delivered the produce to grocery stores. But I quickly realized that I was not the leader. The Mexican migrant workers knew far more than I would ever learn about farming. But amazingly, they didn’t criticize the “gringo kid.” They graciously helped me and taught me how to work faster as I learned the trade of picking and hoeing. Each of us earned fifty cents for hoeing a quarter-mile row of sweet corn.