From Leader to Partner in Global Missions

One of the most profound and healthiest shifts in the mission world today is the shift from western missionaries being the leader to being a partner. This shift comes in part from the changing nature of missions with potential local partners being found almost everywhere in the world. But it also signals a shift toward greater kingdom thinking and maturity away from the model of colonial power and paternalism to fellow colleagues in ministry.

There is a good reason that many traditional mission agencies have changed their names. Ours went from the Evangelical Free Church of America International Mission to ReachGlobal. Now our friends and partners are not joining an American mission but a family of ReachGlobal partners. The name change sent a powerful message to our global friends that it was “us together” and in some cases they formed their own local brand to cooperate with the larger brand. So, ReachAfrica was born as an indigenous sending agency to cooperate with ReachGlobal. Many mission name changes actually reflect more profound philosophical shifts from leader to partner.

As partners, western missionaries no longer unilaterally make ministry decisions but seek to build a local team that together decides strategy. Their team may be made up of themselves and local believers and it also may include missionaries from other parts of the world so that it is “all people” reaching “all people.” The emphasis though is on working with local believers (partners) to determine the needs and the specific role that missionaries from the west can fulfill in helping their partners multiply healthy churches, do evangelism and leadership training. In many places, our role today is equipping, coaching, mentoring and training of partners and true “co laborers” for the harvest.

Another key role is one that we have had significant experience in – the sending of missionaries. This is one of the amazing legacies of the church in the west over the past several hundred years and that passion for reaching the world needs to be passed on to every Christian movement everywhere. It is thrilling to see movements in the majority world taking up the mantle of missions themselves and it is an indication of their growing maturity because no movement is mature without sending their own. Because we have long experience in sending, we can encourage, mentor, train and facilitate the sending missionaries by our global partners. True leverage takes place when those we serve become mission sending movements themselves.

This new role also entails a new skill set for missionaries. They are no longer primarily individual producers “doing” things but are now increasingly coaches of others, developers of others, and focusing on developing, empowering and releasing healthy, missional local leaders who can in the end do what they do better than we can. This is moving from the front to the back in the sense that we are not the leaders but those who raise up local leaders, stand behind them and partner with them. This role is no different than the role spelled out in Ephesians 4:12 where God gave leaders to the church to equip the people for works of ministry. Nor is it different than what we want from staff in the local church – not to do ministry for us but to raise up people who are also passionate about that ministry, build teams and multiply ourselves.

This requires a new posture of humility on the part of those who go today. We go to serve. We go as partners. We go to raise others up. We go to serve in many ways behind the scenes. Our job is truly to develop, empower and release others and to cheer them on. It is to raise up other leaders who will take ownership for missions in their city, region, country and continent. It is in the spirit of Christ who came, poured himself into the disciples and then at His ascension gave his ministry away to those whom he had trained. He multiplied himself through others as a servant leader.

A profound shift is taking place today in missions. Those agencies who understand and embrace this shift will see their influence broaden even as they move from leaders to partners.There have always been western missionaries who modeled this attitude but it has not always been the ethos of missions in the colonial or post colonial era. Agencies that take this ethos seriously will be the leading mission influencers in the future and will make the deepest impact.

Signs of a dysfunctional church board

It is an unfortunate truth that many church boards are dysfunctional. That lack of health makes board meetings difficult and leadership problematic. Here are some signs of a dysfunctional board.

Confidential discussions don’t stay in the board room. I recently met with a board over a particularly knotty problem they were dealing with (a personnel issue) and discovered that my comments had been passed on to the very one they were discussing. One of the most sacred rules for a board to operate is that confidential discussions are always kept in the board room. Once someone on your board starts to violate that sacred trust, the whole board is compromised because members will be unwilling to be candid because of the fact that their comments may become public domain. Board work 101 is confidentiality.

Issues are rehashed after they have been decided. When board members bring up issues that the board has already decided – wanting to rehash them – what they are really saying is “I don’t agree with the board’s decision and I am unwilling to agree to the board’s direction.” A key principle of board work is that board members must be willing to accept the decision of the board. If they cannot as a matter of conscience, they should leave the board. Needing to get one’s way (which is what this behavior is about) is destructive to healthy boards. Board members may say whatever they want inside the board room (with the exception of personal attacks or hidden agendas) but once a decision is made, they have the obligation to abide by it and support it publicly and privately.

Board meetings are conducted without a clear agenda. When there is not clarity over the agenda the board wanders and the loudest voices end up determining the discussion of the board – often bringing up matters that have more to do with personal agendas than church leadership issues. The board chair and the senior pastor should be crafting careful agendas around the big rocks of the ministry and then it is the boar chair’s job to ensure that the agenda is followed and rabbit trails are not followed.

Board members don’t police their own. Healthy boards have a board covenant of behavior – the rules by which they operate. They also are willing to deal with board members who violate the meeting commitments. This is not easy but it is necessary because it only takes one board member who violates accepted practices to kill the health of the board as a whole. I am constantly amazed at the behaviors that boards allow because they either have not clarified acceptable behavior or simply lack the courage to call board members on their behavior.

The Board does not have a clear and defined path for decision making. Many boards have a naive assumption that they all need to agree (unanimity) before a decision is made. What this actually does is to allow just one board member to hold the rest of the board hostage when they don’t agree. In other cases, the decision making process is simply “murky” and it is often not clear that a decision has been made that everyone needs to support. After adequate dialogue, boards need to make decisions by a majority vote, that decision needs to be recorded, everyone needs to be clear on the implications and must be willing to support it.

The board cannot make a tough decision that impacts the health of the church. There is often a naive assumption that it is possible to keep everyone in the church happy, to never ruffle the waters and to always assume that individuals in the congregation – even who display problematic behaviors – have the best interests of the church in mind. I have watched boards fail to deal with behaviors that are negatively impacting the church as whole in the name of “grace.” Paul did not counsel Timothy in the Pastoral Epistles to extend grace to everyone, especially those whose behavior caused division in the church! Actually he counseled just the opposite. There are times when boards need to make hard calls that not everyone will like or understand – for the health of the ministry they give leadership to. Not doing so when it is necessary is not grace but cowardice.

Dysfunctional boards create dysfunctional churches so the health of the board and the quality of their work matter – a lot.

Avoiding the impulsive trap

Wise leaders avoid the trap of acting impulsively – on the spur of the moment - out of emotion or anxiety. Rather, they train themselves to respond to people and situations with circumspection.

Think of the emails you have sent that you wish in retrospect you could take back. I’ve both sent my share and received my share where I ask the question, “What were they thinking when they sent that?” Words spoken, actions taken and emails sent cannot be taken back and those that are done impulsively are often those we wish we could take back.

Our own anxiety often plays into acting impulsively. When we are faced with a situation that makes us anxious, that anxiety pushes us to “fix the issue” quickly. A wiser course of action is to learn to control our anxiety, take time to think through the issue, seek wise counsel from others and wait until we can respond out of a thoughtful response in a measured rather than emotional manner. A good rule of thumb is that the higher our anxiety the more important it is to wait before responding.

In our anxiety to “fix” situations we often forget that time is our ally. Very few issues need to be confronted immediately. In fact, time provides perspective, gives us time to think and evaluate a wise response rather than an emotional response that has less wisdom but more emotion. Waiting takes discipline and self control and both are traits that good leaders nurture. 

Anxiety over situations ought to be a signal that we need  to wait, to think, to seek counsel if necessary but not to respond in the moment but out of circumspect thinking.

When leaders receive pushback

As leaders we have limited time, energy and leadership capital. We also have agendas for our team or organization that we believe is helpful and directionally sound which is what leaders by definition do. But not all of those agendas are equally important and some will face significant pushback. Knowing when to yield, when to wait and when to press on is an important trait of a healthy leader.

Pushback from your team (or board) can mean a number of different things. It can mean that they are not ready for your proposal and you need to do additional work to explain or prepare them. It can mean that there is something in your proposal that they are cautious of – which is a good thing to pay attention to as a leader. It may mean that you have not done a good enough job of explaining the benefits of the proposed direction.

When pushback comes the first key is not to react or go on the defensive. Both reactivity and defensiveness send a message that we are closed to dialogue, questions or analysis. And it indicates that getting our way is personal which is the wrong message to send. In fact, welcoming questions, concerns or dialogue and acknowledging their legitimacy brings those who raise them into the proposal in a positive way.

Honest dialogue around the idea you have put on the table – without defensiveness – often leads to additional shaping of your proposal that not only strengthens it but leads to the ownership of others who now also have a stake in the idea. Remember, you have had time to process the idea – they have not. You have put your stamp on the proposal, allowing them to do the same brings mutual ownership.

If after dialogue there is still not mutual ownership or consensus, it is often wise to suggest that the group take more time at a later date to discuss it and simply give it time. Middle and late adaptors need time to process, think and reflect before feeling good about a major decision. Giving it time also indicates that you are not going to “run over them” to achieve your wishes but desire the team or board to be with you in it. Whenever we try to force people to agree we lose leadership coinage because they feel violated and disempowered. Sometimes we simply need to wait until there is better understanding. Waiting is far better than dying on the wrong hill.

Leaders who must get their own way are usually poor leaders who lose the confidence of those they lead. Leaders who respect others, honor process and people in decision making and foster open dialogue along with a willingness to be flexible are wise leaders. Most foolish of all are leaders who in the face of pushback or caution from their board or team simply do what they want to do anyway. Every time that happens they lose significant leadership capital

An unexpected gift

There is a perspective on hard times that we often overlook. It is a wonderful thing to come to a place where we have nothing to trust in but God.  It forces us to put our trust in the only place of ultimate hope – Christ.

When it is all stripped away, when all of our resources are exhausted as eventually they are, there is the one answer we have had all along, “the righteous will live by his faith” (Habakkuk 2:4).  Here is the most important question we can ask ourselves: Are we coping with life on our own, or are we living by simple child like faith in the living, all powerful, loving heavenly father who invites us to live by faith and simply to trust Him?

We might just call it “simple faith!” It is a faith that believes that God is in control of all of our circumstances and knows that nothing under His control can ever be out of control. Not cancer, bankruptcy, a spouse walking out, a child’s death or the worse that we could imagine. Nothing under His control can ever be out of control. He is still God and still Immanuel – God with us – regardless of what happens to us.

I remember such a simple faith in an old woman I met in rural China one day. She was a Christ follower. Her possessions were the clothes she was wearing and two little pigs. When she discovered that we were believers she said, “My eyes are not good (she had cataracts), would you ask Jesus to heal them?” Simple child like faith – she had nothing else to trust in but God. Putting aside our own sophistication, we joined her in her simple faith and asked God to heal her eyes.

Periodically God interrupts our lives with issues that we cannot solve and did not ask for. They are often scary and painful interruptions. But they may also be a great gift as we are forced to put our trust in the only safe place to put it – stripped of our own solutions and answers – our heavenly father.

Several times in my life I have had the gift of coming to a place where all I had to trust in was God. In retrospect, those were precious times of simple faith where I learned more about my heavenly father than all the theology I have studied sermons I have preached or books I have read. It was a true gift.

The illiteracy epidemic

The recent report by the Barna Group on megatrends in the American church should give rise to significant concern. The first has to do with biblical literacy: “The Christian Church is becoming less theologically literate. What used to be basic, universally-known truths about Christianity are now unknown mysteries to a large and growing share of Americans–especially young adults.”

This should not surprise us given the growing secularization of our society but it does raise both questions and challenges for the evangelical church. The questions have to do with our own culpability in many corners for preaching pragmatic life principles from Scripture but not a systematic teaching of the whole council of God. Certainly the Scriptures are full of wonderful life principles that if followed make our lives healthier and better. But the Bible is neither a self help manual nor is it pop psychology.  It is God’s character, plan, and invitation to join his family and his work. It is first about Him and then about us.

In our desire to be relevant, we often fall into the trap in our preaching and teaching of making the Scriptures first about us and then about Him – the very opposite of Scriptures emphasis. And in the process, we miss the foundation of the Christian life – Christ. Paul was unabashed in declaring that “I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes; first for the Jew, then for the Gentiles. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: ‘The righteous will live by faith.’” (Romans 1:16-17). Scriptures are first a message of the gospel and its call and implications on our life. That is the foundation!

I believe many pastors today have a fear that if they simply preach the text, the church will not be seen as relevant. Here is the irony. People are hungry for real truth, not the stuff that can be bought on the self help shelves of Barnes and Nobles. Not only can we take it but we need it and it is out of God’s clear and unvarnished truth that we find a foundation for our lives.

Contrast what is often heard from pulpits today with Paul’s instructions to Timothy. “Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage with great patience and careful instruction” (2 Timothy 4:2). Why? Because “all Scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17).

If there is biblical illiteracy in our own churches, we must own that challenge and do everything we can to combat it. Biblical illiteracy leads to a diminished life and a followership of convenience rather than the life God intends for us and a whole hearted devotion. The Old Testament prophets were hard on the spiritual leaders of the day for not faithfully teaching God’s word. We must be wary of falling into that same trap today.

Hard but healing words

Six of the hardest words to speak are: “I was wrong,” and “I am sorry.” Ironically while they may be some of the hardest words to speak, they are also the very words that have the power to heal relationships like little else. In fact the harder we find it to verbalize these words the more power those words have to heal.

Why so hard to say? Our pride and the pull of our lower nature conspire against us to cling to our own righteousness even when that righteousness is really nothing less than sinfulness and even thought the cost of our “righteous” silence is relational disconnection against those we caused offence. The more we have personally vested in being right, the harder it is to admit wrong which is why those of us in leadership are often the last to admit wrong and apologize.

There is a reason that Scriptures talk so often of humility. At our core, our lower nature craves autonomy and pride. Proverbs says that God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Why we ask? Because pride is the primary characteristic of Satan who elevated himself above God, while humility is the defining characteristic of Jesus in the incarnation (Philippians 2).  God cannot honor pride which elevates our interests above His. He will always honor humility because it mirrors His heart and a willing submission to His will.

Thus each time we resist making things right when we have been wrong we reflect our lower nature and the master of pride. Each time we humble ourselves to make things right we reflect the transformed life and the Lord Jesus Christ. That puts a whole different perspective on the struggle to say these words.

Keeping short accounts reflects the heart of Jesus. The humility of admitting wrong and asking forgiveness reflects the character of Jesus. Wanting whole relationships when they have been broken by our sin or error reflects the reconciliation of Jesus.

Thought Leaders

Every organization needs one or more individuals who are thought leaders in the areas which the organization works. Thought leaders are different from other competent leaders on the team in that they are able to see further, think differently and deeper than others. They continually challenge the status quo, are always thinking ministry strategy and architecture and looking for game changers that don’t tweak the present but change the whole nature of the equation.

The Apple Corporation is an example of a business with a significant bench of thought leaders. The result is not simply new technology but different technology that has changed the way we view and use our electronic gadgets. The IPad, for instance will no doubt replace many still bulky and heavy laptops for a wide variety of travelers. Not only is it cool but it changes the equation for many who don’t want to lug their computers around.

Thought leaders have some common characteristics. First they question everything rather than simply accepting the status quo. They see “common wisdom” as common but not necessarily wisdom and are contrarian in their thinking – asking why we do what we do the way we do it and whether there is a different way. Rather than looking to tweak systems they are more likely to look for game changing opportunities where radical shifts bring significant ministry leverage. Video venues, for instance, were used by a handful of ministries who went against conventional wisdom that preaching had to be in person and that innovation has changed the game for numerous ministries who are now reaching far more people and offering more worship venue options.

Thought leaders can be found at many different levels of a ministry and wise leaders are always on the lookout for those whose insight is regularly challenging the status quo. They then find venues for dialogue with these good thinkers in order to maximize the effectiveness of the ministry. One of the mistakes many older leaders make is not to listen to the thought leaders of the young generation among them who may not have the positional status of older leaders but who are on the cutting edge of what needs to happen in the future. In my experience, many of the key thought leaders of today are in their twenties and thirties and are the voices that are going to mold ministry in the next generation. To ignore them is particularly dangerous as thought leaders by definition need ways to exercise their mental creativity and will move out of organizations where that is not valued or possible.

Can you identify the thought leaders in your organization? Do they have venues to speak into your strategy and paradigms? Do you as a leader have ways to interact with them and benefit from their creativity?