Leadership Development in the Third World

I live in a city that was a crucial bastion during the Civil War and there are several battlefields within throwing distance of the church building. Reeling from defeat at Chickamauga on September 19-20, 1863, Army of the Cumberland forces under the command of William S. Rosecrans retreated to Chattanooga to regroup. Braxton Bragg's men drove to the summit of Lookout Mountain and retook the peak without a fight. With this advantage on the Rebel side, Old Rosy feared losing the city.

Abraham Lincoln was keenly aware of the importance of Chattanooga. The President had said that, "...taking Chattanooga is as important as taking Richmond." Rails from the city linked major distribution centers of the Confederacy; it was a key in his plan to "divide and conquer" the Confederacy.

Early during the war the situation was as grave as could be imagined. Military setbacks defined a difficult summer. As the twilight of autumn dimmed into the cold darkness of winter, rumors swirled around Washington, D.C.: Would the cabinet resign en masse? Would the President himself resign? The national mood was grim, percolating with fear and apprehension.

Moving forward to pierce the difficulties of the day, President Lincoln delivered what some historians consider to be the finest speech of his presidency, but one not recalled by many people today. It was his second annual message to Congress, penned exactly one month prior to signing the controversial Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, and well before his Gettysburg Address. In his brief speech, Lincoln exhorted his fellow citizens with the following words and breathed courage into a nation split by civil war:

"The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew, and act anew … Fellow citizens … we shall nobly save, or meanly lose, the last, best hope of earth."

Lincoln recognized the reality that demanding, challenging times call for new leadership. The old ways of doing things are inadequate for solving the problems of the present. Difficulties demand new ways of thinking and new ways of leading.

The demands of the present day pose significant challenges, especially for leaders within the body of Christ. There is a growing need to train and develop leaders both in the United States and in the maturing church throughout the world who can adequately lead the church into the future. The question is the “how to” of producing these changes and developing these innovative approaches to leadership.

As Christianity in the West has been either holding steady or declining, the Church in Asia, Africa, and Latin America has been on the rise. In fact, according to Scottish missiologist Andrew Walls, there has been a “massive southward shift of the center of gravity of the Christian world.” From a denominational perspective . . .

· Roughly 2/3 of all Protestants live outside Europe and North America (Miller).

· In 1965 the Christian population of Africa was around 25%. In 2002, it was 46% (Miller).

· According to World Christian Encyclopedia, there are 2 billion Christians in the world, 560 million in Europe, 480 million in Latin America, 360 million in Africa, 313 million in Asia, and 260 million in North America (Jenkins). (A “Christian” being anyone who professes belief in Christ.)

· Publications from the church of Christ state that there are more members of the body outside the United States than in. Especially is that true in Latin America and Africa. (cf. http://www.christianchronicle.org/article2158819~The_changing_face_of_the_church)

As Christianity shifts, it will be redefined through the lens of other cultures, not through a Western understanding. We need to allow those cultures to establish their own traditions. Although Christian tradition rests primarily with North America, its future may be in Latin America, Asia, and Africa. These regions tend to be overall more conservative in their views, and the battles that have swung toward liberalism in the U.S. and Europe may pan out differently in those areas of the world, if they arise at all.

The Third World, for the most part, does not hold formal training in a Christian institution such as college, university, or graduate school as a prerequisite for leading and ministering a church. The “schools of preaching” have been the major tool for training preachers and teachers in these developing areas with Sunset International Bible Institute (SIBI) leading the way. Several factors contribute to this trend.

First, the rate at which the church in the Third World is growing places a higher demand for leaders than formal institutions can produce.

According to a 1999 report by Dr. Flip Buys, “theological educational institutions like universities and seminaries provide less than 10% of the need for trained leaders. The other 80‐90% will only be reached through new innovative ways of (non‐formal) distance education.” In fact, Buys writes that “studies have shown that there are at least two million preachers preaching in pulpits (in the Third World) who have never had any formal biblical training whatsoever.” This was ten years ago and the situation has had little change.

Second, Christianity is seeing an increased role of the local church. Much training is coming from within the Church, rather from without, and local churches provide non‐formal education for those taking leadership within their communities and for those being sent out. The role of SIBI is the major player in this area. (http://www.sunsetinternational.org/Links/Directory.htm)

The churches of Christ have approximately 172 schools throughout the world dedicated to the training of men and women to be servants of Christ. Fifty-seven of those schools (the number changes almost daily) are connected to the Sunset International Bible Institute. For the past 46 years thousands of individuals have received through knowledge in Bible through the efforts of SIBI. These students are spread throughout the world. The proliferation of “world evangelism plans” by groups and individuals has continued to increase as churches have mobilized to spread the gospel into the far reaches of the world. These efforts have resulted in thousands of people coming to Christ and hundreds of new churches being established.

However, at the same time there has not been corresponding attention give to developing leaders who will be able to direct and administer the work of God in a dynamic manner. Consequently we have a deficit of biblical leaders, and with an increase in new churches, there is an increasing deficit of leaders. While formal institutions cannot meet the need, non‐formal methods of leadership development hold a great deal of potential. For this reason, developing these models is of vital importance to the church and should be a priority of the Apollos Institute as we seek to aid the Third World Churches in their developing.

We want to assist you, the deans and leaders in these areas of the world, in training local leaders who can duplicate that process within the local community and congregation.

This crisis of leader development, unless it is addressed, will result in the loss of much of the harvest of souls!