Christian Leadership is the same across every culture.
I have not long been back from a highly successful trip to
Malaysia. I had the privilege of lecturing too top pastors and Christian
leaders at a master class. These men and women are doing great things for the
cause of Christ and their churches are meeting many needs in their respective
communities. I met with Malay, Chinese and Thai leaders, spoke with them on a
daily basis, and preached in a few churches. The one overwhelming impression I
came away with, was that the concept of Christian leadership is very different within
these cultures.
While western culture and western Christian leadership
processes are evident in some churches, these are primarily attended by young
people- who are attracted to the music and youth image. The vast majority of
churches are made up of a good mix of youth and families and older people, in
other words the churches are a good reflection of family and society.
There are many great Christian leadership books written by
some very successful Malaysian leaders and while these leaders are aware of
western church trends, their viewpoints and worldview is distinctly Malaysian.
Some of these differences are very evident:
In western churches, hierarchy is based a lot on informality;
other leaders will call each other by their first names. The senior leaders may
be younger than many of their contemporaries. In other cultures hierarchy is
based on age and sometimes sex. There is no informality, language is formal
based on respect and to some extent ritual.
In western churches, networks are built on how successful
your church has become and relationships are built with other equally
successful churches. But in many non western cultures networks are built on
openness and community and how large churches can help smaller churches. There
is a sense of collective responsibility.
I believe that it is very important to realise that when we
communicate cross culturally, we do so by making an effort to understand that
culture and the way that culture operates. It is not good enough when teaching
on leadership, to try and impose our western leadership trends on others.
Christian Leadership success formula's are not unique to western
churches, maybe we should take a leaf out of the leadership successes of
Malaysia.
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