Cerveza Sol (Sun Beer) here in Mexico has been running its Qué Ironía (What Irony) ad campaign for quite some time. The idea behind the campaign is how ironic it is that when the Sun comes out the temperature drops, everyone gets refreshed, etc. So they have a lot of billboards that highlight ironic situations. Here is one of the funnier billboards in the campaign:
Through studying and being in leadership roles the past several years, I have developed some strong opinions about leadership. In a document I am putting together for our church planting team, I shared with them some of my basic philosophies. It was really the first time I have concisely articulated my core beliefs about leadership. Here is what I wrote for the team:
I strive to be a hands-on leader, because I am convinced that laissez-faire (or hands-off) leadership doesn’t work. “Hands-on” does not mean dominating or controlling, but it does mean involved. I want to know what’s going on with each member of the team, and I want to be involved in significant decisions. If I think something can be done a better way, I will open my mouth and make a suggestion.
I highly value accountability; I think it is one of the most important elements of team success. If we say we’ll do something, I’ll check to see that we’re doing it. If you are not fulfilling a commitment you have made, I will call you on it and expect you to improve.
Though a hands-on leader, I recognize that the different members of CPT have many gifts, abilities, and personality characteristics that I do not have. These are things that, when free to operate, make us a better team. To the extent it is benefitting the team, I try to give each person the space needed to work according to their gifts and personality. I am not a dictator. Where practical, I involve the team in decisions. Where necessary, I make “executive” decisions.
I think clear communication is another one of the most important elements of the success of a team. It is very difficult for team members to be successful if you don’t have a clear understanding of what’s expected of you. I see one of my chief responsibilities as communicating expectations. I don’t like leadership surprises, and I don’t think you do either.
I do not view myself as the sole guardian or keeper of the team. I speak in terms of “we”; it is OUR team. I am an equal member, no more, no less; I’m just a member with a unique role. My role is leadership, and I have been given the authority necessary to fulfill that role.
What do you think? Have you seen any of these philosophies work? Have you seen any not work? If you were articulating your beliefs, would you add or change anything? Leave a comment and share your thoughts!
Stepchild writes in this post about the immigration problem in Western Europe, where the flood of immigrants threatens the extinction of traditional European cultures:
Gone are the days of leaving one’s home culture to adopt a new way of life in a new place. Turks are moving to Frankfurt and living as though they were still in Turkey. Moroccans in Paris are setting up Muslim prayer rooms and markets. The Chinese in Barcelona aren’t bothering to learn the local language.
These issues are not new in North America. The number of Mexicans (among others) immigrating to the United States and Canada is astounding. Those of us from the U.S. know this is causing a great deal of angst in our country. Many share the fear of Western Europeans that our culture will be diluted with the tide of immigrants from Mexico and other countries who are keeping much of their own culture. I am often amazed, though not surprised, at how often I meet Mexicans who know very little English, even after living in the U.S. for 5 or 10 years. The reason is simple – they live and work with other Mexicans, thus preserving their culture.
Stepchild’s post got me thinking more about our missionary methods as Westerners in other cultures, though. We missionaries are also immigrants, aren’t we? Here’s the problem: Missionaries in Mexico are building U.S.-style church buildings. Equippers in India are opening Western-style Bible schools. Church planters in southeast Asia aren’t bothering to learn the local language. Cross-cultural workers everywhere are holing up in compounds, preserving our cultures. And the more we preserve our own culture, the less we adopt the local culture. (My family and the missionaries we work with are not immune to this accusation, by the way. We have a problem on our hands, which we have recognized and are taking steps to correct.)
We as cross-cultural missionaries have good intentions, but do we threaten the extinction of indigenous cultures in the Body of Christ through Western dilution? To the extent that a valued cultural distinctive is lost in favor of Western practices, an ethnic group will never be a complete expression of responding to and following God in their own, unique way. Maybe this doesn’t seem like a big deal, but that’s because we can’t possibly conceive what it is like for a non-Westerner to try and relate to God in a Western way. I have seen Christians in nearby villages struggle through services in Spanish, though their first language is a tribal language very different than Spanish. This is because those who brought them the Gospel never learned the heart language of the villagers. They brought the gospel in Spanish, and now the people think that Spanish must somehow be God’s language.
The great danger here is an underlying sense of superiority that we Westerners tend to have towards other cultures. We are pretty convinced that we have figured out the right way to do things. I know I was. It has taken living in and being exposed to other cultures over a period of time to slowly begin to be broken of this attitude. This attitude is so engrained in us, that I think we often hardly recognize it’s there. We need to be oh-so-careful when we relate to people from other cultures if we are to be effective ambassadors of Christ. This is a big deal.
In a recent post, I shared how Pam and Ali had started studying the Bible with two women they met while doing a community survey. About a week and a half ago, those two women were baptized as new believers in Christ!
Pam and Ali had several meetings with them. In one meeting, the women sensed a conviction of their sin and their need for cleansing and wanted to know what could be done about this. When Pam and Ali again saw one of the ladies a couple of weeks ago, she shared that she believed in Jesus, she had invited Him into her life, and she could sense His presence. She wanted to know what to do next, which led to a study on baptism.
After one more study on baptism with both the women together, the two of them decided to take the step of baptism. The baptism was interesting, because just as Pam and Ali and the women went down to the river, a couple of neighbors showed up. These neighbors belong to a religious sect that focuses on observance of Old Testament laws. They told the women they couldn’t be baptized unless they were willing to follow a bunch of man-made rules (things not found even in the O.T.). The women turned to Pam and Ali, confused as to why the girls hadn’t shared these things with them. Pam and Ali sensed a boldness from God and spoke out against these things the neighbors were saying that are not in the gospel. Encouraged, the women stepped into the river, despite the protests of their neighbors, and were baptized.
We are very excited about these two women and their new lives in Christ! They are the first new believers we have met and then baptized under a new ministry strategy we began implementing in September. Pam and Ali now have the exciting and significant challenge of discipling their new friends. We are trusting God for guidance in this and looking forward to seeing Him work.
Postcard from Puerto Escondido: Wishing you were here…
Our church planting team is taking a team retreat for a couple of days on the coast of Oaxaca, which is a gorgeous place. This morning we went on a boat tour to look for cool sea creatures and do a bit of fishing. We didn’t see any dolphins or whales, but we saw a number of sea turtles. One of the turtles we got to jump into the water with.
The thing that really surprised us was the fishing! We didn’t expect to catch much of anything, but we ended up catching a bonita and three mahi mahi (one isn’t pictured). A little restaurant right on the beach cooked up some of the mahi mahi for lunch, and it was delicious.
Wish you were here! Below are some photos…
My dad wrote the following email and gave me permission to post it here. (Our family originally hails from the South):
What [your aunt] calls “the Memphis factor” is much too widespread to be identified with only that city. However, I do believe it’s especially evident in the South. A good example occurred yesterday when a friend of a friend here in Little Rock had a “going away” party for a lady in her office. One of their supervisors called the Little Rock Wal-Mart and ordered the cake.
He told them to write:
“Best Wishes Suzanne” and underneath that write “We will miss you”.
The attached picture shows how the cake turned out..
I’ll spare you my analysis.
Lauryn turned 4 yesterday. Amazing how fast they grow up! A few days before, she had a princess birthday party, together with two other daughters of staff members who also turned 4 in October. Lauryn asked for a blue diamond cake. I guess that’s in the tradition of her father, who asked for a purple sunshine cake when I was about her age. Here are some photos:
In a couple of recent posts (here and here), I have explained how our church planting team began September focusing on making a lot of new friends. As we develop new friendships, we are making it a point to somehow bring up Jesus or talk about spiritual matters in the first 30 minutes of conversation with someone new.
One of the tools we developed to help us talk to a lot of people was a survey. I have usually not been a big fan of using surveys as an evangelistic tool, feeling them to be impersonal and a substitute for developing authentic relationships. In our case, though, it seemed to be a good idea. It’s important for us to be learners in our community, rather than coming in as people who have all the answers. We wanted to show people that we are here to listen and, as much as possible, to serve in the way that the locals feel is best.
We developed a survey about the needs of the community. Our team went around to houses and asked questions about what people see as the greatest needs and what role we could possibly play in meeting those needs. Doing the surveys provided a great opportunity to talk about Jesus. We introduced ourselves as members of a nonprofit organization whose purpose is to demonstrate the love of Christ while serving. We even asked people what they think is the best way someone could demonstrate Jesus’ love here. This prompted a lot of questions about God and opened up doors for good conversations. In one case, Pam and Ali (members of our team) have been able to return and study the Bible several times with a lady they met doing surveys and that lady’s friend.
The other benefit to the surveys is that we now have a lot of research to help us decide how to meet needs of the community. We are going to study the surveys and brainstorm ways to help. This will be a long-term process. We want anything we do to continue after we leave, which means that we need to encourage the involvement of the locals, instead of doing everything ourselves. Helping organize the locals to solve their own problems will require developing relationships and earning their trust over a period of time.
The surveys gave us a good start to meeting new people, sharing Jesus, and investigating the needs of the community and ways we can serve.
I recently read a great book by Daniel Sinclair on cross-cultural church planting, entitled A Vision of the Possible: Pioneer Church Planting in Teams. Here is an interesting excerpt that has challenged our church planting team lately:
A close friend of mine, who is an evangelist, advises all gospel workers to somehow bring up Jesus with every new acquaintance in the first thirty minutes of conversation. Why? Sociologists say that we share virtually all the things that are most important to us with a new relationship within the first half-hour of total talk time. In other words, if you speak to a neighbor six times for five minutes per conversation over the period of a month, you will have most likely told him most of what is most central in your life. (p.130)
Is this good advice that Sinclair shares? Have you ever experienced not saying anything about Jesus with a new friend, and then finding spiritual matters harder and harder to talk about the longer the relationship went on? I sure have. It seems that the earlier I bring Jesus into a relationship, the more freely I am able to share the gospel with someone. I was especially intrigued by Sinclair’s view when taking into account that his church planting work has been primarily in a Muslim context! Surely if he can apply this 30-minute principle in his work, then I can apply it in mine…
I explained in a recent post how our church planting team has been applying the parable of the soils. In that parable, the sower spreads the seed of the Word all over the place. We are now trying to do the same in our town by applying the 30-minute rule – bringing up Jesus in the first 30 minutes of conversation with a new friend.
In the past, we had been fairly timid about sharing the gospel with a new acquaintance, preferring to wait until we had spent a lot of time with them and built quite a bit of trust. There are some good cultural reasons for placing a lot of importance on earning trust, but the problem with waiting so long to talk about Jesus is twofold: 1) It makes the gospel harder to talk about later on, and 2) It takes a lot longer to discern whether someone might be “good soil” that is receptive to the seeds of the Word that are planted.
As of late, we have been a lot bolder about bringing Jesus into conversations sooner. The results so far have been good. Earlier on in relationships we know who to invest the most time in, because we see right away how open (or not) a person is to the gospel. Don’t get me wrong – we are still careful to develop good relationships with people, built on trust, and this takes time. It’s just that we bring the gospel into the relationship a lot sooner, which equals more seeds of the Word being sown, which equals more and better chances to find good soil, which equals us having a better idea of which relationships in which to invest the most time. This equals – we hope – more effective ministry in the long run.
What do you think? Do you agree with this philosophy? Have you ever experienced something similar? Do you have a counterexample? Leave a comment a share your thoughts!
(If you are interested in the book A Vision of the Possible, there is a good, chapter-by-chapter discussion of it going on right now on this blog.)
Tonight was the monthly birthday party at our missions base, where we celebrated all staff members and missionary training school students who have birthdays in October. This month, we encouraged everyone to invite Mexican friends to join us. We served a meal and invited a rap group from a local church to come and perform.
I was encouraged as I looked around at dinner tonight, because I think probably more of our staff and students invited people who came than at any similar event we’ve had in the past several years. We’ve had lots of locals come before, but they’ve often mostly been friends of our directors. This time, it felt like a lot of different people had someone here they had personally invited, and a number of those who came were new friends that have just been made in the past month or two.
It’s exciting, because I think our ministry as a whole right now is doing the best job we’ve done at being salt and light in our daily lives, reaching out to whoever we come into contact with. A lot of this I would attribute to a major shift in our strategy a few months ago, which I will explain in future posts. In the past, our base has been almost exclusively a gringo hub, but I’m seeing more and more Mexicans around here these days, especially those who live around us in our neighborhood. Seeing a large dining room full of Mexicans and Americans mingling and enjoying each other’s company tonight was cool.