By Doug Lucas
The Bible has a lot to say about leadership and, in the West, we’ve given quite a lot of attention to leadership development. In fact, sometimes we might be tempted to think we have a monopoly on the whole process. But what about the rest of the world? How do churches in the rest of the world train leaders—even in the midst of persecution? What can we learn from them?
Catch as Catch Can
One model we see quite often around the world is perhaps similar to the model we likely see most often in the West. We might refer to it as “Catch as Catch Can.” Churches using this model don’t really have a plan for leadership training. They seem to expect that leaders will develop organically, unintentionally, and spontaneously. Sometimes it works. But often it fails to deliver.
Perhaps the greatest lessons we can learn from this “Catch as Catch Can” model is the ability to see that “there has to be a better way.”
Traditional Sermon-Based Leadership Training Models
A second approach we often see internationally is, again, similar to the approach seen in lots of churches here in the West. A pastor or teacher might happen upon a series of topics and/or Scriptures which help form leadership traits among members of the church. The trouble with this model (both in the West as well as internationally) is that leadership is more than knowledge. It also consists of skills and experience. What’s more, churches utilizing this model can’t really evaluate how well their members are progressing, partly because the main assembly context is too formal or too large for any leadership behavior to manifest. Once again, we are left to conclude, “there has to be a better way” for leadership training.
Small-Group-Based Coaching Models
There were definitely times that Jesus spoke to large audiences. But as we study the Gospels, it’s impossible to miss the fact that his most often-used training model was life-on-life with the 12 disciples. He talked and walked, sat with them at campfires, and evaluated out loud what he saw around him. Our international brothers and sisters have told us that it helps them immensely to have a plan. As a result, lesson materials have proliferated. One example of such a plan was developed by George Patterson in Honduras. (Readers can hear a free webinar featuring Patterson at Unleashed for the Unreached by accessing https://www.u4theu.com/u4theu-webinar/.) Patterson was famous for teaching two workers who, in turn, taught two workers each, creating a multiplying “tree” of dozens of new churches in fairly short order. It’s still possible to download PDFs of Patterson’s 121 training booklets for free at http://www.paul-timothy.net/.
Movement-Based Models
Kingdom movements are similar to small-group-based training models in that they rely primarily on small-group experiences. However, their stepped-up emphasis on multiplication and “every member a trainer” probably sets them apart even more than the initial Patterson model, which focused primarily on training pastors and teachers. In movement-based approaches, every single member becomes a trainer. This kind of growth can flourish in all contexts, even those in which public, formal churches would never be allowed. Learn more about this approach using the free, web-driven, in-life training called Zume, available online at https://zume.training/.
Case Studies Abound
In preparation for this article, I asked workers in nine different ministry contexts to share case studies that would help illustrate the possibilities. Unfortunately, we cannot openly share the names and locations for some of these workers because they serve in sensitive areas (where the growth of the church is not welcome).
1) Team Expansion workers Derik and Jen DeVries (serving in Taiwan) wrote about Taiwanese churches and their use of prayer-walking as a leadership training tool. They visit temples, homes, and universities together, praying for the sick and those wrestling with various problems in life. Using this approach, they train leaders of all ages—high schoolers, college-aged youth, and adults. They shared this story from Taiwanese churches:
There is one young lady who was the quietest little person we had ever worked with. As a college senior she was unsure of herself and her life and value. She was lost in a sea of people with no direction. She met Jesus through a friend who was just learning about Jesus herself and as the one girl learned something about Jesus she would share it with this young shy girl. The shy girl came to faith and was baptized and took very seriously her relationship with God and grew very quickly. She baptized her mom and doubled down on her efforts to share her faith, even taking a part-time job so that she would be free to work (unpaid) in sharing the gospel. It has been two years since her baptism. She has touched hundreds of students with her story and has become a leader of leaders, not because she is gifted as a leader but because her faith pushes her to lead people that she cares about.
2) Another Team Expansion couple, Bobby and Mandy Graham (serving in Ghana), are excited about the growth that’s happening there in West Africa. They shared this story:
We have a long-time friend named Obed. Bobby met with him, and he and a friend went through the Zume training. He immediately put into practice the principles in Zume and began sharing them with a small group/church as well as neighbors that he had started. He has a passion for his people to share the Word.
3) In the movement they are witnessing in southern Tanzania, Team Expansion workers Mavuto Jambulosi and family (from Zimbabwe) and Pascal Sinkala and family (from Zambia) are seeing exponential growth using a three-pronged approach involving Bible and ministry, disciple making, and hands-on life skills. They shared this story:
Moses is a promising leader serving in a congregation in Masasi. He has been through our formal ministry training and has also attended other short-term practical ministry training programs to enhance his ministry skills. Moses’s congregation is steadily growing in several areas of ministry. He has planted a new congregation which is now being led by Luka, whom he discipled. He has also demonstrated a depth of faith and courage in matters where faith and culture came into conflict (e.g., cultural initiation rites and ancestor veneration). He is growing in faith, and willing to learn, adapt, and assume responsibility.
4) A Team Expansion worker serving in Muslim North Africa interviewed some of the top leaders he is currently discipling. They were all thankful for help with in-depth spirituality, strategic planning, leadership structures, accountability, and more. But one leader made it clear that “the most significant influences in his spiritual development were life-on-life mentor-like relationships with other Christian men along his journey.”
5) One of Team Expansion’s most veteran workers, Wayne Meece, recounted the story of Alfred (not his real name, but a very real person, nonetheless). Wayne remembers Alfred starting out as a very shy boy when they first began investing in him. They led him through five years of lessons, helping him to relay those lessons to others along the way, resulting in the birth of multiple new churches. None of these churches ever had to rely on Wayne. They knew Christ only through Alfred. He is truly an example of a disciple making disciples and has now learned another language so he can do so in a neighboring tribal homeland.
6) Jay Schroder is a good friend and currently serves as the Outreach Pastor of Northeast Christian Church (Louisville, KY). When asked about leadership training models he had observed while serving cross-culturally, Jay shared, “The most striking thing to me is that in the midst of hardship that is incomprehensible from my life experience, the church is thriving. I think there are three main ingredients to this: (a) a far more healthy communal Christian practice, (b) a deep theology of suffering, and (c) a more vibrant prayer life.”
7) A long-time Team Expansion worker in Asia (serving in a country where persecution abounds) observed,
As persecution has increased, large church groups have changed to house churches, which naturally encourages leadership development since more people participate in ministry in the church. When persecution is more intense, faithfulness through persecution is a sign of ministry credibility. Some churches have set up youth boot camps, one-year intensive trainings to help them decide whether to pursue full-time ministry or serve in a different career path.
8) Another Team Expansion family serves in a nation known worldwide as being one of the top three nations for the persecution of Christians. In their case, they intentionally try to spend at least five hours with each believer/leader, just doing life-on-life discipleship. They wrote of one young leader, “Although she’s beaten at home for being a Christian and sneaks out of the house to meet together weekly (she says she is grocery shopping), she has such a deep-rootedness and firm belief in Jesus as Lord that nothing can sway her. She has seen many believers come and go, yet she still praises and follows.”
9) Allan Witkowski serves as Team Expansion’s VP of Marketplace Ministry and Training. He uses the “MAWL” process with young leaders: model, assist, watch, and launch. Among the young leaders he is raising up, he feels they need more time in the “assist” phase than any other. “I try to delegate early, but they often need extra support and more clarity before they are comfortable with me moving to ‘watch.’ Some of this is cultural.” In summarizing his views on leadership training overseas, he wrote,
We need to contextualize our leadership principles just like we do our gospel message. While we push certain styles of leadership (and claim they are the biblical model), the cultural acceptance of those styles (especially in honor shame cultures) is often difficult and requires contextualization. We often don’t do a good job of separating our own cultural preferences or expressions of leadership from what the Bible actually says.
In all of these examples, we can see God at work raising up a new generation of leaders. Here in the West, we sometimes get lost in political wrangling and conflict resolution. But in much of the rest of the world, God is at work raising up new layers of strong churches such that if we could truly see his work worldwide, it would be beyond anything we could have ever imagined. But then, isn’t that exactly who God is?
Doug Lucas has been seeking to raise up leaders among the ranks of the good people of Team Expansion since the start of the organization in 1978. You can learn more about Team Expansion at www.TeamExpansion.org .
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