My friend, Jimmy Lee, of Create Possible, recently shared some great ideas on what he has been learning from the global church– which can greatly benefit your church and ministry:
1. Relationships are important.
I was talking to a pastor from Nairobi, Kenya (who spent a week here in Chicago) and he was explaining to me the biggest difference between meetings in the West and meetings outside of the West. People from the West are strategic and they approach meetings with agendas, schedules, and a list of follow up items. For many people outside of the West – it starts with a relationship – they want to know if they can trust us and they want to know if we can do good work together. The relational aspect and getting to know each other is so important. In my relationships, am I asking this question: How are we building trust with each other and how are we growing in our relationship together as a body through our work together?
2. Sustainability is the key.
I have been so impressed by the desire of global church leaders wanting to learn how to be sustainable. No longer do they want to just rely on finances from the West but they want to learn how to build a partnership with the West which will result in long term sustainability. In growing my church or a ministry how am I thinking outside the box where sustainability is the key and I am not relying on the same source of revenue and the same donors year in and year out?
3. It takes everyone to accomplish the mission.
I go to these countries and realize many times that not all the resources exist that I have available here in the West. But they get things done because they involved everyone in a local church or a local ministry. They value the different contributions the body brings and allow each person to exercise their own individual skills and gifts. In most churches and ministries, that is not always true. We allow a few people to do the bulk of the work and we place people in positions of influence because of a certain gift or “calling” they possess. Many churches place esteem on workers in full time ministry but the church does not recognize the need to give equal emphasis to those who are in the marketplace. We sometimes value males in leadership positions but not females in positions of leadership. I have had to repent of that and learn from my brothers and sisters in the global church – it takes EVERYONE and the body is better because of that. (as a plug – my good friend Brenda Salter McNeil will be preaching at the GLS this coming week and she is one of the people I have learned tremendously from regarding the value of diversity and differences in the body.)
4. Models are important but we cannot copy those models.
I believe many people are starting to understand this. There exists many models of ministry and many models of development out there. The temptation when we see a model that works is to copy it or try to duplicate it. We cannot all be the next Willow Creek, the next Saddleback, the next Compassion International, etc…. What we can be though is the right church or ministry who learns from these different groups and ask ourselves – how do we learn from the work they have done and apply it to the work we are doing locally in our own country or our own community? What have they learned and failed at where we can learn from? How do we uniquely apply those lessons and help our staff/partners learn from them?
5. And lastly, faith in God is so important.
Am I letting him direct my steps? Westerners (myself included) are such driven people. We rely on statistics, we rely on technology, we rely on news, and we rely on our experiences/gifts. But we are not always good at learning to wait on the Will of God. I have learned and seen true faith in some of these leaders who are being persecuted and have nothing. They truly understand what Paul says when “I count it all but loss for the sake of knowing Him.” When I am leading an initiative I have to admit I really do not do a good job on waiting on Him to open those doors. I know where I am going and I know what the end goal. But the path of reaching that goal and the process of becoming more faithful and more reliant on our heavenly Father is so important – sometimes even more important than the goal itself.
*Photo courtesy of here
