Leadership for Multiplying Movements

Reference: Grigg, V. (2005). Cry of the Urban Poor. GA, USA: Authentic Media in partnership with World Vision.

There is a general agreement today that in New Testament times, church structure involved the gathered believers in cells, congregations and celebrations, under the preached Word and patterns of leadership outlined in Paul’s definitions of elders and deacons.

Elders

Eldership and diaconal roles have often been defined in Western churches as primarily administrative or bureau­cratic statuses. This has led to stagnant patterns of church life. In apostolic contexts, they are defined in Ephesians 4:11-12 as functions and confirmed statuses, namely, pas­tor-teachers, evangelists, prophets and apostles. A healthy movement of churches will develop earned and ascribed roles for each elder and deacon.

Paul, the church planter, appointed elders within a few weeks, months or years. But he began from a situation of established synagogues from which he could draw people with years of experience, and where many concepts were al­ready thoroughly understood.

In the slums, the situation is entirely different. There are two scenarios. The first is when a significant-sized group of people are reached during the initial evangelistic thrust into a community. Most will be people used to a village-style consensus leadership pattern. Among them, however, some will be people respected by others. Within the first weeks, the church can become self-functioning, with the apostle-evangelist returning on a weekly or fortnightly basis to train this group of leaders.

The second scenario is based on the recognition that squatter areas are places of immorality and broken social structures. It may take five to six years for the first genera­tion to develop qualities that will fit them for eldership. Often, as mentioned earlier, first-generation converts are lost as the pioneer seeks to find patterns and group dynam­ics to enable them to grow.

In this second situation, much depends on the church planter’s or pastor’s strong authoritarian leadership over an extended period of time, discipling the flock out of sin into lifestyles of maturity.

Deacons

It was their first Bible study group. Eight men were sitting outside in the light of the kerosene lamp. One older man had brought his granddaughter to read for him. Each week they each put two pesos into a common fund. Their aim: to purchase Bibles for the group.

From the first Bible study, people should be encouraged in a simple form of giving. This is the beginning of training a church in self-sufficient giving. As commitment grows and giving is encouraged, so the men and women need to be developed to handle the finances of the church. From these emerge deacons.

There are people who obviously have diaconal kinds of gifts rather than eldership gifts. They like handling physical details. They are good at either making or managing money. They are trusted by others.

The initial phases of their growth require appointment by the pastor and accountability to the pastor. In time, they need training in social work, community development, administration, business, or servanthood—these being today’s functional equivalents to the roles defined in the Bible. Deacons need to be developed to as high a level as el­ders and pastors are developed.

Biblical leadership for women

The Scriptures have nearly as much teaching on leader­ship roles for women as for men. In contrast with their op­pressed status in many societies, the roles given them by the Scriptures seek to uplift them. It is clear that there were women deacons like Phoebe (Romans 16:1-2). There are job descriptions for deaconesses (1 Timothy 3:8-13). Women exercise all the spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 12, 14) and are to use them in leadership, as did Lydia, Euodia and Syntyche at Philippi (Acts 16:14,15,40; Philippians 4:2-3; Romans 16:1-16), or in praying and prophesying in worship (1 Corinthians 11:5). There are special roles for older women in training younger women, and special atten­tion is given to the woman’s leadership role in the family.

There is, however, a limitation on women fulfilling elder­ship roles in the church (1 Timothy 3:1-7; 2:11-15; Titus 1:5-10), that involves a combination of ruling, teaching and preaching. The key element identified by Paul is not exer­cising an authority role over men.

This is a difficult teaching for North Americans to understand because the Scriptures are in conflict with new patterns in North American culture—patterns that have been made law in the United States. It becomes an emotional issue because many women see these new patterns as their way out of oppressed and unjust roles in society. Some see these biblical passages as Paul’s reinforcement of oppression.

Unlike some areas of Paul’s teaching regarding women, however, the leadership issue is not related in his writings to cultural factors, but to supracultural, universal principles in the Scriptures. It is clear that he uplifts women, as does Jesus, so we cannot reinterpret these passages as an outgrowth of personal or cultural oppression without denying the divine authority behind his writing.

 In the squatter context of strong matriarchal family relationships, these teachings and those on the husband-wife relationship are particularly helpful. They give a framework of healthy man-woman relationships and enhance a reintegration of family life. They define new roles for men who, as a result of poverty, have lost respect, position and authority. And they offer new behavior patterns for women, who have had to develop masculine roles and authority along with their feminine traits, in order to function in the vac­uum of desertion by irresponsible husbands.

The biblical instructions about how to deal with widows (I Timothy 5:3–16) are particularly important in the squatter areas as there are many single mothers and widows. Younger widows are encouraged to remarry. Older widows are encouraged into ministry leadership roles.
 

The limitation on women is specific to the role of elder­ship. There is no limitation in evangelism, social work, de­velopmental work or church planting. They will do things differently from men because of their commitment to not exercising authority over men, but this historically has en­abled women workers often to be more effective in encour­aging the emergence of leadership in new churches.

Natural leaders

Within the slums, natural leadership development is re­flected in the upward mobility and development of both economic and political entrepreneurs. Katzin defines an en­trepreneur as “an Independent, self-employed manager who carries the risk and claims the gain of an enterprise con­ducted with the object of obtaining money profits”.

The economic struggle in the slums tends to produce economic leaders. Christian leadership, through the devel­opment of diaconal roles, can facilitate the development of these entrepreneurs by providing a biblical basis for their work. The church can also provide financial mechanisms that afford access to capital, and access to expertise.

Similarly, political leadership quickly forms within squatter communities because of the pressures of external politics, particularly in issues such as land rights, water and sewerage. Christian involvement in community organization can Increase the rate of development of these politi­cal leaders.

McLelland, in his studies on the socio-psychological factors that form achievement-oriented entrepreneurs, defines them as “people of high status inconsistency. They are upwardly mobile. Their achieved status is higher than their attributed status.”²

Defining leadership roles

Part of the genius of John Wesley was his provision of leadership roles for the urban poor—roles that they could play at several levels. This gave them status and goals to attain, thereby increasing their motivation towards entre­preneurial activity.

Roger Greenway tells of the progression into leadership of a Mexican pastor. There are clearly defined steps. The young potential pastor begins in a jail ministry, moves on to pioneer a church, then works as an assistant pastor, then goes before other pastors for an exam, and finally is appointed to a church. Each role is dynamic and defined in the folklore of the churches. Each gives the leader a recog­nized status and growing sense of self-worth.³

Incarnational leadership

In his first booklets from which Donald McGavran later developed his church growth theories, Bishop Pickett provides extensive analyses of the effects of church leaders liv­ing among the people and church leaders living outside of a caste to whom they were ministering. His conclusion is clear—living among the people is essential for extensive development and growth of an indigenous church that reflects the soul of the people.⁴

One significant movement in Asia was started by a dynamic friend in Hong Kong, Jackie Pullinger, through a ministry to drug addicts. As these addicts are freed from their addiction, many of them move back to the poorer areas where their families live. Out of this ministry has come a movement of disciples, many linked in small fellow­ships.

The key? Jackie has for years lived and worked with these people in the destitution of the Walled City of Hong Kong. She has lived among them. She spends most of her time on the streets. After 18 years she still has no room to call her own. A life lived among the poor as one of them is the key.

Leadership from the outside?

Some have said to me, “Don’t be too fixed on the idea of incarnation as the key.”
To further explore this, I talked and visited with those who had tried various approaches to ministry among the poor from outside slum communities—missionaries and pastors with a heart for the poor, evangelists who visit the slums regularly to preach, and churches that offer aid pro­grams. I discovered that these approaches from the outside have rarely been successful, beyond establishing one or two families long-term in middle-class churches. But there are exceptions.

He was a tall man bending slightly with little pince-nez glasses that masked the intellect and humor behind the long, serious face. On his head sat a blue corduroy hat, covering slightly-graying hair.

“Almost every month we used to start a church in the favelas. I had a good job at the American school managing the grounds, which gave me good money. As we needed more staff, I could get work for the men who are now the pastors of the different churches.”

We visited five of the many churches planted by this man. He had stayed in touch with each pastor, giving advice and support and encouragement. A disciple-maker in the slums. I had searched the world for this kind of man!

Another exception to the incarnation “rule” is Roger Greenway’s work. Some years ago, Greenway was able to establish significant numbers of slum churches in Mexico, working from outside the slums and sending in workers. The Latin American church as a whole has been marked by Pentecostal growth. Many Pentecostal pastors have little choice other than to work in the slums because of their economic situation, and Greenway worked closely with these pastors.

Is incarnation essential? In Greenway’s case and other excellent exceptions to the incarnation rule, success was because of a strategic focus on the slums from the outside. (If we could refocus mission agencies even to this extent, it would be a major achievement!) Yet even when the ap­proach used was that of training and sending workers into the slum, the churches that took root did so when leader­ship emerged from within the community. Incarnational leadership—although in these cases not that of the mis­sionaries but of the trainees in church planting—was the key to long-term establishment of the church.

For church planting, the leadership of the church in the slums must be incarnate in the community. The mission­ary, in order to train others in such pastoral work, must set the patterns of identification and model the incarnational lifestyle. As time progresses, the church becomes the incar­nate body of Christ in the community, but in the initial years—when new believers, while experiencing dramatic changes, often also slip backwards spiritually—the pastor’s life defines who Jesus is in the eyes of the people.

On the other hand, as development work in the slums has been observed, incarnation does not always appear to be indispensable. Even development work, however, is greatly enhanced by workers who engage people from their perspective, rather than work on their behalf. And if devel­opmental work is to be done from a kingdom perspective, where the goal is more than the mere successful im­plementation of projects, incarnation appears to be neces­sary.

My conclusions are that non-incarnational roles are ap­propriate and effective for evangelistic and apostolic leaders who move rapidly from one squatter community to another, generating the momentum of the work. But this role must be linked to incarnational roles for pastoral and adminis­trative leaders.

In Thailand, I visited Buddhist community organizers who have captured this concept of living among the poor to serve them. They are paying a price for enabling the people. Why should Christians pay a lesser price? Incarnation is more effective. It gives the poor a greater sense of dignity. It is more just. It is more loving. Unfortunately, it is not re­quired for development workers.

Short-term church planting

In Manila, a YWAM (Youth With A Mission) training school has established another church-planting model that runs counter to incarnational theory. Every few months, a new short-term team without much language or cultural orientation arrives to live in a house just outside of the slum.
 

Despite the expected problems related to a lack of indigeneity, their work has been successful. There are prob­lems inherent in short-term missions—problems like cultural ignorance—but there have been enough identifica­tion with the poor for the gospel to take root and bear fruit in a church.

The question moves from the necessity to the extent of incarnation. It is an essential one for those who would at­tempt to establish movements. Linked to it is one of the major issues facing missions in the next decades: how to develop slum church leadership to the extent that multiply­ing movements are generated.

What will it take to keep a pastor in a slum? Land. If rights can be obtained to a piece of land, the pastor will stay, and in staying will exercise ministry gifts.

One of the recurring factors in a slum community is this: it is rare to find a natural leader who can lead a church to grow beyond more than 70-100 people. There are several apparent reasons. Lack of management skills within the culture of poverty is one. For a church to grow beyond 70 people requires administrative as well as pastoral skills. The extent of pastoral problems and the inability of the poor to provide financially for full-time pastors limit the use of time for broader ministry. Family dynamics tend to limit conversion to three extended families, whose members then get cut off from their religio-cultural ties to other slum dwellers.

Patterns of incarnational leadership

It appears from the available data that the extent of in­carnational modeling and pastoral leadership from within the community determines whether the church will be es­tablished. My own conclusion is that two levels of leaders are needed: an educated catalyst with a broad perspective and managerial skills, working with a score of squatter leaders who can function as pastors under the first type of leader’s broad tutelage.

The catalyst may be a foreigner, or may be one of the converted among the educated rich who chooses to re­nounce all to minister in Christ’s name. About 30 people need to be working in different ways among the poor before such a natural leader will emerge—a leader who is able to do the work, understand the issues and create the struc­tures that enable a multiplying movement.

The catalyst may also be someone who emerges from among the poor. Such persons will then need outside help in obtaining educational opportunities to extend their breadth of understanding, but in ways that do not separate them from their own people.
    Duong Prateep is not a Christian. She is a Buddhist. But she cared for the poor in her slum of Klong Toey in Bangkok. She set up illegal kindergartens for the illegal poor. She entered into conflict negotiations with the government for land rights. Eventually she was awarded the Magsaysay award for her work, and was given status and recognition by her government as a result. With the money from the award, she was able to study and to learn how to further advance her people. Prateep is a leader of leaders in this, Bangkok’s biggest slum.

Middle-class workers

A good man came to live and work in a slum with me—a professional. He stayed three weeks. The transition to heat and cockroaches was too severe. Another came to help with employment generation.

 He stopped coming after a few weeks. I later found that his mother had made him afraid of tuberculosis (unnecessarily, as there are vaccines). A godly woman came and lived ten days, but emotionally it made her depressed—particularly, day after day, having to cross the courtyard to the small toilet/ bathroom.

Each of the above is now serving the poor very effectively from his or her middle class station in life. Each is follow­ing Jesus within the limitations of their class upbringing. They did not fail. For it is not easy for the middle class to go back and live among the poor, and not all are called to serve the poor in this way.

Middle-class people erect many barriers against the pov­erty from which they have emerged often only a few years before. A fear of a lack of cleanliness in the slums and po­tential sickness is the major hindrance. Middle-class sto­ries of the violence in the slums abound (although statistically, the slums are far safer than the streets of a New York suburb). If they were to move in among the poor, what would happen to their children’s education, and who would be their children’s friends?

Perhaps the biggest social pressure is that of the extended family. They perceive involvement with the poor as a drain on family finances, and an insult to the social standing of the family. Lesser problems arise because of the clothing and jewelry the middle class freely buy and wear as part of their own sense of dignity. It comes as no sur­prise that Perrin should analyze the impact of the middle class workers so severely:

Many of these young people, so to speak, are branded with a kind of impotence. Many of them come from “comfortable families”—materially and morally (middle-class education)—and for all their zeal and generosity, retain the imprint of a deep in­difference, the indifference of people who don’t have to fight against life. It is as if, because they “pos­sess the Truth” (!) and a minimum of comfort in their living conditions, they have been established forever in quiet happiness. Their generosity ap­pears as a virtue of perfection—praiseworthy, no doubt—rather than a vital necessity, as it is for someone who has to pull himself and others out of destitution. The outcome seems to me a sort of im­potence or spiritual infantilis . . .⁶

The development of Pentecostal (charismatic) super-churches for the rich elite in places like Manila, Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur provides the opportunity of calling the rich to follow Jesus in his renunciation of wealth and in his ministry to the poor. Historically, the leadership of the Catholic orders serving the poor has been from the rich elite who have taken Jesus seriously at this point. Unfortu­nately, present imported Western theology encourages Prot­estants to keep their wealth, ignoring the gospel teachings concerning using wealth on behalf of the poor and choosing simple lifestyles, or, for many, renunciation of wealth alto­gether.

Middle-class leadership is useful in initiating a work, and as a back-up in areas of economic development, legal and medical help, or dealing with political issues. But it appears unwise to invest large amounts of time seeking to de­velop leadership for squatter churches from this class. Only leaders who live in the community can effectively develop the church.

 Similarly, it may be unwise to presume that student movements (the source of many mission workers), will be the key to this task ahead of us. Students may provide some backup, and certainly if they are trained in a poor-fo­cused, holistic theology, they may significantly affect gov­ernment structures towards justice for the poor. But they should not be the mainstay of our expectations, nor the focus of our time and energy if we are to reach the poor ef­fectively. An exception to this generalization might be an ef­fort to recruit students who are the sons of rich elite families who will find it easier to choose non-destitute pov­erty while young.

As Christians, we must encourage all people in all levels of society to have a focus of ministry to the poor. This does not imply that all should live among the poor.

We must call all people in all levels of society to lifestyles of simplicity so that others may simply live. This does not imply that all should live among the poor.

We must call all to the patterns of renunciation that we see in Jesus’ teaching. This does not imply that all should live among the poor.

But we must also hold out to people the further call of Jesus for many to take up an apostolic lifestyle of identifi­cation with the poor in order that the poor people’s church might be established.

Training leaders

Without effective training, people reproduce the patterns of the structures and teaching in which they have grown. From generation to generation there tends to be a loss of core values and understanding. Eventually, the shell of a ministry continues to reproduce, but not its heart. All lead­ers need training in the values, structure and theology of their movement. But key leaders also need open-ended training, broader than the movement itself, if there is to be continued creativity.

Lay leadership of small cells is the basic level in any movement. Training of elders and deacons is the second, and the leadership gifts of pastor, teacher, prophet, or evangelist develop from this. Out of these leadership gifts develop the apostles.

The best way to train someone is to get the person work­ing. Begin with a responsibility in the Sunday school, youth group, choir, evangelism. Move on from skill to skill, with increasing levels of responsibility.

The trainer’s task is to create the environment, define the goals and task, and be available to work through issues at each level. The trainer has to move from giving direct su­pervision to being a coach, to giving limited freedom, to giv­ing full responsibility. All of this implies an action context rather than a static teaching context.

Bible school or weekend seminars?

Five multiplying churches are sufficient to set up a Bible school in the slums that enrolls twenty people at a time. Church leaders have to be trained in economic self-suffi­ciency. Often they must be taught to read as well as to be taught in the Scriptures. They must learn patterns of disci­ple-making and pastoral ministry if the extensive invest­ment of time required for such a school is to be worth their while.

Theological educations by extension programs have a seed idea of taking theology to the people. Unfortunately the concept has developed from the top down rather than from the bottom up. Such courses are adaptations of higher-level learning rather than developments of discus­sions of felt needs by poor pastors.

Latin movements among the poor, however, do not have Bible schools nor theological education by extension pro­grams. Pastors are trained through regular meetings with other pastors every month. This is all that is viable when pastors must work full-time jobs to support themselves. Their patterns of learning are from each other. This is known to educators as a “dynamic reflection model of peer group learning.” The question then is how to develop this kind of structure—a structure that a working pastor can afford—in such a way that it gives quality input in key areas.

The training needed is not training to be a paid pastor or Bible school teacher as is taught in Bible schools. The training needs to focus, rather, on an applicational model as change agents in the community. The pastor has to be trained in each level of the four seasons chart and in the integration of these levels. This must be done in such a way as to permit the maximum use of the pastor’s gifts. The four seasons chart gives a basis for understanding pastoral skills, the group dynamic skills, the relational skills, the structural components and the theology that need develop­ing during each phase.

The Encarnação Alliance of Urban Poor Movement Leaders is bringing together training from within the slums of Africa for Brazil, from Brazil to India in a series of CDRoms that include stories from effective workers in power points and video clips from practitioners.  A comprehensive program of 10 hour modules is being developed at both grassroots leadership and movement leadership levels.

Notes
1. Neighbour, Ralph, The Shepherd’s Guidebook, Torch Outreach Ministries, Inc., P. O. Box 1988, Houston, TX 77224, 1992.
2. McClelland, D., “Business Drive and National Achievement,” Social Change, Etzioni and Etzioni, eds.
3. Greenway, Roger, An Urban Strategy for Latin America, Baker Book House, 1973.
4. Pickett, J. Wakom, Christ’s Way to India’s Heart, The United Society for Christian Literature, 1938.
5. Greenway, op cit.
6. Perrin, Henri, Priest and Worker: The Autobiography of Henri Perrin, translated by Bernard Wall, New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1964.

© Viv Grigg & Urban Leadership Foundationand other materials © by various contributors & Urban Leadership Foundation,  for The Encarnacao Training Commission.  Last modified: July 2010