Multiplying Leaders in Intercultural Contexts
Develop Leaders in Culturally Relevant Ways
Often, church planters, disciplers, and pastors struggle to identify grassroots leaders and develop them in their context. As leaders who want to develop other leaders, our task is to come alongside these leaders and learn and grow together with them.
Multiplying Leaders in Intercultural Contexts focuses on how to develop grassroots Christian leaders across cultures. These often unrecognized leaders mostly lead small groups at the growing edges of the church. They are ordinary people who faithfully share Christ amid the demands of daily life. Another focus of the book is shaping the character of developers as they humbly walk beside leaders in the leaders’ community.
The authors use the four C’s of Christian leadership—Community, Character, Clarity, and Care—to weave together research, experience, and practical application to show how these characteristics are expressed across different cultures. The book then discusses five principles, illustrated in common settings, for an intentional process that develops leaders and their communities collectively. Take the next step now in developing yourself and others in the task of leading Jesus’s church wherever that might be.
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So much experience, thought, and Bible-tempered practical wisdom has been poured into this book to make it a treasure chest of help for rookie and veteran cross-cultural workers. The strength of the book—and its thesis—is that it insists that a leader is every bit a disciple as the disciples he or she is to lead.
Ross and Lyndal WebbBible translators for over 30 years, Wycliffe Australia The key to reaching the nations is to see movements of reproducing churches, and the key to healthy church planting movements is the development of adequate numbers of leaders. I recommend this book to anyone who wants to see godly leaders equipped and able to shepherd growing churches among unreached peoples.
Julyan LidstoneAmbassador, Muslim Ministries of OMThis book calls all those involved in developing leaders to consider context, create space, learn to listen, and continue their own discipleship journey. Add this book to your reading list as it calls us to live the everyday faith journey in discipling, being discipled, and growing community.
Cathy HinePhD; Co-Founder and Coordinator, When Women SpeakDirector, Interserve InternationalEvelyn and Richard call us to an incarnational style of leadership development that goes beyond simple method. This book challenges cross cultural workers to understand leadership formation in the host culture and adapt training appropriately. We especially liked the 4Cs (Community, Character, Clarity, Care) and the four chapters where they were fleshed out. Multiplying Leaders is a must read for any cross-cultural trainer who desires to equip local leadership. Don’t formulate your strategic plan until you have read this book!
Carolyn and Jerry Moyer(Carolyn) Executive Director, World Team Australia (Jerry) Director, World Team EuropePerhaps the most difficult and most important step in cross-cultural church planting is leadership development. I once heard a pastor from the Middle East say to a group of missionaries, “We need missionaries who want to work themselves out of a job ASAP!
Let the nationals be the pastors.” Multiplying Leaders in Intercultural Contexts provides church planters with a practical guide for this important aspect of church planting. The emphases on the influence of culture on leadership and developing leaders at all levels of ministry are important contributions of Multiplying Leaders that are often overlooked in books on leadership development. Evelyn and Richard write from years of experience in cross-cultural ministry and have provided the missionary community a valuable church-planting resource.
Ed Grudier, DMinDirector of the Centre for Cross-Cultural Mission, Sydney Missionary and Bible CollegeThere is no shortage of books on leadership these days, but there are not many on the related intercultural issues, and those publications rarely achieve what this book does.
Evelyn and Richard start from an acknowledgement that leadership is not something we export or install; leadership is part of human life and every culture has forms and levels of leadership. This practical book explores how to identify and develop leaders within their cultural context. Because we all have our own cultural lenses, it is easy for foreign workers to look for what is most aligns with their own expectations when identifying leaders and to facilitate training accordingly.
The book is packed with real life examples and helps us to re-examine our expectations and understanding of what leadership is, how we can best nurture it and, of course, how to best apply biblical principles.
Colin Bearupcross cultural worker and trainer for over 35 yearsVisiting Lecturer, SMBC and the Nazarene Theological College in the UKAuthor, Clues to Africa, Islam, and the Gospel and Calling on the Prophets
Preface
Chapter 1: Grow the Edge of the Church
Focus on Groups
Reproduce Life
Find the Followers and the People Who Pass Things On
Develop People, Not Programs
Examine Ourselves
Book Outline
Chapter 2: Value Cultural Difference
Understand How Culture Affects Leadership
Adjust Our Approach according to Culture
Chapter 3: Investigate Leadership Dimensions of Culture
Gauge Power Distance
Research Paternalistic Expectations
Determine Tolerance for Uncertainty
Pay Attention to Context
Look at Groups
Explore Group Influence on Individuals
Learn with Humility
Chapter 4: Disciple Leaders Like All Other Disciples
Test Leaders First as Disciples
Identify Exemplary Disciples
Foster Continuing Growth
Remember That We Are Also Disciples
Chapter 5: Identify All the Leaders
Identify the Growing-Edge Leaders
Focus on the Majority
Chapter 6: Foster Biblical Leadership
Strengthen the 4 Cs—Community, Character, Clarity, Care
Apply Biblical Metaphors Carefully
Nurture Life in All Its Fullness
Promote One-Another Care
Cultivate Generosity
Chapter 7: Guard against Leaders’ Vulnerabilities
Research Vulnerabilities and Accountability
Model Self-Awareness
Chapter 8: Strengthen the Community (C1)
Keep Leaders in Their Communities
Look for Community Endorsement
Strengthen Community Decision-Making Processes
Include the Community in Leaders’ Development
Promote Community Values through Group-Based Learning
Chapter 9: Build Character (C2)
Strengthen Capacity for Pain-Bearing
Model Integrity and Transparency
Support God’s Forging of Christian Character
Be Examples
Chapter 10: Clarify the Community’s Purpose (C3)
Promote Clear Vision
Help Leaders Craft Collective Vision
Encourage Clear Communication
Encourage Vision Review
Chapter 11: Develop Care across the Community (C4)
Lift Up Carers
Nurture Healthy Relationships
Share Life Together
Coordinate Believers’ Gifts
Build the Local Community
Chapter 12: What Should We, as Developers, Do?
Build Relationships
Be Models
Research the Culture
Contextualize
Adjust Our Methods and Expectations
Mediate
Become Reflective Practitioners
Chapter 13: Leadership-Development Principles
- Disciple Leaders Like All Other Disciples
- Select Leaders Who Are Endorsed by Their Communities
- Include the Community around the Leader and Strengthen It
- Develop the 4 Cs
- Connect Knowledge with Experience
Chapter 14: Putting Leadership-Development into Practice
Context 1—Pioneer church planting
Context 2—Movement of Multiplying Churches
Context 3—Churches in Contexts Where Pastors Are Expected to Attend Bible
Colleges
Do Life with Leaders
Acknowledgments
Bibliography
Figures and Tables
Figure 1: A model for understanding culture (adapted from Hiebert, 2008, 32–33)
Figure 2: Variation between and within cultures in scheduling (Organized vs. Flexible)
Figure 3: Leadership types and estimated number of each type in a church movement of 10,000 people
Figure 4: The four critical characteristics of Christian leadership (4 Cs)
Figure 5: The 4 Cs of Christian leadership
Figure 6: Photos of shepherds in different parts of the world
Figure 7: Vision in linear time
Figure 8: Vision in cyclical time
Figure 9: Vision focused on the past
Figure 10: Making connections between life and theory
Authors
- Evelyn
- Richard Hibbert
- Pages: 176
- Publisher:
William Carey Publishing
William Carey Publishing
- Binding: Paperback
- Publish Year: 2023
- Vendor: William Carey Publishing
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