For the last several years, my heart has been burdened by the need for biblical leadership and biblical church organization in Latin America. In 2002 when I taught an adjunct course at Baxter Institute on the subject of Church Development and Administration, effective biblical leadership was a key component. I presented a guest seminar at Baxter Institute in the summer of 2004 on the topic of correlating effective ministry and biblical leadership. This was shortly after I accepted a position as director of graduate Bible studies at Oklahoma Christian in the spring of 2004, and due to the nature of my work in the university, my mission trips were limited from 2004 to 2007. Nonetheless, I continued to develop additional materials on church leadership (including teaching graduate courses on Church Leadership) and to think about the need for effective church leadership models in Latin America. On mission trips in 2005 and 2006, I spoke to leaders at Escuela Biblica Honduras in Catacamas. My topics were leadership dynamics and family dynamics. In 2007, I accompanied a group from the Edmond church on a mission trip to Nicaragua and spoke on biblical leadership dynamics and developing strong “leader families.” In 2008, I began serving as chairman of the board of directors at Baxter Institute. Along the way in stateside activities, I also taught a Sunday afternoon Bible class at the Capitol Hill work in Oklahoma City and assisted the Edmond church in establishing a Spanish ministry.
Many needs that arise in mission work and in the process of establishing new, strong congregations. I see three basic tracks related to leadership–concepts that effective Latin American leadership training must address. First, there is a need for strong biblical teaching that is theologically grounded. Only this kind of teaching can address the issues and concerns of the local churches in the context of the culture, not merely transporting ideas (and problems) from the mission-sending context and culture. This I call teacher training, or general training for workers. This kind of training includes basic Bible knowledge, but also includes training that allows workers to analyze and apply the Bible in specific situations and circumstances.
Second, the churches must be helped and encouraged to understand and develop biblical leaders and biblical church organization. This involves teaching in the churches, but also involves teaching and training future church leaders with the purpose of developing leaders who can be identified and selected by the local churches. Such leader training must be biblically focused and culturally sensitive.
Third, teaching to strengthen families is imperative. An essential step in developing teachers and leaders is to provide instruction and support for strong families in the churches.
These three needs do not occur sequentially, but must be constantly focused and addressed. Future leadership in the Latin American churches depends on developing effective teaching and training models that can build strong Christian families and provide teacher training and leader training. At Baxter Institute, we provide support in these areas as we training future missionaries and ministers. But there is a need for more to occur in the local congregational contexts, sooner rather than later.
In 2011, I have begun field-testing some initial concepts and materials. In March and April in Guatemala, “theological” sermons were presented with opportunities for congregational response and analysis. A leadership dynamics seminar was presented to a group of ministry students. A Christian family seminar with special emphasis on “leadership families” was presented with about 150 present from 14 congregations.
These ideas were a topic of discussion in Honduras in May, especially focused on the nature of biblical leadership in the Latin American context. In June, I participated in a Latin American leadership seminar in Houston, where these ideas were brought into even sharper focus in my thinking.
In September in Colombia, Bob Miranda and I were in four congregations with the purpose of providing Bible instruction along with increased awareness of leadership dynamics and leadership development. Preachers from four additional congregations traveled to be with us to study the Bible and biblical leadership concepts. Two half-days were devoted to meeting with the leadership group from a congregation to help them address concerns related to the Christian family and healthy, exemplary mentor families.
I continue to write and think about how we can best address these three tracks: training effective teachers for the churches, training effective leaders for the churches, and training in Christian family.
What efforts are you aware of in these three tracks? What materials are you using for church development in these three areas? How can we accelerate the development of leaders? How can we train more teachers in a short period of time? How can we help the families develop in healthy ways–especially in the development of strong marriages that provide examples and mentoring for others?