{"id":18655,"date":"2018-09-06T18:30:58","date_gmt":"2018-09-07T01:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dminlgp\/?p=18655"},"modified":"2018-09-06T18:30:58","modified_gmt":"2018-09-07T01:30:58","slug":"changing-cultural-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/changing-cultural-leadership\/","title":{"rendered":"Changing Cultural Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"

Throughout history leadership has rested in the hands of power, or as Debby Thomas states in her work\u00a0Jesus’ Cross-Cultural Model of ‘Leader As Servant” In Luke 22:24-30<\/em>, in a patronal system of leadership. [1]\u00a0The idea of servant leadership is a foreign one to society in general. The strong have the power, those in power take what they want, those out of power live at the behest of those in power. Like Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 1:9, “What has been is what will be,\u00a0<\/span>and what has been done is what will be done,\u00a0<\/span>and there is nothing new under the sun.” If the Bible is not a good source for you, just look at history. Power has always lain in the hands of the few who were strong enough to take it, and they live off the work of those who are subservient.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In the midst of this come Jesus. His radical departure from leadership through power, comes leadership through servanthood. I remember the first time I encountered this idea, (I know, it has been in scripture for 2000 years). I was in Nis, Serbia for my very first mission trip. I had been given a book, (cannot find it) where it introduced the idea of servanthood evangelism and servanthood leadership. The International Mission Board was beginning to see their efforts failing because they were just trying to reproduce the North American church wherever their missionaries would serve. They church would be planted, the missionary would work with the local people, they hymns would be Southern Baptist, the preaching was from a white man and when they left the church would die. Even if they had trained indigenous peoples to run the church, it was not their church. In the face of failures the IMB began to see the value of serving as a way of missions, to go and humble one’s self in service of others to earn the right to share the gospel. In the midst of this idea is the fact that Jesus did just that. In Philippians chapter two Paul tells us, “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,\u00a0who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,\u00a0but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant,\u00a0being born in the likeness of men.\u00a0And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” If the creator and sustainer of all of creation can humble himself in his leadership, it probably is a pretty good idea to do it ourselves.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Thomas shows us how Jesus thinks in the following excerpt:<\/p>\n

Since all relationships were built within the patronage system, not only the most rich and<\/div>\n
powerful but the poorest fit these categories. All of society was a web of patron-client relationships<\/div>\n
on different scales. However, Jesus empathetically stated that the disciples were not to rule from the<\/div>\n
patron-client model but rather those in the highest positions must become like those in the lowest<\/div>\n
positions, and leaders need to become like those who serve (Lk 22:26). In this society, the greatest<\/div>\n
always had authority over the youngest, and the leader was always over the one who served. Thus,<\/div>\n
Jesus commands the greatest and wisest among them to be humble. This would be exhibited both<\/div>\n
in position and actions\u2013asking the most powerful to sit with, eat with, relate to and otherwise equate<\/div>\n
oneself with the servant, or the youngest, among them. Jesus\u2019 words go directly against deeply<\/div>\n
ingrained cultural norms. Jesus asks the disciples to change their patterns of relationship, to change<\/div>\n
the way they interact, and to follow his directives and example to lead as a servant rather than follow<\/div>\n
the norms of culture. [2]<\/span><\/div>\n
She shows us that in the face of a culture built upon power, Jesus calls his followers into a different style of leadership. Thomas goes into a discussion of Power Distance, again something new for me but also an idea which feeds into servant leadership. There is a dichotomy that can exist in either a high Power Distance or Low Power Distance. In their paper\u00a0Power Distance Belief, Power and Charitable Giving<\/em> Han, Lalwani and Duhacheck make arguments for both high and low leading to greater charitable giving depending on the point of view. [3] If you wanted to see low as better leadership it was because they people were more concerned with those in lower economic positions and wanting to raise the standard of living. If you wanted to see high as better leadership it was because people in power wanted to keep their power and saw giving as a way to smooth the inequity.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Thomas points out in her time as a missionary in Rwanda, she started off respecting the dynamic of high Power Distance but as she spent time with the people there she helped them see Christ’s example of servanthood leadership as she lived that life. When she left she was confidant that they would continue to live in that way because it was modeled. [4]\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
Regardless of ones belief in a style of leadership, one thing must be clear. If we are to follow Christ and his teachings then we must realize his style of servanthood leadership is what we should follow. I know from my experiences leaders who serve are much easier to work with, and have a higher probability of success than the power brokers in church. I think this is one of the greatest obstacles to church growth, leaders who do not serve.<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

[1]\u00a0Thomas, Debby. “Jesus’ Cross-Cultural Model of ‘Leader As Servant” In Luke 22:24-30.”\u00a0Theology of Leadership<\/i>1, no. 1 (2018): 67-77. 2018. Accessed September 01, 2018.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

[2] Ibid. 72<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

[3]\u00a0Han, Dahee, Ashok K. Lalwani, and Adam Duhachek. “Power Distance Belief, Power, and Charitable Giving.” Journal of Consumer Research 44, no. 1 (2017): 182-195.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

[4]\u00a0Thomas, Debby. “Jesus’ Cross-Cultural Model of ‘Leader As Servant” In Luke 22:24-30.”\u00a0Theology of Leadership<\/i>1, no. 1 (2018): 67-77. 2018. Accessed September 01, 2018.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Throughout history leadership has rested in the hands of power, or as Debby Thomas states in her work\u00a0Jesus’ Cross-Cultural Model of ‘Leader As Servant” In Luke 22:24-30, in a patronal system of leadership. [1]\u00a0The idea of servant leadership is a foreign one to society in general. The strong have the power, those in power take […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":102,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","cohort-lgp8"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/102"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18655"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18703,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18655\/revisions\/18703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}