{"id":42386,"date":"2025-10-23T22:50:08","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T05:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=42386"},"modified":"2025-10-23T22:50:08","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T05:50:08","slug":"faith-and-leadership-in-the-little-islands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/faith-and-leadership-in-the-little-islands\/","title":{"rendered":"Faith and Leadership in the Little Islands."},"content":{"rendered":"

Introduction<\/strong><\/p>\n

As I was growing up in the Island, two Bible phrases were drilled into my memory, not only from our Sunday School teachers, but from our parents. They were (a.) \u201cseeking first the kingdom of God and all be added,\u201d [1]<\/a> and (b.) \u201cthe fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.\u201d [2]<\/a> Somehow, I used to think they were used for quilt-tripping. Aside from Sunday services, there were morning and evening services as well. I made it a duty to make sure I attended morning services before schools to ensure that I do well in school. Added to my disappointment, I was not able to keep both end \u2013 faithful attendance did not guarantee good grades, and I was not able to keep up the faithful attendance as well. Fortunately, I was able to graduate from high school, it was then I decided to attend an engineering program in Australia, but I ended up at Bible Institute for training pastors. My mom with the help of God was instrumental in that. Regardless of my efforts to avoid it, I was accepted and graduated after three years. It was there that my faith and the foundation of my life was formed. IT was there that I learned the depth of the fear of Lord which is the beginning of wisdom and ultimate guide of life regardless of where you are in life.<\/p>\n

Traditionalism, Politics and Faith.<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the context of Micronesia, I cannot say that \u2018Christian nationalism\u2019 does not exist, or its relationship to evangelicalism and faith is not a thing. But there is that power struggle between Traditionalism, religion, government and personal faith. For almost any leadership role, political leadership is the main ambition, next to it is leadership within the church. Not much competition in traditional leadership since it is by lineage \u2013 you were born into. It is very common for individuals to start their political ambition within the church. They professed their faith, they attained leadership within the church, they got support from the church and whatever denomination they belong to, they influenced the traditional leaders to be on their side, and they ascended to political leadership. In Micronesian context, this is co-mingling of faith and politics as in western culture.[3]<\/a> \u00a0I am not saying that it is always, but it is very common. Ones personal faith sometimes even genuine faith acted as a starting point or acted as a springboard. I can relate to Moore\u2019s distinguishing believers losing faith and the church losing integrity.[4]<\/a><\/p>\n

The Challenge for the Leadership<\/strong><\/p>\n

The challenge for the church and it\u2019s the leadership is \u2018how to keep the integrity of the faith, their personal faith, and the purity of the church(es). For the church was so being used and abused even by the members, and the community. Community disrespects the church and its leadership for not being the light or example for the community. Another challenges that occurred in the churches that comes from outside was the political leaderships got foothold within the church. When in power (political leaders), they supported the church, and the church have the sense of obligation for loyalty. It got more complicated when there were more involved or shall I say competing in the same church, or churches. Now involved in the power-struggle were the church leadership, political leadership, and even sometimes traditional leadership. Traditional leadership involved to claim position in the community, the setting of the church. And sometimes to claim that the people fall under their jurisdiction due to family ties, clan or lineage. This challenge for leadership could be due to the church or the leadership wanting more power. Their faithfulness to fundamental of the church was usurp by their obsession with power.[5]<\/a><\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

How shall we come to conclude this? On a personal level within the Micronesian context, I would refer back to the fundamental teachings such like \u2013 (a.) \u201cThe fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding\u201d and (b.) \u201cBut seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.\u201d To revere, comes wisdom, and to know invites understanding. And when God is in His right place, everything falls into place. As I conclude, I realize how much easier said than actually doing it. How would you conclude this?<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Mathew 6:33 – But seek firs the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you.\u201d (NIV).<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Proverbs 9:10 \u2013 \u201cThe fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom\u2026\u201d (NIV).<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Russel Moore, Losing Our Religion: An Altar Call for Evangelical America. (New York: Sentinel, 2023), 1-10.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> \u201cLosing Our Religion Chapter Summary. Russell Moore, Bookey, Accessed October 23, 2025, http:\/\/www.bookey.app\/book\/losing-our-religion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Ibid.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Introduction As I was growing up in the Island, two Bible phrases were drilled into my memory, not only from our Sunday School teachers, but from our parents. They were (a.) \u201cseeking first the kingdom of God and all be added,\u201d [1] and (b.) \u201cthe fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.\u201d [2] […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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-42386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","cohort-dlgp03"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42386","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\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42386"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42386\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42387,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42386\/revisions\/42387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}