week 4 book application1

LIBERTY UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF DIVINITY

Book Application Paper 1

Submitted to Dr. Kenneth Nehrbass,

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the completion of

GLST 650 – D04

Intercultural Communication and Engagement

by

Mawufemor Biekro

April 21, 2018

Overview

The book, Leading Cross-Culturally, talks about how to be an effective leader in a multicultural environment. It teaches us that leading cross-culturally and sharing the word of God is a vision of the kingdom of God, so we must rely on the holy spirit when doing God’s work. Giving to the poor, sharing God’s word, caring for the sick, loving one another are all examples of Kingdom work. Le learned that cultural values can sometimes be a hindrance to performing God’s work. When a culturally-diverse group meets, members of the group may have different belief systems which can result in a conflict. In this case, we must focus on kingdom values, which is serving one another. Leading cross-culturally also involves building trust. This makes it easier for people from different cultures to work together towards a common goal. A leader can build trust by learning more about his or her followers, creating a covenant community or Christ-centered community, and trustworthy relationships. Leaders must encourage and empower their followers and exercise power in a godly way. Finally, we learn that leading cross-culturally can be challenging, but when we do our part by applying the leadership skills that we have learned, and depend on the Holy Spirit for guidance, we will be successful.

Content reference 1 – Empowering the impotent

Leading Cross-Culturally provides several lessons that I can immediately apply to my current ministry or my future ministry work. One of the lessons I learned from reading the book is empowering the impotent. The author talks about a young man named Gerald, who was given the responsibility of leading mission work on a Pacific island. He was a great preacher, but was not proficient in the local language, so he developed a relationship with several men as they served as his interpreter. One of the young men, Joshua, who was his interpreter struggled with alcoholism. Gerald continued to mentor Joshua and empowered him until Joshua one day took over and began preaching all by himself. This is called mentoring from weakness. The best way for leaders to empower their followers is to create leadership opportunities for them to lead. This is exactly what Gerald did. Lingenfelter writes, “One cannot raise and empower leaders without creating opportunities for them to lead”. I can apply this concept to my current ministry work. On Thursdays, members of my church meet at different locations within the city to have Bible studies. I am the leader of one of the city groups. Instead of leading the group every week. I will start empowering some of the members to start leading the group occasionally. This will help them to become great leaders themselves.

Content reference 2 – Exercising Power

The book also talks about exercising power. The author gave an example of how a Swiss foundation granted $55,000 towards a fund project to assist economically disadvantaged people in Thailand by building temporal housing for the homeless. When Marcus, the team leader returned from an overseas trip and saw the houses, He said they were too luxurious to be used for temporal housing for the economically disadvantaged, and order that the wallpapers be painted over, and the trees planted outside be removed. Marcus failed to use his power constructively and his leadership style hindered the vision of them. Lingenfelter writs, “a leader must use power in such a way that the team is motivated to higher levels of achievement”. Marcus did exactly the opposite. I am currently studying under the senior pastor of my church and his goal is for me to become the youth pastor of my church soon. I will apply the lesson I have learned on exercising power to my future ministry. As a leader, I will allow my team members to be part of all decisions. My function as a leader will be to keep the team focused on its mission. For example, when I become a youth pastor, I will allow my team to contribute to decisions such as location and activities of youth camp. If I do not agree with some of their decisions, I will simply ask them to come up with alternative ideas. I will not undermine the effort of the team by ruling with “iron fist”.

Content reference 3 – Playing with the Team God gives you

Leading cross-culturally can be very challenging, but the author gives several tips on how to overcome some of these challenges. One way to overcome some of the challenges is to play with the team that God gives us. God loves to work with imperfect people. Jesus demonstrated that when he chose imperfect people to be His disciples. The lesson I learned from this section is that God places us in leadership positions so that we can empower and encourage our team to achieve their highest potential and build covenant relationships for kingdom work. We must learn to work with whoever God gives us. I can apply this lesson to my future ministry. I am aware that I will have imperfect people on my team when I become the youth pastor of my church. Instead of complaining about the shortcoming of my team members and asked that they are replaced. I will pray for them, praise them, and encourage them to bring the best out of them. Lingenfelter writes, “We are called not to the way of power and condemnation, but to the way of prayer and praise. Since some of the challenges of leading cross-culturally are caused by cultural differences, I will use my knowledge from my cultural intelligence to work with different people from different cultures.

Content reference 4 – power Giving Leadership

Power giving leadership is a great concept I plan to apply to my current ministry. The book establishes the relationship between power and control. I learned that power is the basis for control. Lingenfelter writes, “People who seek to control their circumstances, their jobs, their relationship with others, and their effectiveness in their work are all seeking power”. We are encouraged to practice power-giving leadership, not power-seeking leadership. To apply this concept to my current ministry, I will make sure that I place more importance on people instead of authority and control. For example, as the leader of my bible study group, every decision I make that affects the group must be Christ-centered and mud be to the benefit of the group, not me. I will never use my position of power to seek personal favors from the group. Finally, I will never command them to do something and ask them to obey without question; instead, I will empower them and build them to become leaders. The essence of my leadership position will be relational, rather than positional.

Content reference 5 – Responsible -To Leadership

The final lesson I learned in this book which I can apply to my current ministry is how to be a responsible-to leader. The author encourages us to be responsible-to leaders, and not responsible-for leaders. The difference between the two according to Lingenfelter is that responsible-for leaders demonstrate emotional attachment to their role and results, and they exercise power and control to achieve results and assure quality. Responsible-to leaders, on the other hand, demonstrate emotional detachment from their role and results, and they grant authority, responsibility, and freedom to other people, whom they then counsel and hold accountable to achieve results and quality. To apply this concept to my current ministry as a bible study group leader, I will make sure that I do not micro-manage my team. Lingenfelter writs, “Responsible-for leaders cannot relinquish control, since the leader is emotionally attached to his or her role”. For example, if I give a team member the opportunity to lead the group. I will not require from them to send me their sermon in advance so that I can scrutinize it to make sure the sermon meets my standards. I will allow the Holy Spirit to work through them.

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1 Sherwood G. Lingenfelter. Leading Cross-Culturally: Covenant relationships for Effective Christian Leadership (Grand Rapids: B & H Academic, 2009)

2 Lingenfelter, 132.

3 Lingenfelter, 145.

3 Lingenfelter, 145.

Bibliography

Lingenfelter, Sherwood G. Leading Cross-culturally: Covenant Relationships for Effective

Christian Leadership. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2009.

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