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Leadership Development in an Urban Setting
by Brian Seim, Champion for Urban Centers
12 September 2008 SIM has had a global impact on developing biblical leaders over the last 100 years. Yet both our activity and training models are still primarily rural. Today, half of the world’s 6.6 billion citizens make their home in cities. Africa, South America, and Asia are urbanizing at a rate of 4% per annum. Our work in cities will need the same quality of leader, but he or she must be trained for engagement with a different, more complex society. Let’s take a look at how this one facet of ministry may change in an urban setting. Diversity and RelationshipToronto, New York, Sydney, London and Los Angeles are all home to people from over 200 countries. 600 tribes crowd the streets of Lagos. The sounds of 12,000 Indian languages fill the smog of Delhi. Jesus called us wherever we go, whoever responds, to make disciples, then, he brought the nations to the city. A diverse, urban context will need leaders with different skills and outlooks – reconciliation, inclusion, mutuality, educational difference, and friends than what we have had in the past. Diversity and FellowshipCities, made up of apartment buildings, shanty-towns and other high-context housing, are diverse and cosmopolitan. In contrast, villages may have only one class or culture. Successful urban ministry will require us to adapt our methodologies and build urban leaders who are able to reach and embrace people in a diverse context. Initially, that may mean slower church growth, but at some point the very statement of a church facilitating true community in the midst of tribalism, may be the supernatural signature of God which provides hope for the city. Like the church in Antioch, it may increase the burden for the lost and increase vision for the mission of God. Emerging urban Christian leaders will need training to multiply that signature. Christian Leaders – Building DevelopmentJesus addressed different needs as a means of giving hope from which grew the response to his message. 44% of Nairobi is financially poor. Over half of Mumbai is below the food/water poverty line. Literacy rates generally go down – not up in the first generation of urbanization. Poverty is a Petri-dish for disenfranchisement, tribalism, illiteracy, crime, disease and infant mortality. Urban Christian leaders need to learn to explain their involvement in development and how to lead their people in meaningful ‘hope messages,’ in order to anchor the Word of truth in the reality of poverty. An Urban ChristologyChrist must be re-discovered and reflected by Christians in an urban culture. A far greater number of vital Christians are lost to secularism than to other world religions. Somewhere near the heart of that discovery is the centrality of Jesus – who He was, and what He taught. Paul taught to people who formed the Western, Hellenistic worldview so it has often been easier for Westerners to present truth through crisp Pauline teaching patterns, than to wrestle with statements of Jesus that have fuzzy edges. Yet it is Christ who touched us and urban leaders must discover him and his reality once again in the new urban world in which they are called to serve. Generational TransitioningThere is a generational leadership disparity in the urban church that seems to occur as rural and urban values clash. Becoming urban, whether in a regional city or a Western destination includes a period of culture shock. As the Church transitions to the city, traditional leaders are chosen, in part because they preserve the previous culture. Leadership is only passed to those with similar values. Often, at the choosing of a new leader, the traditional church will return to their village for another leader, continuing the tradition, but leaving the Great Commission un-assumed. Yet, the brightest youth of the city take on its culture quickly. Often, those youth are ostracized from church leadership, not out of a lack of spirituality but because they have embraced urban values. How do we help leaders discover pathways to urban acculturation and rebuild foundations for faith in that transition? Alternative EducationStructure of urban training will change for those unable to take advantage of existing formal education. Equipping biblically and culturally relevant leaders for the urban Church through accessible, church-based training requires an alternative educational leadership program to be developed. Classes will be held in the evenings and on weekends, along public transportation routes with affordable tuition costs. While on the job training will continue, both mentoring and peer reflection can now take place. Along with biblical training, remedial language and literacy instruction will be provided to increase competency levels. Training biblical urban leaders will require creativity, understanding, curiosity, as well as a love for the city, a love for God and his word. And with God’s enabling and our willingness, we can have an impact on this new half of the world, just as we have had on the other half. Comment on this post: Email brian.seim@sim.org 
 
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Urban Centers
Champion: Brian Seim Brian Seim has been working in urban ministry among Canadian churches since 1998. He will assist SIM worldwide by publishing information on effective urban initiatives, defining patterns of people migration, and advocating for new urban missionaries and ministries. View all blog entries filed under Urban Centers |
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