#dmingml How do African women leaders compare to Western definitions of leadership?

Given that I have been studying various leadership paradigms around the world, I was intrigued by Women’s Spiritual Leadership in Africa: Tempered Radicals and Critical Servant Leaders by Faith Wambura Ngunjiri.

Ngunjiri has thoughtfully and insightfully presented her portraits of 16 African women in leadership positions (7 of them are in-depth accounts), you begin to realize that the two concepts she highlights is actually how she defines “Spiritual Leadership.”

From her introduction on the general status of women in Africa to her qualitative research on these Kenyan women in leadership, Ngunjiri shows us how many of these women have endured significant abuse and gender discrimination on the way to being appointed to their respective leadership roles and in the fulfillment of those responsibilities. They have overcome repressive beliefs and attitudes about the role of women deeply ingrained in their culture, that fueled limited access to resources, education and professional opportunities.

From the portraits provided by Ngunjiri, one cannot help but admire these women. They represent women who have had to endure more than we can imagine and in the process become incredibly resourceful problem solvers –

·       Forced early marriages and female circumcision

·       Constant discrimination and physical abuse by men angered by women pursuing an education with the goal of seeing a more socially and economically just society emerge

·       Hunger, disease, wars, rape, corruption, divorce, dislocation, and trauma. The list goes on.

While we may not question commonly held definitions of leadership in the West, we cannot help but come away with a sense that when compared to the journeys of these African women in leadership, our Western definitions come across rather sterile andinnocuous.

Leading by example is important, as is inspiring a shared vision, challenging antiquated and redundant processes, and encouraging others to act. But leadership is more than this.

Ngunjiri defines it as “a process of involving intentional influence upon people to guide and facilitate their activities and relationships in a group or an organization.” It is also “a process of meaning making among people to engender commitment to common goals, expressed in a community of practice.” It is “more than a position rather, it is the ability of one person to respond to a call to her or his life that necessitates action…”

It is from these characteristics that she asks what does it mean to be a woman leader in an African context? Her framework consists of three elements: Africana spirituality, tempered radicalism, and servant leadership.

The first one, Africana spirituality refers more to ubiquitous nature of religious consciousness. African people share a spirituality, not a religion that is distinctively African where its understanding of God is as the definitive source and sustainer of life. This perspective reinforces a spirit of humility and an understanding that a great responsibility has been entrusted to the leader.

The second element of her framework pertains to Tempered Radicalism. This describes leaders who did not fit the “majority mold” or status quo. According to Meyerson (2001), they are men and women who find themselves as poor fits with the dominant culture of their organizations.” They are people who want to fit in while at the same time retain what makes them different. As Ngunjiri discovered, for women in Kenya, leadership often meant refusing to act like men in a male-dominated institution within a predominantly patriarchal culture.

“Tempered radicals reflect important aspects of leadership that are absent in the more traditional portraits. It is leadership that tends to be less visible, lesscoordinated, and less vested with formal authority; it is also more local, more diffuse, more opportunistic, and more humble than the activity attributed to the modern-day here. This version of leadership depends not on charismatic flair, instant success, or inspirational visions, but on qualities such as patience, self-knowledge, humility, flexibility, idealism, vigilance and commitment.”

For Ngunjiri, the third element of African spiritual leadership is servant leadership. This concept stems from the work of Robert K. Greenleaf (1977) and it essentially runs counter to the dominant leadership theories that espouse traditional uses of power, authority and hierarchy to tell people what to do. Servant leadership is less coercive and more collaborative. The leader is servant first, and leader second. It is a paradigm that seeks to develop and invest in the people they are leading.

I need to read this book again. There’s great wisdom and inspiration to be found.

Where are the entrepreneurs coming from? Where is the new generation of leaders emerging? #dmingml

In Young World Rising: How Youth, Technology, And Entrepreneurship Are Changing the World From the Bottom Up, author Rob Salkowitz takes a look at global trends in business and the forward-thinking approaches to economic and social problems from a new generation of doers (not just thinkers!) from Latin America, Africa and South Asia.

Salkowitz brings some great insights to the topic of how global markets are changing and the challenges this presents to organizations that want to forge productive business partnerships. Author of Generation Blend and Listening to the Future as well as having worked with Microsoft in developing market strategy, Salkowitz brings a considerable pedigree to his work.

In a book with less than 180 pages, this book packs a punch and literally provides any organization – commercial, not-for-profit or faith-based – with solid information on changing markets, social trends, and how an emerging generation of young leaders and entrepreneurs are grasping hold of opportunities where many traditional business models are redundant or at the very least, ineffective.

Some of his key insights include –

·      There are three forces reshaping the world: youth, ICT (information and communications technology) and entrepreneurship

·      The importance of the global knowledge economy

·      The rich old world (old economy) and the poor young world (new economy)

·      The digital divide between the rich old world and the poor young world is closing, albeit slowly. However, the young world is going mobile fueling the spread of the knowledge economy

·      The technology age gap: whereas the old economy sees technology as problem to be solved and something to beintegrated into existing frameworks, the new economy sees the possibilities of networks and data

·      Innovation is increasingly occurring at the bottom of the pyramid

The possibilities emerging with this new younger more mobile generation that are net-savvy, can naturally cause some traditional leaders to be threated and even daunted by the seemingly endless opportunities arising.

There is also another group of leaders who are genuinely excited by the possibilities that exist and want to catch the wave. They don’t want their organizations to be left behind with ageing infrastructure that has simply become redundant. Nor do they want their services and products to become irrelevant. It reminds me of an outstanding presentation given by Dr. André Martin who delivered some key insights to the Centre for Creative Leadership from research conducted with global leaders. Having identified The World of Interruption as a key social trend leaders must deal with today (11 minutes is the average time spent on a task before an interruption, and 25 minutes is the average time it takes to return to the task), he contrasts how in the 1940’s, Intelligence Quotient (IQ) was a huge factor in determining a person’s job suitability, in the 2000’s, a person’s Emotional Quotient (EQ) became important, and today, increasingly a person’s Fluid Intelligence (FI) is considered to be critical.  It is not what you know, but how quickly you can access it. It is the ability to overcome the two major obstacles of interruption and speed.

This observation by Dr. Martin is a key argument to Salkowitz’s premise that a young generation of entrepreneur’s and leaders can see that there are significant market opportunities to be capitalized on as information, social and technology networks and technology are aligned.

While Salkowitz provides numerous practical and innovative initiatives launched by these young entrepreneurs, underpinning them are six distinctive qualities. Young World entrepreneurship:

1.    Blends social and commercial objectives

2.    Creatively aligns public, private, and NGO resources

3.    Leverages communities and collaboration

4.    Is well-adapted and sustainable in Young World environments

5.    Embraces the globalization of the knowledge workforce, and

6.    Solves systemic problems while meeting market needs.

Honestly, as a leader who has had many opportunities to interact with leaders while mentoring young leaders acrossvarious continents, I found Salkowitz’s work on Young World Rising to be inspirational: I also realize that being inspired is simply not enough. As I continue to work with leaders in various organizational contexts and industry sectors, I must constantly be seeking how to forge potential partnerships that have the capacity and the capability to achieve greater things together, rather than independently pursue more narrow goals, at the risk of possibly not achieving them at all. Furthermore, no longer can the constraint of geography be used as an excuse for overlooking the importance of building effective partnerships – nationally and globally.

It is as Seth Godin states in Tribes, “Leaders challenge the status quo. Leaders create a culture around their goal and involve others in that culture. Leaders have an extraordinary amount of curiosity about the world they’re trying to change…Leaders connect their followers to one another.”

That’s Young World Rising.

#Dmingml

#dmingml How will globalization transform the West?

The word “Globalization” conjures up many thoughts, ideas, concerns and fears, and yet never have I read such an in-depth or informative work on globalization as I have in the work of Jehu Hanciles from Sierra Leone, Africa.

Beyond Christendom: Globalization, African Migration And The Transformation of the West, by Jehu J. Hanciles

As I read Hanciles' work, I had a de ja vu experience, recalling Fareed Zakaria’s work in The Post American World where he explores the changing shape and influence of America. Rather than focus on what some would argue as the decline of America being the reason for its waning influence, he chooses instead to focus on the ‘Rise of the Rest’: the increasing influence and affluence of other countries that enable it to have a stronger say in the political and economic landscape.

Hanciles’ work provides some fascinating perspectives on globalization and how it is impacting the West and the non-West. He looks at the impact of international migrations, the nature of mobility and human interactions, and how they are reshaping the world. He identifies processes of globalization that incorporate powerful trends and how these transcend territorial limits and cultural differences.

While there are some clear economic benefits of globalization to countries and communities due to the global reach of Western ideas and products, there still exist concerns that because this is not always based on reciprocity or where a genuine and reasonable exchange occurs between both parties, that it is potentially Western domination “disguised as a major strand of globalization and relationships of control, exploitation and dependency.” This is why Hanciles believes that sometimes globalization means marginalization and exclusion when countries and communities are prevented from becoming beneficiaries.

Hanciles provides some insightful thoughts as to the implications of globalization on the Global South (non-Western countries) and the West, of which one relates to the spread of Western secularism. While the loss of spiritual faith can be linked to modernization and economic prosperity in the West, “all forms of religion do not necessarily disappear as societies develop or modernize. Clearly, some rich nations are more religious than others, in part because the equitable distribution of resources is just as critical a factor as a nation’s economic development.” (41) Nonetheless, Hanciles addresses the growing religious gap between the West and the non-West, its relationship to economic prosperity, the absence of human security, and the issue of maintaining the integrity of one’s original culture and religious beliefs in the onslaught of conflicting values often exported through globalization.

Hanciles’ commitment to research and his detailed analysis of global trends and theories surrounding its implications on cultures and their indigenous beliefs, leads him to ague that immigrant groups will have a decisive impact on how the world is being reshaped. This is particularly true in relation to how he believes the West will change as South-North migration increases. This is one of the reasons why he believes globalization will not lead to a single global culture based on Western secular values. While Western secular values may continue to permeate other cultures through globalization, the increase in migration from the South to the North will continue to challenge and change the secular landscape of the West.

I would be doing Hanciles’ work an injustice if I failed to mention the strangely titled chapter, “A Wandering Aramean Was My Ancestor: Exile, Migration, and Mission in Biblical Perspective.” He touches on the theme of human migration through relocation, displacement, and population transfers.

Migration is a fact of history, and the cultural diversity that results from it, claims Hanciles, is indicative of a strongly biblical idea; the idea of a single global culture is not. The God of the Bible is a God of mission who seeks to make himself known through ordinary, culturally conditioned experiences. This is at the heart of Hanciles’ theory, that Christianity is the most universal of faiths precisely because it is “the ultimate local religion.”

This does not appear all that dissimilar to what Desmond Tutu was trying to say with the title of his new book, 'God Is Not A Christian: And Other Provocations.' Tutu essentially understands that our spiritual heritage is often linked to geography: where we are born, and how our culture and worldview becomes integrated with our faith and the lens through which we contemplate the ‘why’ of what we see. For those of us in the West, this lens sometimes only gives us a blurred perspective because of our arrogance and feelings of superiority over our non-Western friends for their seemingly naïve commitment to a faith that we have discarded.

Ironic isn’t it?

Our desire for independence and freedom along with our resourcefulness and sense of achievement has led us to discard the ‘sacred’ for the ‘secular’. And although we have given it away, we still feel the need to either control it or deny its importance for others.

I wonder if we may yet receive it back as a gift from those who aremigrating from the South?

#dmingml "The lust for clarity is a disease of the soul"

Ever been given a book months ago, only to finally open its cover to discover that it's words were meant for today?

That's how I felt about Conniry's book. I have just finished reading an excellent book by Dr. Charles J. Conniry Jr, called, Soaring in the Spirit: Faith in an Emerging Culture.

This book is not for the fainthearted. It is deep and wide in terms of its content and rich in the manner in how it draws philosophy and faith together. It refreshingly provides a very candid and transparent look at a person's journey who had been deeply hurt by 'church' life, and yet gracious in the way it carves out a rocky path from those dark moments to discover that 'church' life is not meant to be a bed of roses. It is both the vehicle and structure that God chooses to refine us and reshape us, albeit not necessarily in a way that it meets our expectations.

He opens up topics such as 'Messy Spirituality', the 'Perils of Sin Management', 'Consumer Christianity' and my favorite, 'The Way of Mystery'.

I love the following paragraph, which in itself is worth buying the book for, "The lust for clarity is a disease of the soul whose symptoms, ironically, include much talk about knowing and doing the will of God. "But wait a minute!" someone will object. "Aren't we supposed to know and obey God's will?" The answer of course is yes. But the problem is matter of focus - hence the myopia. Instead of concentrating our discernment focus on Christ, we are focused on ourselves and a given set of desired outcomes. Clarity leaves no place for faith."

This book is not merely for those who have been hurt by the church, disappointed by God, or desperately seeking where he is trying to lead you. It is for those who realize that they are not to function in isolation as an individual, but in the context of a community of people who are also hurting or have been hurt. It is for those who want to discover not what is next, as much as needing to know that Jesus wants you to experience him in the now of this moment.

#dmingml Contrasting African & Western attitudes on money. Interesting perspectives on macro & micro solutions

Just concluded the most insightful book on financial matters contrasting African and Western attitudes I have ever read. I wish I had known of this before my last seven trips to the continent!

 

David Maranz wrote African Friends and Money Matters out of the frustration many Westerners experience when they travel and work in Africa.Although most people who visit would expect attitudes to be different, on aday-to-day level most people don't anticipate what this might look like on a practical level.

 

Starting with an overview of Africa's economic system (with a very broad brush stroke, as it differs considerably country by country), Maranz presents 90 observations of African behaviour to money and how they specifically contrast with Western behaviours. These 90 observations provide a wealth of knowledge and insightthat anybody who travels to Africa or intends living there will find to be extremely helpful. As one contemplates the notion of poverty and development in the light of alleviating severe social issues within their geo-political landscape, Maranz's work provides some revealing observations. The 90 observations are broken down into six major categories: 

 

•    The Use of Resources

•    Friendship

•    The Role of Solidarity

•    Society and People of Means

•    Loans and Debts

•    Business Matters

 

If you anticipate travelling to Africa in the future, I encourage you to get a copy of Maranz’ book and consider his 90 observations. They are well worth reading.

 

For the sake of brevity however, I want to highlight one conflict that emerged: It relates to short-term and long-term thinking, or micro-solutions to macro-solutions, and the attitudes that sit behind them.

 

Short-Term & Long-Term Wealth

 

The fundamental economic consideration in the majority of African societies according to Maranz, is the distribution of economic resources so that all persons may have their minimum needs met, or at least that they may survive. Central to this is the welfare of family and kin, and the importance of solidarity and sharing. In contrast to this, the primary consideration in the West is the accumulation of capital and wealth: a rather individualistic pursuit.

 

Of course, these are generalisations and although a little simplistic do help us to understand some of the conflicts we experience when those of us in the West who are comfortable pursuing financial security and wealth in an overtly consumerist culture, are suddenly confronted with the realities of what many African families and communities do not have, and barely able to provide for their basic human needs for shelter, food, health and education that the West has taken for granted. Bryant L. Myers in Walking With the Poor: Principles and Practices of Transformational Development, addresses some of these conflicts and understandings from the perspectives of what he defines as the poor and the non-poor.

 

Distribution of wealth and the expectations that we have of those who have wealth and how it should be used are varied, and one can appreciate why the perspectives of those who are merely trying to provide for the basic needs of their families and kin are different from those who have the capacity to meet these needs and go beyond this to simply accumulating more money, wealth and possessions.

 

Maranz draws out another distinction in the different economic systems. Where African societies tend to focus on micro-solutions, the West focuses on macro-solutions that tend to consider larger scale solutions that benefit a greater number of people beyond the immediate problem with the view that this may eradicate the problem altogether. Micro-solutions on the other hand focus on improving only the immediate situation or problem. It is a short-term solution only. Maranz provides some examples of why this occurs, and at the root of them is the fundamental importance of relationship and community for the African. Therefore, solutions focus on increasing interactions, no matter how inefficient they may seem. According to Maranz however, this is increasingly coming under threat where

 

“major disruptions have come from urbanization, the influence of Western ideas of individualism, greater geographic mobility, long-term economic crises, and the transition from family self-sufficiency to cash dependency”. (9)

 

Reflecting upon this belief, I could not help but wonder if in the West we too have had out lives disrupted in a similar way: urbanization, individualism, mobility, fluctuating financial markets, and cash dependency. These have indeed led to greater efficiencies in many dimensions of our daily lives, and it would be difficult to argue that these have not resulted in a quality of life we enjoy and have come to expect.

 

What is troubling however, is the reality that we still seem unable to resolve the poverty many of us experience in our relationships, and that the cause of this may be the very things we are notprepared to let go.

 

Perhaps we are not so macro in our thinking after all!

The Day After Tomorrow! #dmingml Apparently, today was supposed to be a big day!

#dmingml

No, it wasn’t the World Cup or the World Series. Wall Street didn’t collapse, and the banks weren’t depositing money back into everyone’s bank accounts, although, the U.S. Federal Treasury were still printing more money! :)

I woke up this morning to an array of comments, questions and irritated people who were frustrated that there was so much hype around a ‘prophecy’ given by an 89 year-old tele-evangelist that the world was going to come to an end. Fortunately, living in the Southern Hemisphere and in a time zone that would usher in a new day before most other countries, I was able to reassure a friend that today clearly was not going to mark the end of the world.

Although we get annoyed by the outlandish predictions of people in relation to the world coming to an end and who speak as if they have unequivocal authority from God to do so, most of the world’s population continue to be fascinated with the mystery of God and the beliefthat the physical and material world provides an inadequate explanation for why we exist and what happens when we die. One only has to do an Internet search on Rob Bell’s recent book on hell to see that it has been Amazon’s best selling book. Ever!

While I can’t say that I’m reading a riveting, fast, page-turning book about how the world will come to an end, it does describe a fascinating journey about the historical development of Christianity throughout the centuries, both its highs and lows, and how it has shaped modern Christianity. Philip Jenkins in his book, The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity provides a meticulous look at the shaping influences on how Christianity spreads, including how increasingly it is returning to its roots in what he calls The Global South. Until recently, the overwhelming majority of Christians have lived in the West, which probably explains why most of us are largely ignorant of the increasing spread of Christianity in Africa and Asia.

He challenges common views held by secular ‘authorities’ in the West and modern skepticism that Christianity is dying. In fact, he presents overwhelming evidence that well and truly debunks this theory, showing its remarkable growth as it shifts from the West to the South. He argues that where Christianity has collapsed in the face of secularism, it is spreading to places where it can find a more receptive home. As author Philip Yancey says simply, “God goes where He’s wanted” (19).

But while the process of globalization has helped to facilitate this shift, it is not merely transferring another form of American, British or Western imperialism that played a significant role in earlier missionary endeavors. Not only is the Global South replete with thegrowth of non-traditional denominations and bears little resemblance to mainline Protestantism in the U.S, there is a much stronger supernatural orientation. It has an identity of its own. It is uniquely different to Christianity in the West. Jenkins says that, “The day of Southern Christianity is dawning” (3).

Specifically in relation to the growth of Christianity in the South, and Africa, the spread of Christianity didn’t originate from major marketing campaigns, or well organized and coordinated endeavors fromtraditional religious institutions in the West. What enabled it to spread as a grassroots movement was “the networking effect, as the word was passed from individual to individual, family to family, village to village.” Christianity was not considered to be for merely individual consumption, but to be shared.

As I conclude this portion of my review, I also discovered that finding a receptive home for Christianity doesn’t necessarily equate to finding a comfortable home, as someone who lives in the West would naturally assume. There was no “conversion for convenience” or as we often hear in the West that, ‘Christianity is only a crutch for people to lean on in difficult times.’ Jenkins provides horrendous statistics that show Christians as the most persecuted religious group that has ever existed.

More to come soon.

SCARED! A book that will take you to a place where it is easier to put your head in the sand, but instead you know you can't! #dmingml

#dmingml

Enter: Tom Davis. I first met Tom about four years ago. We started bumping into each other at different events, and I loved his passion for life and the work he was doing with orphans, some of them who had been deeply impacted by the global sex trade. Our kids shared a love for soccer, and our families always enjoyed getting together. Last July he urged me to enrol to do a Doctorate with him through George Fox University. The first few times I said "no," but then, after considering how not everyone has the opportunity to share a journey like this with someone like Tom who sees the world through a different lens and is willing to engage it, I realised I was facing a unique opportunity where my comfortable life would be stretched and be challenged to engage important issues in our world when it is easier to leave them alone.

Enter: Scared. I had read a couple of books written by Tom – Fields of the Fatherless, Red Letters, and now, this one. Although Scared is a novel, there is nothing novel about it. It has characters we can relate to and be inspired by. You get a strong sense in reading this powerful book that there is a bit of Tom in each of the characters and he develops them in such a way that we see a little of ourselves too.

Enter: Stuart Daniels, a washed up photo journalist who's marriage is all but over is sent to Swaziland, Africa to do a story on the HIV/AIDS pandemic. His most famous photo is also the source of his greatest grief: a haunting image that places him at a scene where he is a passive witness to gross injustice in Congo. Reluctantly he leaves at a time when he knows there is every possibility when he returns, his wife won't be there, and neither will his career.

Enter: Adanna, a 12-year old Swazi girl who all but steals your heart. What she endures makes your heart break and you want to teleport yourself back through time to do everything in your power to rescue her. I still naively remember taking the book with me on a flight from Denver to Los Angeles thinking it would be a good way to kill some time and finish the book at the same time. I was totally unprepared for the shameless tears that flowed as I got closer to the end. 

Enter: Pastor Walter. His life is changed by the death of a 12 year-old boy during a church service. In the West, our perceptions of pastors and church leaders have been tainted by some of the abuses we have read about where some ministers abused their position of authority and leadership, while others see the church and their ministers as irrelevant relics of the past. Sadly, this overlooks the incredible work that many do in caring for the vulnerable in our world: the character of Pastor Walter is a testimony to such people.

Davis does a masterful job taking us deep into the psyche of each character. Almost too much. I found that I could no longer cling to excuses of ignorance or that cliché "what can one person do? What difference could I make?" Yes, the book is riveting, powerful and moving. It is also much more. It exposes your heart to something that it should never have to be exposed to, and yet God forbid that we continue to ignore the plight of our orphans: Many who suffer from curable diseases, lack of fresh water and inadequate food. Others are displaced because of civil wars sparked by corrupt political leaders, while hundreds of thousands are cruelly trafficked to fulfil the grotesque sexual appetites of evil men and women.

Tom is a man with the 'X Factor.' He is not happy sitting around doing nothing. He carries a heavy burden for orphaned children. He doesn't write for fame or recognition. He writes to get the message out hoping that many will be inspired out of their ignorance and apathy. He prays that by the time we have read the last page and close the cover of the book, that it will be the beginning of something new in our own heart and the lives of orphans who desperately need help. 

"It's my firm belief that God has already sent the answers to solve the world's most difficult issues and the answer is people like us getting involved," says Davis.

Please. Read the book!

"Freakonomics" by Levitt & Dubner encourages us to ask better questions and not accept the status quo #dmingml

The Art of Asking Discerning Questions

You won't agree with or like everything that Levitt and Dubner present in "Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything", but it does make you wonder if we are asking the right questions when we need to be.

Why do the authors think of themselves as “rogue” economists? Levitt and Dubner appeal to the person in the street who doesn't have time to read all of the research available on an area of interest or something significant that appears in a headline. They consider themselves 'rogues' because in essence they don't accept "conventional wisdom" that often draws loose or shaky conclusions from research that is already based on a set of assumptions or firmly held beliefs. They draw upon numerous examples of where this is the case, but because "conventional wisdom" is more about "convenient truth" in that most people can't be bothered really trying to find out what the problem might be, they settle for an explanation or interpretation from someone else, usually an 'expert' or 'authority' figure. What research strategies do the authors offer for posing fresh research questions for our ministry context and problems? Their method is not really rocket science. They take a particular finding or result that supposedly explains the reason for its existence, and then rather than accepting it as truth, begin to explore if there is a better question that should have been asked. It's a form of professional skepticism. Don't believe it until you have absolutely discovered what is the right question to ask. This is a helpful strategy any organisational context. Learn to discern the best question to ask about a given situation. Don't just accept the commonly held view, or what Levitt & Dubner would call "convenient truth." In any context, especially in matters of faith, we are often tempted to become defensive about a position we take, rather than allow others to question it, or even question it at a deeper level ourselves. We find it easier to retreat rather than explore new explanations that have a better foundation. Often in practice, "convenient truth" says don't rock the status quo, keep the peace, even there is a better way.  We need to discover the art of asking discerning questions, and be ready when others do the same.

#dmingml Christianity is often perceived as a Western colonial import to Africa, and yet it is more African, than Western! his fact is not commonly known or accepted.

I’ve travelled to the African continent five or six times, and have always been intrigued by the diversity of rich cultures, languages and geography. Of course, going to a Game Reserve and seeing the Big Five is also an amazing experience! But this attractive tapestry would be incomplete if we ignored the extreme poverty, lack of resources, disease epidemics, and the atrocities and devastation caused by its civil wars and political corruption.

While this description seems dramatic, it is indicative of the internal conflicts a person experiences when they visit. Paul Collier’s book, The Bottom Billion, addresses some of the contributing factors as to why some of the poorer countries are unable to get ahead, and he certainly doesn’t lay the blame purely at Africa Corporate (or who Oden describes as “The Global South”), but also at the feet of the exploitive, capitalist Western world.

I have just commenced a summer semester of study with George Fox University, and was assigned a book to read called, How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind: Rediscovering the African Seedbed of Western Christianity, by Thomas C. Oden. Early in the book he sharesabout the phenomenal growth of churches on the continent and that the Northern continent – primarily America and Europe – are beginning to wonder if the future of Christianity lies more to the south of the equator (10). In fact,sociologist, David Barrett projects that the burgeoning Christian population in Africa will grow to 633 million in 2025.

I must admit that I was a little intrigued by the title and was reminded that my cultural understanding of Africa and experience of being Christian is heavily influenced by a predominantly Western mindset. Of course, this is one of the key points of Oden’s book, that Christianity is not a “white man’s” faith at all, but actually more native to Africa than even Islam.

Western arrogance would perhaps argue against Oden’s claim that Christianity’s historical roots were heavily African for fear of losing their status as the world’s intellectual and religious mentors. Drawing on a significant body of historical texts and documents, Oden states that Euro-American theology has entirely overlooked “the literary richness of the distinctive ancient African Christian imprint on the intellectual formation of the Christian mind” (57) including having ignored “the close engagement of early African Christian teaching with indigenous, traditional and primitive religions in North Africa.” (58)

Crucial African influences includes the shaping of the idea of the university, the role in integrating the two Testaments, the formation of Christian dogma, the fostering of a method of ecumenical and conciliar decision making on contested issues, spiritual formation and establishment of monasteries, and the gradual integration of classical Christian scriptural interpretation into the language and premises of Neoplatonic philosophy (a philosophical and religious system of thought developed in the Roman Empire) (55).

From Oden’s research, he reveals that Africa was not only one of the early voices of Christianity and that it was indigenous, but that the ancient African theology of the first millennium played a key role in the formation of Christian culture and provided a critical interface for people in Africa and Asia who’s religious beliefs were rooted in Judaism and Christianity. Because it played such a decisive role in shaping European and Asian theology Oden encourages African scholars to rediscover their heritage and appreciate it for its value rather than see intellectual Christian development as predominantly Western or European. This is at the core of Oden’s hypothesis: that much intellectual history flowed south to north, something that is rarely acknowledged.

In much the same way that Oden encourages African scholars to rediscover the important role Africa played in the development of intellectual Christian thought, I find myself being more cognizant as to how my own cultural context and experience of faith has been influenced by Western thought – both religious and secular, sometimes giving it greater shape and richness while at other times challenging its core and eroding the heritage on which it was established. One thing is certain, while my faith can rest comfortably in a culture of Western tolerance and indifference, for many of my friends in Africa they have no such luxury.

#dmingml

The Violence of the Christian Life #dmingml

You can imagine my surprise when Jason Clark, lead mentor for the Global Missional Leadership DMin track, asked us to listen to a sermon he gave to the Vineyard Church in Sutton, London. Clark planted the church in 1997 while he was an investment broker in London. On the surface, one can understand not seeing the connection. On the otherhand, the focus of his investments has merely changed from funds to people, from the temporal to the eternal. While there are times we naturally question the validity and implications of the eternal in our day to day activities, they don't seem as far removed as they once might have been, given the uncertainties and instability of our world.

One of the primary objectives of a mentor is to stretch his students. Clark is a master of this. I have read more widely these past six months on a range of topics that I never once contemplated I would be interested in. I have consumed both historical and modern texts related to the Protestant work ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism (Weber), radical community activism (Alinsky), transformational models of international development (Myers), economic and social changes of the 19th and 20th Century (Polanyi), a culture consumed with pleasure & leisure (Erdozain) and sport (Hoffman). A subtle thread (and sometimes not so subtle) that Clark weaves throughout the online interactive discussions is the concept and reality of consumerism. How it influences, intrudes and sometimes masters key lifestyle and life changing decisions.

Anyway, back to the sermon. Firstly, what strikes me is the title. One could expect an historical reflection on the 'Christian' Crusades. But no, this was not what it was about. Or, perhaps we would think that a title like this could be coined by someone trying to discredit the Christian faith, rather than entice people to intelligently consider it. Herein lies a significant truth for Clark. While he does want people to consider why a personal relationship with God is a remarkable thing, he wants people to be clear that this is markedly different from going into a supermarket and weighing up whether or not you want to buy something. He wants people to understand that should they decide they want God to be central to their lives, there are forces in our culture that are constantly at work to prevent this reality.

As we approach Easter, both the secular and the sacred are familiar with the bloody story of Christ being falsely accused, beaten, having flesh torn from his body, and then cruely hammered onto a cross and left to die. This is the epitomy of violence. But this does not represent a call to violence, but rather a recognition of violence to God himself.

Similarly, Clark holds up the example of the Apostle Paul, who prior to being stopped in his tracks by a blinding light, was on his way to persecute Jews who were giving their allegiance to Christ - who the religious leaders of the day despised! But let's press on. Clark goes on to say that the very essence of the word "persecute" is what Paul now uses in relation to how he devotes his own life to Christ. In the same way that his hatred of the Jews who had turned to Christ, had brought about an intensity and destructive force in his life, he now says, that same intensity and force or pressure he devotes to pursuing a relationship with Christ.

What Clark is wanting us to understand is, that the enjoyment of God necessitates a spiritual intensity or aggressiveness that needs to take hold of us so that whatever may distract us or prevent us from achieving this goal is absolutely and thoroughly thwarted. There is so much more to say here, but if you want to listen to the sermon yourself, just click on the link. Clark does a much better job at articulating this than me. - 

In finishing, I would be remiss if I failed to point out that we deal with forces in this world that Clark would say are violently and forcefully at work to destroy what we value. We love our children, but can see that they must content with many destructive and negative influences. Marriages become vulnerable and susceptible to affairs and addictions when unhealthy behaviours are allowed to linger. The material comforts and physical pleasures of this world have a tendency to superficially fill a void in our lives in such a way that we are convinced spirituality has become redundant, and perhaps worse, we wonder if it ever really existed.

In the same way that this Easter we reflect on the violence of the cross, Clark contends that real freedom only comes when God violently seizes us and rescues us from all that is destructive, negative and critical, and all the more when we cannot see those things because we have become blinded by the comforts and pleasures we consume. And then once we are rescued, in turn, we violently protect what we have discovered against whatever it is that would take it from us.

I hope this is the last sermon Clark asks me to listen to for quite a while. It's a little easier to pick up a text on economics! :) 

How is India's March to Modernity relevant to the consumerist Church in the West? #dmingml

This is a rather tough follow up to my last blog where I was trying to unpack the pitfalls of consumerism and how it correlates to the Church's inability to engage more deeply and effectively with people because it has become consumed by the very values it seeks to rescue others from.

Why is it a tough follow up? Because I have just returned from India where I have been for the past eight days. This was my third visit, and second in just over a year.

Although it is going to take some time to fully appreciate and process all that I saw and experienced, I must be honest and say that it both rocked my comfortable world, while being excited about the future of this nation. I had the privilege of seeing firsthand the results of social transformation happening in small, rural communities. Often, in amazing ways.

While I understand that being 'comfortable' is a somewhat subjective experience and relative in many ways to the standard of living being experienced by those around us in our communities as well as those who reside in other communities, one quickly ascertains from India that there is a huge gap between the 'haves' and the 'have nots.' Describing it like this is too simplistic, but the reality is, India's 'March to Modernity' (as Kishore Mahbubani describes India's material progress) results in substantial material wealth for a few and the continued abuse and exploitation of millions (estimated to be around 780 million) of others trapped in an extremely rigid caste system. Some would argue that this is a very Western view, but it is also one that is being challenged increasingly from young (and not so young) Indians who believe that this discriminatory system can no longer be justified or protected merely because it is part of India's rich cultural heritage. In fact, progress cannot be achieved without this being overturned.

How is India's March to Modernity relevant to the Consumerist Church in the West?

If you've read this far, then you may be asking how is my Indian experience relevant to the challenges the Church is grappling with in terms of its identity, relevance and function? As Clark points out in some of the most insightful chapters I have read on the status of the church and its mistress (consumerism), the Church has not so much faded into the background of a consumerist culture, as much as it has become bedfellows. It has been a willing participant, and as a participant, those outside the church merely see its role and function as a catalogue of products and services that consumers can pick and choose from. If you like what you see, come on in. If you don't, then move onto something else to consume that may fill a void with something perceived as more pleasurable or valuable. Clark calls this phenomena, commodification. 

From my observation, this is where the Church in India stands in direct contrast to the Church in the West.

The Church in India does not enjoy the material wealth and depth of resources that it has in the West, nor does it have widespread legitimacy and acceptance in a culture that is centered around a dominant Hindu social structure. What this means is, the Church in India is unlikely to be corrupted by a progressively modern, consumerist culture, at least for some time. Furthermore, the Church has the added challenge of being a minority faith in a culture where the efforts of Hindu activists persecuting Christians and Muslims have often found the support of the Indian government. 

What did surprise me and challenge me about my own life, and the degree to which I allow the values that sit at the core of my faith to find expression, was seeing how this often came at enormous cost to individuals belonging to a minority faith in India, even it ultimately cost them their lives. I met many followers of Jesus Christ (Indians prefer this description over 'Christian') who's willingness to reach out to the untouchables of India - the dahlits - those defined as being below human rights, put themselves and those they served at risk of offending those who belong to a higher caste. As they built schools, established homes for children whose parents could not afford to care for them, provided vocational skills training, planted church communities that became hubs of social and spiritual transformation, dahlits were given rights that had been previously out of their reach. Naturally, 'consumerism' was also far removed from their reality.

On a number of occasions I heard Indians say that one of the biggest hurdles they faced in describing to their families, friends and neighbours why they followed Christ, was the misconception that many Indians held equating Western ideals with Christian values. They shared concerns that the Church in the West can no longer be distinguished from all that is corrupt, fragmented, broken and immoral in its Western culture. Some would argue that these factors have their roots in unrestrained consumerism and greed, although there are many other valid factors.

India is a wonderful country with a rich history, culture and beautiful people. I hope that as it continues its March to Modernity, that caste reconcilitation can be achieved while at the same time successfully avoiding the pitfalls of Western consumerism, along with the Indian Church

 

How does the church survive in a world of consumerism without being consumed?

Earthquakes, tsunami's, political corruption, exploitation, economic fallout, civil unrest, intolerable human suffering, loss of life. Over the last couple of weeks my kids have thrown many questions in my direction, not all of them easy to answer. Kids have a certain way of knocking you off your perch when you think you've delivered an incredibly articulate answer with that simple but searching word, "Why."

it is in this context of being asked deep, searching questions from my children, that I also happened to be reading a couple of chapters (in a book by McKnight, Corcoran, & Clark called, Church in the Present Tense. The chapters were written by my course director, Jason Clark.

Clark writes provocatively about the place of faith in his life and the journey of brokenness he has experienced. But he also invites you into the conversation he is having where he is refreshingly transparent about his own life and his experience of church and its inability to come to terms with relating to a consumerist culture with mounting implications for not only a person's faith, but the communities in which we interact every day.

We all know how much easier it is to criticise something. To Clark's credit, he doesn't use every opportunity to attack the Church, rather he asks a great question. Instead of asking how do we do church better so that people don't leave, he asks, 

How do we recover church for our context?

In the West, critical to understanding that context, is acknowledging the pervasive reality of consumerism, and how unwittingly, we allow our experience of it to alter our consciousness (our social and political awareness of what is happening around us). Experience has shown that better marketing techniques, use of the latest technological gadgets, and trendy music may for a time result in larger numbers attending church and attracting new people, but not always in deeper, longer lasting fruit that transforms individuals and communities over a sustainable period of time. As Clark points out, people are inclined very much to adopting a "take it or leave it" response.

It is at this point that Clark introduces a surprising twist. Rather than discuss how fickle consumerism can be, and how our lives can easily be overtaken and run by our desire for instant fulfilment and gratification, he says,

That the issue is not to deny consumerism, but to deepen it. Stop it from being so shallow.

Simply, this approach is critical to Clark's response to the question. How do we recover church for our context? He is not saying that we need to go out and consume more. Instead, that we deepen our understanding of why people consume? What innate desires do they fulfill? How does it make people feel, and why do people sometimes feel better about themselves and their world when they are consuming?

What Clark has discovered, is that all people are deeply religious. Not in the traditional ways that our parents or grandparents might have been, but where they interact in a religious system of consumerist values that deliver it a smorgasboard of choices, of which 'church' is but one, and for many, a distant and uninviting one at that. In practice, 'consumerism'  answers the elusive question of "what is the good life?" And as Clark says, "it offers to save us from the worst fate of all human fates - boredom."

The significance of this book, and particularly Clark's contribution, is that he is not comfortable finding nice, comfortable solutions or merely interested in intellectual banter. He truly wants for people to discover that they are not free to be whatever they want to be, but to discover "that human nature and the purpose of life are not self-creating and self-authenticating but find their rule, organisation and fulfilfilment in the humanity of Jesus Christ with others. 

That still leaves us with a critical question. How do we present the intrinsic value of our faith to consumers who have so many options wresting for their attention, and a religious system in which they are deeply embedded? 

Recently, I have begun to appreciate the importance of story.

It can be the profound way in which which my story interacts with another person's story. It is not to say that my story is better, or that I desire to pass judgement on another person's story. Instead, it is demonstrating the interplay between my story, the story of our culture and the narrative of Scripture where God's redemptive activity includes me. Bryant Myers in his book, Walking with the Poor, talks about this as the convergence of stories woven together. Just as my life has been enriched by another person's story entering my own, I should carefully consider how my story can help to write a new chapter in someone else's story.

Confused? Want to dig deeper? Consume the book, Church in the Present Tense. 

Organisations (and people) need to rediscover the art of serving #dmingml

In recent years I have observed that perhaps the biggest concern for organisations is when their focus has changed from serving a need to serving themselves. On a large level we have seen this occur with the collapse of large coporations such as Tyco International and the Enron Corporation. Down to smaller organisations we have read of reports revealing fraud among a small number of charities and community organisations.

Admittedly, the idea of service is different depending on the organisational context. For example, for profit organisations, 'service' has more to do with meeting a need that they have identified in the market place with a product or service. They either create, acquire, import or distribute something to meet that need. In the not-for-profit (NFP) context, 'service' usually equates to delivering a product or service for the betterment of others, without the need for shareholders to make a profit from it. While I realise these definitions are somewhat brief and simplistic, they are adequate for this discussion.

One of the key challenges I find in having embarked on a course of study, is applying it. Reading widely, being open to having long held assumptions be challenged, and trying to synthesise key learnings from group discussions and a wide range of critical reading with leadership reflections over the last 19 years or so.

In recent weeks, I have been challenged by Bryant L Myers. His outstanding book called, Walking With the Poor, takes a look at transformational principles of development and how we define the poor and the non-poor. At the heart of his thesis is the belief that the problem of poverty is relational, not institutional per se. And while many people and organisations are motivated to serve the poor, many do so in a way that serves their own needs and goals over the ones that need serving the most.

The next book I read was by Max Weber called, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. Not the most riveting read, but worthwhile nonetheless. Basically, Weber looks at the historical context from which capitalism arose, and how it was linked to a person's religious affiliation. Over time, a substantial theological shift occured where people began to see that the accumulation of wealth was a sign of God's blessing. Unfortunately, what emerged from this was a justification for accumuting more wealth irrespective of how that was acquired, and yes, even at the expense of others and the negative impact on communities (aka the Industrial Revolution).

The third book for this term was authored by Karl Polanyi, called The Great Transformation: the Political and Economic Origins of our Time. Polanyi saw that a free, self-regulated economic market would ultimately lead to political and social collapse. Now while it can be argued that free markets have resulted in tremendous societal progress, we have only to consider recent examples of how when there are inadequate regulations and controls the consequences can be quite dire - the U.S, Ireland, Greece, and so on. While we want free markets and the ability to trade and make money without government intervention or the introduction of what we perceive as unfair taxes, when the system fails we are quick to want the government to intervene and rescue us. Of course I am generalising. However, there can be no argument that a significant strata of the population in these countries have been negatively impacted by the unrestrained (and unregulated) economic greed of a much smaller percentage of those populations. Now, I am not against capitalism, nor am I in favor of it per se. But clearly, without appropriate regulations and interventions, Polanyi's views reveal some insight about unrestrained greed and consumerism.

Where am I going with all this? I'd like to weave in some thoughts from another book I am reading as I research the importance of virtues in leadership and how they are often overlooked at the expense of a leadership competencies, capabilities, style, etc. I think we can all bear witness to having seen that even the most competent and charistmatic leader can make a mess of things, if there is an absence virtue(s).

The book by Robert K. Greenleaf called, Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power & Greatness, provides some key insights that seek to transform not only global capitalism, but also leadership in each of society's institutions, including government, education, health, churches and businesses, with the goal of serving the needs of humanity.

Ultimately, it is focused on a commitment to a vision that can only be achieved by giving authority to those who are being served by the vision, and serving the needs of colleagues who are stewards of the resources being used to fulfill that vision. Kent Keith, CEO of the Greenleaf Center, and author of The Case for Servant Leadership, identifies seven key practices of servant leaders:

1. Self-awarenes
2. Listening
3. Changing the pyramid
4. Developing your colleagues
5. Coaching not controlling
6. Unleashing the energy and intelligence of others
7. Foresight

Unlike leadership approaches with a top-down hierarchical style, servant leadership emphasises collaboration, trust, empathy and the ethical use of power.

Jesus Christ is often talked about as a great teacher, a healer, a prophet. What is often overlooked, ignored or rejected is his claim to be the Son of God, and his commitment to "serve, rather than be served." His legitimate power and greatness was found in sacrifice and service.

Here is my closing thought posed in a question? I wonder what it would be like if all of our major institutions and their respective leaders pursued greatness built on a foundation of sacrifice and service?

Idealistic? Absolutely.

How does a parent talk to their kids about drugs?

Who's Talking to Your Kids About Drugs & Alcohol if You're Not? I had the privilege a number of months back recording a radio broadcast about my book "Talking Smack". Today it was aired by Focus on the Family as an encouragement to parents by giving them the tools they need. If you're interested, go to the media player at www.focusonthefamily.com

A healthy conscience does not separate the ends from the means #dmingml

I have been reading and reflecting on numerous texts in preparation for this term's academic essay (in relation to my Doctorate on Global Missional Leadership) where I am exploring if there is a relationship between virtues and leadership behavior, and if so, what is the nature of that relationship, and what virtues may be considered universal and able to be transferred across cultures?

I am currently reading called, Servant Leadership: A Journey into the Nature of Legitimate Power & Greatness by Robert K. Greenleaf. In this book, Greenleaf reveals that Ghandi taught there are seven things that will destroy us:

1. Wealth without work
2. Pleasure without conscience
3. Knowledge without character
4. Commerce without morality
5. Science without humanity
6. Worship without sacrifice
7. Politics without principle

As Greenleaf points out, it is interesting that each one of these admirable ends can be falsely attained. 

I wonder what Ghandi would say today? Would these seven still be the same ones he would say have the potential to destroy us?

While we may be unable to control outcomes from these seven in relation to how others live and lead, we can allow their wisdom and truth to permeate our thinking and influence us towards making the right choices.

Do you agree with these seven? Would you add anymore that may have emerged after Ghandi's time?

 

Not to be missed! Contrasting the health and wealth of nations #dmingml

Discovered an incredible site today as a result of conducting a search on some of the work of Hans Rosling.

As part of my Doctoral program at GFU, I have been part of numerous discussions on economics, politics and the benefits and negative aspects of capitalism, the rise of poverty and how it is sustained, transformational principles of development, community engagement, etc. Of course, these are not merely academic in nature, but have pushed us to a point where each of us contemplates our own situations and how we might apply the insights we glean to those contexts.

Books written by Weber and Polanyi have been challenging reads for me, and have reminded me of how easy it is to simply go along with changing shifts and trends in our culture without understanding their origins and what factors existed in our culture that allowed those things to either develop or decline. Without appreciating this, I am not sure we can adequately understand how we should respond to (and in some cases, resist) their implications for society today. For example, I am comfortable with the concept of capitalism, but uncomfortable with capitalism that is not regulated and leads to unrestrained greed and abuse that is derogatory to individuals and communities. We have seen the impact of this on life expectancy, education, health, wealth, etc.

Now, let me introduce Hans Rosling. He is a Swedish doctor, academic, statitician and public speaker, with multiple talks and videos available on You Tube. He is also the Professor of International health at Karolinska Institute and Director of the Gapminder Foundation, which developed the Trendalyzer.

I have included a link to a graph (as seen on some amazing presentation technology that shows how long people live and how much money they earn over a period of 200 years. There are other dynamic graphs available that also contrast countries and regions throughout history as it relates to:

• Life Expectancy
• Health
• Wealth
• Education
• Unemployment
• Many more....

Click the play button to watch in 4 minutes how 200 countries have developed in 200 years.

http://www.gapminder.org/

When did we start expecting government to support our consumerist lifestyle? #dmingml

Just finished my 2am lecture on Polanyi and a robust discussion on the pros and cons of capitalism, free markets, the role of government, and what happens when free markets are not well regulated and instead consumed by personal greed, a sense of entitlement, and growing debt, all of which undermines 'healthy' capitalism and creates an unhealthy reliance on the government for welfare and support when it collapses.

Let me try and understand this -

1. Free markets and capitalism help the world go round in an economic sense

2. We consume more and buy more, and discover there is good debt and bad debt

3. Good debt is when we borrow more money to invest than we currently own to make money on what doesn't really belong to us

4. Good debt hopefully yields us a return that enables us to spend more, feeding a sense of entitlement and basis for financial security

5. When the market collapses due to unrestrained consumerism and greed, we expect the government to rescue us from having lived beyond our means (notwithstanding the importance of protecting the economically vulnerable most impacted by our consumerism)

6. Now more than ever we have a growing reliance on the restoration of our free markets and economic system to cover our debts and our societal responsibility to provide for the vulnerable and poor

7. We want to rise above all of this and become financially independent, and once again find we are trapped or at least heavily influenced by our consumerist and investment decisions

8. We have pledged allegiance once more to our free market economic system that will never fail us

I think I get it :) forgive me. It's now 4am and I'm going back to sleep to dream of something less stressful.

What about the working poor? Asked my wife. #dmingml

In my last blog (Part 1) where I reviewed Max Weber’s book, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, I briefly looked at how capitalism emerged and how within the Protestant expression of faith, it came to be closely linked to calling. Weber describes how during this period the notion of ‘work’ transitioned from being merely assigned to the physical or secular world to having a stronger spiritual significance. People began to see work as a calling, and therefore, their commitment to it as having spiritual ramifications for themselves, although not so much for others yet.

  As with all blogs, in order to make them interesting and more likely to be read, you can’t help but leave some things out. In this case, I had indicated that in the West, we had moved beyond those days where people worked in atrocious conditions for merely a pittance. By saying this, I was not saying that capitalism had changed its stripes and become everybody’s economic saviour, merely that we had perhaps become more civilised in the way employers treated their employees. Of course, we can’t make blanket statements like this and know it to be true everywhere. This is what my wife was getting at. She thought my comment was too narrow and ignored an obvious downside to capitalism that we saw overtly during our last 7 years living in the U.S.

  Even in today’s developed world, there are people living in poverty and for various reasons (aptly defined by Bryant Myers in his book, Walking With the Poor) kept in poverty and prevented from climbing out of it. Cultural or not, there were times when we expressed alarm to our American friends that people could work long hours and be paid very little for that, or that some could not afford appropriate healthcare, or food, or education. In response to our concerns, we were often told that’s how the system worked and that it was an employers right to make money. Somehow, there was a disconnect between the right of employers and shareholders to make a profit and the responsibility to adequately honour the efforts of the workers.  One only has to scrap the surface of the health debate in the U.S to understand how the spirit of capitalism has destroyed the hopes and dreams of millions of families with children living without adequate healthcare cover. While we hate to admit it, essentially the premise for many of our arguments (and therefore our policies) are shaped around stereotypes that have emerged from our limited personal experiences and what we define as the ‘haves’, the ‘elite’ the ‘non-poor’ and the ‘have nots’ or the ‘poor.’

  Having reached this point, I have only a brief space to account for Part 2 in Weber’s book, where he highlights the emergence of asceticism and the theological contributions of Calvinism, Pietism, Methodism, the Quakers, and various sects growing out of the Baptist movement. Wealth resulting from capitalism was seen as a blessing and a curse. It was a natural consequence of people working with the belief that their work was now spiritual and their fruitfulness was proof of God’s blessing (“proving one’s faith in worldly activity”). Their works and worldly activity would not bring about an individual’s salvation, but certainly it would act as proof of their salvation. Unfortunately, this led many into the trappings of material accumulation and justifying it regardless of the cost it took to acquire it (usually at the expense of the labourers and the community).

  It was in this context that asceticism developed and changed. Over time it moved from an asceticism that led to the gain of personal wealth and individual freedom, to wanting to be free from how capitalism and material wealth led to sin and a departure from the Christian life. Ultimately, it became an attempt to crawl back from the edges of unrestrained capitalism and accumulation of wealth that led to spiritual complacency, to a healthier view of how the spiritual and physical realms of life should be balanced. Sadly, this created a different set of problems where deeply religious people separated themselves from the world to the degree that they lost the ability to engage the world and all of its issues. They lost sight of where God truly desired for them to be, and that was to know the Light and to be light to those spiritually lost, providing hope and healing to a broken world.

It’s strange, that this battle is still being fought today. Capitalism and consumerism arguably present one of the biggest challenges to the Church in the West in living out the intent of the gospels.

Ultimately greed and the unbridled individual pursuit of wealth comes all too frequently at the expense of many others #dmingml

The last time I opened a book that looked at the relationship between the emerging Protestant ethic and capitalism was in my Sociology 101 class in 1987 – a mere 24 years ago! Now in 2011, I find myself analysing this relationship in Max Weber’s book, The Protestant Ethic & the Spirit of Capitalism.

  In Part I, Weber essentially argues that there is a close relationship between the Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism. He looks at the historical context in which capitalism was conceived, and argues that capitalism grew out of a person’s religious affiliation and social status, and that primarily there was a greater proportion of business leaders, owners of capital and higher skilled labourers who were Protestant rather than Catholic. Weber analyses the reasons he perceives are behind this, including the notion that had emerged from the Reformation where ‘work’ was given a higher status and afforded spiritual legitimacy. In essence it had been transformed from a secular or worldly pursuit to now being related to someone’s religious calling, as “an expression of virtue and proficiency.”

  Capitalism had arrived, and it came to dominate people’s lives, certainly in an economic sense now that it was seen as much more than merely a worldly pursuit. Unfortunately, this gave rise to a new development, for as Weber points out, people became consumed with the making of money as the ultimate purpose of life. Economic acquisition was no longer subordinated to man as the means for the satisfaction of his material needs.

  There are certainly some healthy discussions to be had and questions to be asked about capitalism, and for now, I would like to analyse what Weber calls the spirit of capitalism and take a look at it through a modern day lens. For many, capitalism has increased people’s ability to meet their physical, social and intellectual needs. It has brought about the accumulation of material assets, including essential shelter, transport, time saving gadgets and personal technology that have made our lives much easier (although not always simpler). However, capitalism has not always proven friendly to every person. We only have to look back to the Industrial Revolution in England and Europe where adults and children were forced to work extremely long hours in atrocious conditions for only a pittance, all in the name of capitalism and progress. It allowed these workers to barely provide for the basic needs of their families, while the business owners increased their own profits and margins. While those days may be long gone in the Western world, we only need to cast our thoughts back to some of the underpinning causes of the recent global financial crisis, to understand that ultimately greed and the unbridled individual pursuit of wealth comes all too frequently at the expense of many others and in different ways, such as increasing unemployment, higher costs and government taxes, mortgage foreclosures, bankruptcies, and so on.

  Things would undoubtedly be different if we had maintained a purer sense of calling to our work and seeing it not only as exercising our God-given talents and opportunities, but also as a responsibility and contributor to the welfare of our communities. Most of us don’t begrudge someone else earning a higher income or working harder to achieve a level of success, or even putting in some extra effort with the goal of purchasing something they have wanted for a long time. Cross the line however, to pursuing this objective at the financial, physical or social expense of others, then we have made the needs of others in our communities subservient to our individual pursuit of wealth. Herein lies a very real problem even in today’s modern world. In reality, as we delve into the historical roots of capitalism and its relationship to Protestantism we discover that it is not so much relational as it is individualistic, albeit, individualistic with significant relational repercussions.

I am guilty. I have been embarrassed and sceptical of Christian development work #dmingml

Most of us remember the tsunami that hit Indonesia Dec 26, 2004. I was in Melbourne and remember finding the news updates incomprehensible. Everyone was talking about it. Everyone wanted to help. Relief agencies were on the ground as quickly as possible.

  Not long afterwards, in my role back then as VP of International Relations for Focus on the Family (not a relief agency), I was asked by a major U.S newspaper whether or not we were abusing the situation and purely motivated to help because we wanted to ‘evangelize’ the people of Indonesia.

  I remember being deeply offended, and yet at the same time, I was challenged by the accusation. Was there an underlying or ulterior motive in wanting to help? Questions like this shouldn’t be ignored, and to be honest, there have been many times when I have sceptical and questioned the motivations of other agencies wanting to suddenly help when they have never had any previous skin in the game. Are they genuine or opportunistic? I know this sounds extremely judgemental, and for that I apologize. I am relieved, though, to be able to tell you that through one of our significant partners on the ground – World Harvest – Focus on the Family were able to direct people’s money specifically to projects that provided direct medical support, housing, food, water, and so on. However, I continued to be haunted by the question of why we were doing this?

  If it wasn’t to ‘evangelize’, then how do Christian organizations represent Christ and be distinct from other humanitarian agencies? If it wasn’t to ‘win’ people for Christ, then what were we doing there? Now of course, there is a lot of meaning, distortion and critical inferences attached to the concept of evangelism. Some of it is justified, and some of it is not.

  It is at this point that I wish I could lift an entire chapter and insert it here from Bryant Myers’ book, Walking With The Poor: Principles and Practices of Transformational Development. It is his chapter on Christian Witness and Transformational Development. He deals with the issue of Christian witness far better than I can. However, let me share a couple of poignant points he makes in relation to this –

  Firstly that the need to share God’s good news is directly related to a Christian understanding of transformation and what motivates development. Jesus gave us two specific commandments. Simply, the first was to love God, and the second was to love our neighbors as ourselves. This is the motivation that takes us to care for the poor, the broken hearted, the oppressed, the homeless, the widow, and those affected by injustice. Importantly, Myers’ goes on to say that this is not a call to proselytize or a “call to coercive, manipulative, or culturally insensitive evangelism…it is a call to be sure we do our development with an attitude that prays and yearns for people to know Jesus Christ.” (205).

  Secondly, whether we stand by and do nothing, or we choose to participate in development, both bear witness to our faith and what we claim is at the core of our identity, attitudes, motivation, practice, and so on. In the light of this, we may choose to do development, but if there is no cause for people to ask why we are doing it and there is no opportunity to share Christ, then we are merely doing development, not transformational development. This is why Myers takes time to explore a developmental approach to Christian witness. Drawing from numerous biblical examples where people witnessed something miraculous, amazing and surprising, he reveals that the activity or result of the activity led to an opportunity to share about Christ. “In each case, the gospel is proclaimed, not by intent or plan, but in response to a question provoked by the activity of God in the community. There is an action that demands an explanation, and the gospel was the explanation.” (210)

  I’d encourage you to read this book. Myers goes on to explore many more concepts and questions about development that I have wrestled with for years. Although embarrassed by examples of Christian development in the past, this has not prevented him from engaging in transformational development where he claims it starts with Christ, and to which Christ is central.

  Today, I work for an organization that delivers trauma rehabilitation to children and families who have been victims of war, natural disasters and human trafficking. In being part of this work, I am bearing Christian witness. Not by proclaiming Christ with a megaphone, but by bringing about transformation where the focus of our work is on bringing healing to people, their relationships and their communities.

#dmingml

Poverty Makes Us Feel Very Uncomfortable #dmingml

My family have moved to the Sunshine Coast in Queensland for me to take up a position working for Dr. Robi Sonderegger who founded Family Challenge Charity Trust. They do great work with families on the Coast, as well as provide training to international agencies working with kids in ravaged, war torn areas around the world. They rehabilitate child soldiers, and are passionate about rescuing kids out of the sex trade. So, it was with considerable interest that I picked up “Walking With the Poor” by Bryant Myers, as one of the books to review for my Doctoral studies with GFU.

  Myers looks at various perspectives on poverty and how people tend to view this in vastly different ways through the lens of their own experiences or what he calls, the “non-poor lens.” It is difficult not to do this, except that sometimes our definition of it so often removes it from us to the degree that we don’t feel any pressure to respond to it, or where we don’t know how to respond to it. Therefore, it becomes someone else’s problem, not mine.

  Secondly, we tend to view poverty as an issue for Third World countries rather than developed countries. If we live in a developed country, it is convenient for us to discount the presence of homelessness, unemployment, inability to access basic medical care, the economic impact of marital breakdown, harmful drug use, prostitution, and the rise of emotional and mental health disorders and their ramifications for families and communities

  Thirdly, if we do feel we have an obligation to respond, our modern worldview mistakenly leads us to thinking that our ability to ‘fix’ the poor causes us to elevate our status to that of saviour or rescuer, or where we are ‘better’ than those we are helping. Myers calls this our modern "blind spot", where most of our invitations to help put us in a position of power, to the extent that sometimes it is as if we play God. What results, is often more harm done than good, where we violate a culture’s belief system and their way of life. Of course, we wish we could say this is unintentional, but with all honesty we have to admit that sometimes those of us doing the helping quite simply believe we know what is best. Many of us can draw from multiple examples where our own biases lead us to thinking we know what is best for the situation at hand. We listen and do not hear. We observe, but do not see. We talk when they wish to speak. We are quick to provide for the immediate need without understanding what must be done to resolve what is causing the need and feeding this longer-term.

  Myers writes,

  “Too often agencies do the policy analysis with professionals and then presume to speak for those whom they claim have no voice. This implies that the poor are unable to diagnose their own situation and that they, in truth, have no voice. This does not have to be the case, and in ensuring that it is not the case, a transformational frontier can be crossed. The poor will be less poor when they learn to do their own analysis and find their own voice. This will require help and support…” (124)

  Myers doesn’t leave us in no man’s land. He looks at the causes of poverty and their relationship to systems and issues that reinforce and maintain this, while acknowledging that other issues prevent people in poverty from recognizing that there is hope beyond what they are experiencing. However, after more than 23 years working with World Vision leading their international strategy, he prescribes to the belief that relief of poverty and ultimately, any viable solution to poverty must revolve around a holistic model, and that the redemptive story is not only important to this, but unavoidable in its application. God desires to redeem people to him, even through the social injustices that people face, and God initiates this from a position of unconditional love and humility. Jesus speaks to this in Luke, 4:18-19. To merely address an issue of shelter, or hunger or violence as a singular issue prevents us from seeing it in the wider context of God’s redemptive purposes at work in a broken world. Ultimately, there is no relief without Christ.

  Myers has done us all a disservice. He brings the issue of poverty to our doorstep where its reality is inescapable, and we can no longer overlook a personal and uncomfortable response.

  As my good friend Tom Davis (President of Children’s Hopechest) would say, “When we stop seeing poverty as a 'condition' or a 'statistic,' instead as a life it will change our view. Get to know a little orphan girl in poverty, her story, her heart, her hope, and you will never be the same.”

  That girl could be next door.