Profile for an effective International Church Leader – Part 1

We often talk of the right fit. A church leader may fit well into one church but not in another: there are plenty of examples of good leaders doing well in the home church but then struggling in the very different world of an international church (IC). How do you discern how well you might fit in an IC, how can an IC decide if a potential leader will be a good fit: these are the issues addressed in this exploration of the best of qualities for effective leaders in international churches (ICs). In our world of ever-growing diversity, and the tsunami of changes and issues flooding the agendas of church leaders, these 13 qualities keep on increasing in importance.

The International Church (IC) is a collection of God’s people with a multi-everything kaleidoscope of backgrounds from across the globe. Together they serve God, serve one another, and serve in mission. An extended definition and description of an IC can be found at here. For IC’s strategic positioning read “International Church for a Global World” at https://emqonline.com/node/3680.  

God is always moving and there is an increasing awareness that God is fast-forwarding the IC! It is hard to keep up with God’s pace! The IC is more recognized today than ever before. ICs are self-starting around the globe and include small, medium, large, and mega-sized ICs: increasingly ICs are included in global mission strategies.

We have only just begun!! The potential of the IC church is huge, yet we are still in the early stages of figuring out how best to take hold of this potential for Jesus, the Gospel, and the Kingdom. So many possibilities, so many realities to work with so that the potential is realized across the nations. 

This Profile is one contribution to the great exploration of preparing ourselves for this potential. What does an effective IC leader look like? What is essential in the DNA of such an IC leader? A spectrum of many experienced IC leaders have collaborated together to write up this Profile.

This profile zeros in on IC leaders. This includes pastors, elders, home group leaders, board members, and pretty much anyone else in a leadership role. The extent to which these qualities apply varies according to the level of responsibility and each one’s job description. Obviously, more is expected of ordained full-time pastors than a volunteer coordinator.

Intentionally, this Profile is idealistic! It aims high, it strives for excellence. True, nobody will measure up fully to this ideal, but it would be negligent to compromise with this ideal. So, some points to remember:

• It is a question of journey and growth in the right direction. IC pastors and other leaders are people committed to each of these ideals no matter how much still needs to be developed.
• Note the Lifelong Learner (2) and Baggage (3) sections.
• In recruiting IC leaders, evidence should be looked for to indicate that the candidate is committed to these ideals and has been consistently growing in these areas already.
• In serving as an IC leader, these ideals will help clarify one’s agenda for personal and professional development.

What would you add to the rationale for creating an IC pastor profile?
This version of the profile is something like the master-document. It provides the basis for shorter versions or versions designed for particular needs, levels of responsibility, readers, and situations. What in particular is needed for pastoral and missional leadership of an IC, in addition to all the usual criteria in identifying pastors? This Profile primarily addresses the particulars of IC leadership.

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Consequently, some of the standard essentials for pastors may not seem to be as developed so well (character, growing faith in Christ, gifting, usual essential range of competencies, maturity, comprehensive leadership qualities, deepening wisdom, pastoral heart, interpersonal skills, etc). These are vital, obviously, and must be driven and shaped by the wealth of Biblical material on leadership. We trust that in the training and recruitment of IC pastors and other leaders, these will be appropriately addressed.

BIBLICAL BACKGROUND:
Scripture must drive and shape all considerations in such a Profile as this. Here we find an encyclopedia of input on serving God, beginning with the work mandate in the Garden and continuing through the narrative of Scripture to the service of God in the new heaven/earth. The example of Jesus, with His Kingdom-driven job description laid out in Psalms and the prophets, is fundamental. Jesus’ self-emptying servanthood is the required practice for all ministry (Mark 10:45, Philippians 2:5-11). 

Representative of the many ways Paul inputs on pastoral leadership are the standards laid out in 1 Timothy 3 and the gifts of Jesus to the church of specific ministries to equip and build up the church in Ephesians 4:11-13. 1 Corinthians 12 features the teamwork nature of all ministry while the whole of 2 Corinthians expresses much of Paul’s sacrificial determination in serving the churches. There is so much more in the NT that shapes how pastors and other leaders serve God’s church. The complex realities in the IC and in the world, together with this plethora of Biblical material, are the driving forces that have resulted in this collection of qualities essential for effective missional pastoral leadership in an IC.

THE QUALITIES OF AN EFFECTIVE IC LEADER:
A MOST NECESSARY FUTURE FOCUS AND DIRECTION FOR SHAPING THE QUALITIES BELOW:
Back in the 50’s there was a social contract within most cultures, and in the evangelical community: today these are fragmented and scattered. The “Effective IC Pastor/Leader” for the future will not be the same as what has been the ideal to date. Theology, politics, culture, and technology will have far greater significance in the decades to come than has been the case until now. Missional thinking and practice is entering a new global scenario in which the upheaval of all things will be the norm. Holistic worldviews will be decisive for negotiating through the maze of the future, both in the internal life of the IC and in the IC’s missional engagement with the world.

The challenge in drafting out this Profile is the need to anticipate the future – about 2 decades worth. One major shift will be the decline of the hegemony of the West and the rise of a real internationalism. This internationalism will compete with the growing reactionary nationalism already evident across the globe, together with the polarization in culture, religion, economics, and politics which is shaping the culture and conversations of local churches. Traditional least-reached people group thinking will increasingly not fit with the global realities. A rapidly increasing percentage of people now live and work in multi-cultural contexts. The world is borderless. One in seven people no longer live where they came from, the highest ratio ever known in history. The IC must park at the diaspora intersection to collect diaspora people. One thing is certain, we will not be going back to the way things were.

What will be the biggest changes in the IC context in the next 20 years?

Expressed here as ideals, IC leaders and pastors at least need to demonstrate they are maturing towards these qualities and already have made sufficient progress so as to lead an IC. The application of these criteria will be unique to each IC.

What are the most important qualities particularly for pastors of ICs?
How might this collection of qualities help set your agenda for personal and professional development; for your formation and equipping as an effective IC leader?

THE PROFILE IN FOUR PARTS.

The Profile as a single document can be found on the MICN website here …. 
In producing a four-part version of the Profile, the ordering and numbering of the 13 listed qualities has been changed.

The Profile in four parts is as follows:

PART 1

• Introduction above.

PART 2

LEADING TOWARDS WHAT EXACTLY?

• Quality 1. A Kingdom of God vision. Our calling is to align and orient our perspectives and vision, our hopes and dreams, with the Kingdom-of-God vision that shaped the mission and direction of Jesus’ life, ministry, death resurrection, ascension and enthronement, and His return to put all to right.
• Quality 2. Our mission agenda must align well with the missio Dei. How well do you understand the mission agenda God has for the nation that hosts your IC? How does the “all things” vision of Christ’s mission drive your mission? How well does your understanding of salvation align with God’s salvation agenda?
• Quality 3. At the heart of leadership is vision, something worth committing to. What is the essence of leadership across all churches large and small, true for all of the diverse personalities of leaders, and able to function well across the diversities of leadership cultures?
• Quality 4. Everything is changing – and fast – but is your theology able to cope? The issues of today and tomorrow are often not the issues of even a couple of decades ago. Theological depth and maturity is essential if IC leaders are to equip their churches to think Christianly about the issues that confront them at home, at work, at church, in society, and at the ballot box. 

PART 3

THE ONE THING EVERY LEADER AND PASTOR CAN NEVER AVOID.

• Quality 9. On being teachable. The necessity to commit to being a life-long learner because all of us have so much more to learn of theology and practice to grow in ministry effectiveness and faithfulness to the purposes of God.
• Quality 10. Heavy or light check-in baggage? Knowing oneself well is fundamental to all ministry, perhaps more so in the IC with the many ways diversity plays out. Without an honest and humble self-awareness, the worst of who you are will intrude into both teaching and practice.
• Quality 11. The art of being flexible. Leadership in every IC requires the attitudes, flexibility, and creativity to handle the unpredictability built into most ICs. Disappointment and resentment or opportunity and a sense of humour? And to make last-minute changes with a peaceful heart! 
• Quality 12. On being a people-person. Pastoral leadership is fundamentally relational. It requires emotional intelligence and mature interpersonal attitudes and skills: more so across the diversities within an international church and community. It includes how to bring out the best of discipleship in others.
• Quality 13. Technology, a great servant or a manipulative master? We cannot live without it but just because it can be done does not mean it should be done. What does and does not serve the interests of the life and mission of a church? How well do we understand the emergence of technocracy?

PART 4

PERSPECTIVE CHANGES EVERYTHING.

• Quality 5. Centrality on Christ requires calculated focus. The temptation to be like the Pharisees lies in all of us. Whatever the motivations and fears that drive it, we can slip into written and unwritten rules and regulations, and doctrines about church, discipleship, and mission to the neglect of a thorough centrality on Christ Himself! Even more a challenge in an IC!
• Quality 6. We are all cultural beings so …… Culture can be both a wonderful expression of the diversities God has built into the created order, and a deceitful master. IC leaders especially have challenges in multi-cultural ministry but none more so than identifying the subconscious cultural realities within each one of us.
• Quality 7. Facing up to the uncomfortable intrusions of political loyalties and perspectives. Politics is far more than just a matter of voting choices and party preferences. Politics shapes social cohesion, or the lack of it, in all societies and churches. There are always political influences in how Christians and others see themselves, the church, discipleship, and mission: potentially even more so in the IC.
• Quality 8. Everything is spiritual, one way or another, always. From the complexities of the human spirit through to the work of God’s Holy Spirit in all things, leaders need much discernment. Discernment grows out of theological depth of understanding. The same is true for taking a stand against the powers of evil as these attempt to intrude into everything to work against Christ’s Kingdom agenda.
  
• Conclusion. 

Graham Chipps and Warren Reeve.