Positive Leadership Possible

The president (center seated) at the naming ceremony of his newborn son.

Leadership can be difficult in any atmosphere, to work through interpersonal politics, institutional culture, and balance vision with current realities. I’m constantly impressed with how the national leadership of our partner church continues to lead in a positive way despite all the pitfalls that I see other organizations or local areas falling into. The church recently undertook their second annual leadership formation conference, to give their pastors and organizational leaders some continuing education that is otherwise absent. The fact that the previous conference was sponsored by an outside church made it even more impressive that they were able to continue this idea on their own. It had a good turnout despite the lack of outside funding for transportation and accommodation, and there was a positive message of challenge and encouragement. 

A New President

Another encouragement in the area of leadership has been the new president, who was elected in the Spring, and has continued the positivity of the national leadership. He is a self-starter and very serious about walking out his faith, but also good at working with the old leaders positions of respect. I’ve been impressed that before coming into national leadership, he planted a church in a major city, operated his own phone credit business to totally support his family, and has been through CHE trainings in different forms. I think it is very telling that the other influence he is quick to mention has really affected him is a discipleship program he has been going through for the past five years. It seems to have helped him keep the most important things in focus as he deals with church politics and issues on a grand scale.

Leading Schools Forward

Teachings at the Leadership Conference

Also last spring, it was really gratifying to see our partner church follow up on their needs in Theological Education. Through our partnership grants we had helped them hold a Theological Education Consultation three years ago to help them get re-organized and look at new directions. Now they have returned to these issues themselves to gauge progress and make further adjustments to the vision. The main participants and stakeholders were pretty much the same, but it was encouraging to see their efforts and developments of specific actions they will focus on to make progress on the vision they formed previously. The big focus will be on forming a French language Bible school, re-formatting the existing Bible schools to have a clear difference between their levels, and working to secure infrastructure to have enough student housing and better facilities. Other important issues include having scholarships for those able to go on for higher education, and practical trade skills for those who will be serving in villages.

-- El Padre