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MentorNet #17 MENTORING
LEADERS IN HIERARCHICAL SOCIETIES Copyright
© 2003 by George Patterson and Galen Currah. May be freely copied, translated*, published and
distributed without prior permission. A Dutch researcher, Geert Hofstede, found several
cultural traits that help to define a company or society. One of those traits
he called "power distance," which includes how strongly leaders
believe that the efforts of their followers are a result of the leaders’
decisions. "Distant" leaders feel that they alone have the right
and might to make decisions. Their followers either agree with them or are
afraid to openly differ with them. Where both leaders and followers agree
that this is they way things are and ought to be, they can get done what has
to be done. When we in the West talk about
"servant-leaders", we usually mean leaders who both seek the
welfare of their followers and, at the same time, show an attitude of
humility with a willingness to listen to one’s followers. Western missionary
and congregational leaders generally look upon themselves as servant-leaders,
while covertly criticising non-western leaders as autocratic, hierarchical
and self-seeking. This MentorNet does not attempt to assess the accuracy of
those views, but presents a biblical approach to training leaders in
"high" power distance societies and organisations. When Paul advised Timothy, "The things which
you have heard from me in the presence of many witnesses, entrust these to
faithful men who will be able to teach others also," he was advancing
more than an inexpensive, efficient way to transmit lessons. Indeed, the
practice of creating "training chains’ derives from a powerful principle
that works equally well in high and low power distance cultures. Leaders
expand their powers not by grabbing and retaining privileges but by
empowering an increasing number of newer leaders who remain in a voluntary,
father-to-son, master-to-disciple relationship with their mentor. In effect, servant-leaders and autocratic
leaders can, alike, fail to raise up new leaders for the same root cause:
love of pre-eminence. The servant-leader may serve till his strength is gone,
while never raising up new leaders, nor training them to share pastoral
responsibilities. This happens when a servant-leader mistakenly finds his own
selfish fulfilment in working harder than others and, in his opinion, loving
more than they. Either kind of leader simply does not want to share his
power, influence or privileges. The solution to the problem of raising up leaders
in hierarchical, autocratic societies lies in leaders’ creating and
fostering of voluntary accountability among their trainees. To the extent
that a leader will find, appoint, commission and mentor new leaders, who will
do the same for others, new leaders will emerge. Their new congregations and
cells will have trained leaders and can reproduce. It is not necessarily the
"hierarchical" leadership style that must change, but the leaders’
obedience to Scripture in mentoring and empowering new leaders who will
likely remain loyal to them. Instead of "climbing the organisation’s
ladder" to get more power, one has only to add new "rungs" to
the ladder below oneself to reach a place of positive, far-reaching
leadership. Several tactics can be employed in working within high-power distance
societies. These can be tried and evaluated in each place. · Let new leaders start, develop and lead their own
congregations. Self-seeking power mongers
gravitate to the top of organisations and congregations on the merits of
their education, family connections and facility in the national language.
Most will not start a church and are willing to let it stagnate at a level
where it can provide a comfortable salary and social prestige. · Plant churches mainly among the poor and powerless. The poor are usually more sensitive to the social
injustices that have allowed the powerful to rise, and quickly develop
resistance to being bullied. While the poor cannot remove powerful leaders,
they know how to pray, "Oh, Lord bless and keep the bishop, keep him far
from us!" · Train your own leaders.
Avoid sending men off to attend elitist educational institutions. Without
intending to create a clerical class within their movement, educators do, in
effect, instil within their students an attitude of superiority based upon
academic learning. Bible school and seminary graduates generally do not deem
non graduates fit to lead congregation and cells and will not trust
"mere laymen" to lead new groups, even if the latter meet every one
of the biblical qualifications of elders. Students also imitate the
leadership style that teachers model in an institutional classroom, which is
often quite dictatorial. · Empower the obedient for ministry now. Amazingly, at the beginning of the 21st century, in
spite of abundant evidence accumulated by mission researchers, many
missionaries and pastors still choose the "promising" young men and
send them off to Bible school or seminary to become the "future leaders
of the church". Choose for training and leadership only mature men who
have already undertaken to lead their families and witness in their social
networks. After a few years of pastoral leadership, some of these should,
indeed, seek advanced education. Undeniably, it is precisely in the autocratic
societies of the world that faith in Jesus is spreading most rapidly,
and 100s of new congregations and cells are formed every day of the year. It
is in the low-power distance, democratic nations that the Christian movement
has stagnated. Thus, to start new congregations in a widespread movement for
Christ, we do not need humbler attitudes amongst leaders as much as high or
low power distance leaders who will empower newer leaders who will learn to
do the same, in turn. To find mentoring tools and sites, visit
<http://www.MentorAndMultiply.com>. We invite those who use Train & Multiply® to
write to George Patterson at <[email protected]> and Galen Currah at
<[email protected]>.
For information on how to obtain, T&M®, visit
<http://www.TrainAndMultiply.com>.
To obtain free, reproducible training materials, For information on "Come, Let Us Disciple
the Nations" (CD-ROM), Order the Church Multiplication Guide from
your Christian bookshop *If you translate MentorNet articles into your
language, then we request but do not require that you sent to us an
electronic copy of your translations, so that we may post it on this site as
a free service to others who read your language. |