Biblical & Pragmatic Foundations for the Construct of the Emerging Leaders Project of Mission
Sayo Ajiboye
Oct 2006
to a process of engagement with West African young adults in the year 2000. We started a Project of facilitating leadership development among late teens to young adults. We specifically targeted leaders of University Fellowships in the Middle Belt Arae of Nigeria focusing on the states of Kwara, Kogi, and Southern States of Osun and Oyo. This ministry grew to impact young people in the capital Cities of Lagos and
Our Model
Our model is very simple, we ask just one question from many angles; “how then shall we live?” We ask this question on developmental theory track, on a theological context track, on an economic track, on a political leadership track and on an historical analysis track. The 2004 Winter program is outlined below:
Theme: “Strategic Deployment of Vision for Effective Impact in the Nations”.
Dates: January 28th – 31st 2004.
Venue: Mercy Center, Frontenac St Louis MO USA
Leadership Track
- Person, Vision,
- Managing Men: New insight from Sinai
Vision Track
- Telling Mountains to Move: Strategic Insight into the Call to the Impossible.
- Paradigms & Parables: Needs & Response Models for challenged communities.
Development Track
- Development of Nations I: Options in Theology
- Development of Nations II: Options in Outreach
- Evolution & Retention of Wealth I: Historical Options.
- Evolution & Retention of Wealth II: A Christian Philosophy.
The program outline for the Spring Seminar 2002 in
| Spring Seminar 2002 | Sunday April 14th | Monday April 15th | Tuesday April 16th | Wednesday April 17th | Thursday April 18th |
April 19th |
| 7.00-8:00AM | Breakfast & Devotion | |||||
| Period 1 8:00 – 9:30am | A R R I V A L | Track 1 DL: The Person Factor Mark Dirkes | Track 2 Peace Makers Seminar Allison Holtom | Track 3 DN: Options In Theology Marc Murchinson | Track 4 PL: Paradigms of The Rod | Track 5 Bishop Jones |
| 9:30 – 10:00 AM | Coffee Break | |||||
| Period 2 10:00 – 11:30AM | DL: The Vision Factor MD | Peace Makers AH | DN: Options In Outreach MM | Paradigms of the Reformers RW | Bishop Jones | |
| Period 3 11:30 – 12:30AM | Talk-Shop MD | Peace Makers AH | Talk-Shop | Paradigms of the Modern Mainline Churches RW | Bishop Jones | |
| 12:30 – 4:00 PM | Lunch Break Recreation | |||||
| Period 4 4:00 – 5:30 PM | DL: Instrument Panel MD | Peace Makers AH | E&R of Wealth Historical Options AS | Paradigms of The Modern Young Churches RW | POWER AUTHORITY & SPIRITUALITY “Me Factor” HW 3rd | |
| 5:30 – 5:45PM | Coffee Break | |||||
| Period 5 5:45 – 7:00PM | | Workshop MD | Peace Makers AH | E&R of Wealth A Christian Philosophy AS | PL: Organizational Models 1& 2 Prof. Nelson Jennings | POWER AUTHORITY & SPIRITUALITY Communal Dimension Willie Davie |
| 7:00 – 8:00 PM | Dinner | |||||
| Evening Hour | Welcome Sayo Ajiboye HW3rd | Pastor David Groves Transformation of Nations | Talk-Shop | Transformation of Nations AS | Organizational Models 1&2 Prof. Nelson Jennings | MEANS OF GRACE/CLOSING Sayo Ajiboye |
FridayFAITH & SOCIETY SEMINAR - SPRING SERIES 2002
Session Moderator: Rev. Sayo Ajiboye Assisted by; Pastor James Mlali – Kenya, Rev. Agbor Aaron – Cameron, Rev. Olanrewaju Sam – Nigeria, Sabrina Bradley USA
POWER AUTHORITY & SPIRITUALITY: 1. “Me” Factor 2- PAS: Ambiguity of Power 3- PAS: Ambiguity of Authority
Facilitators:
Harry Walls, Rev
Mark Dirkes Evangelical Free Church of
David Groves, Rev.
Allison Holtom Center for Biblical Counseling & Education
Gil Carson, Missionary World Impact (Inner City
Marc Murchison, Rev.
Andrew Southwell Presbyterian Church of
Rod
Jenning Nelson, Prof. Professor of World Missions, Covenant Seminary,
Wayne A. Jones, Bishop Embassy of Heaven/ Word of Life Evangelistic Crusade St Louis MO
William Davie,
Sayo Ajiboye, Rev.
The Program Outline for September 2005 in
| Emerging Leaders Conference July 21 – 25 2005 | |||||||
| Emerging Leaders Conference 2005 July 21st -24th CEM Camp, Theme: Church & Global Change | Thursday July 21st | Friday July 22nd | Saturday July 23rd | Sunday July 24th | Monday July 25th | ||
| 5.30-6.30 | | Corporate Devotions Changed Hearts & Opened Heaven Toyin Saliu | Corporate Devotions Changed Hearts & Healed Lands Toyin Saliu | Corporate Devotions Changed Hearts and a Waiting Nation Ajiboye | Team Devotions | ||
| 7.00-8:00AM | Breakfast & Devotion | ||||||
| 8:00 – 10:30am | Arrival | Global Change & Missions A Missions Perspective Training Team Teaching: Ken Shirkey & Sayo Ajiboye | Global Change & Missions A Missions Perspective Training Team Teaching: Ken Shirkey & Sayo Ajiboye | Departures | 1. Conference Review Meeting 2. World Perspective Publication Editorial | ||
| 10:30.10:45 AM | Arrival | Coffee Break ………………………… Coffee Break ………………………… Coffee Break ……………… | |||||
| Period 2 10:45 – 11:45AM | Arrival | Blue Print for Change Biblical Framework Rev. Moses Popoola | Blue Print for Change Biblical Framework Rev. Moses Popoola | | | ||
| Period 3 11:30 – 1:00PM | Arrival | Small Group Session on Change: What do We Think Need To Be Changed Odeh Akatu leading a Panel | Change in The Workplace Tool Kit for Success Charles Kpandei | | | ||
| 1:00 – 4:00 PM | Arrival | Lunch & Rest | |||||
| Period 4 4:00 – 5:30 PM | Arrival | Change in the Workplace Current Trends & Expectations Charles Kpandei | Interactive Session on Change: How do we need to change Odeh Akatu leading a Panel | | | ||
| 5:30 – 5:45PM | Arrival | Coffee Break | |||||
| Period 5 5:45 – 7:00PM | Opening Session Anchor: Odeh & Toyin | Interactive Session on Change: What do we need to Change Odeh Akatu leading a Panel | Interactive Session on Change: What do we need to Change Odeh Akatu leading a Panel | | | ||
| 7:00 – 8:00 PM | Dinner | ||||||
| Evening Hour | The Nehemiah Call Defining the Future Sayo Ajiboye | The Nehemiah Call: Strategies of the Spirit Sayo Ajiboye | The Nehemiah Call Winning the War Sayo Ajiboye | | | ||
Toyib Saliu, Engr.
Ken Shirkey, Rev.
Moses Rahaman Popoola General Overseer, New
Anataku Ali, Rev. General Overseer Christ Assembly
Charles Kpandei, Rev. Redeemed Christian
Odeh Akatu, Rev. Mission
Ray Obiaje Mission Africa International
Bomi Ajiboye, Pastor Nigerian Women Intercessors
Taiye Adeola, Rev
Ministerial Team Christ Assembly
Sayo Ajiboye, Rev. Mission
The Emphasis of the Emerging Leaders program is change in the present leadership contexts of the Nigerian society. It seeks to investigate the contextual and biblical basis for engagement with this leadership challenge. This was itemized in an internal document distributed in 2002. The essential content of this document defines the philosophy of the program as follows:
1. We Seek |To Understand the Dynamics Behind Relationships.
Most of our world lives within communities that are challenged. Our world is faced with conflicts; both ancient and modern. These conflicts are defined within two broad parameters:
a. Challenges in development of relationships.
Conflicts are rooted in challenges to personal relationships. The greatest and the most challenged of personal relationships is the relationship with Christ and His gospel. It is this relationship with Christ and His gospel that is the necessary fundamental building block for the evolution of thoughts that develops the society. We therefore seek to promote and advance a clear understanding of the gospel.
The gospel of Jesus Christ is a relevant thought system within the post modern context of our world. The gospel is historically relevant today, its context addresses crucial issues today as it was 2000 years ago.
b. Challenges in the development of resources.
The pain within our world is relationally defined pain rather than a resource defined pain. The wars, the hunger, the health epidemics, the financial limitation of a portion of our world are all relational problems.
The God of Heaven has provided enough resources for everybody on his earth to live well. Relational blockages challenge the flow of these resources. We seek to understand and facilitate the removal of these blockages to relationship and to understand/facilitate the flow of resources especially to the Poorest of the Poor.
2. We Seek to Promote Thought
The management of thought is another of the great challenges of our world!
So the wars, the crisis and the hunger have their roots in the heart of man and in like manners, every act of goodness and every act of progress has its roots in the hearts of man and in the light of the knowledge of God within the heart.
What Motivates Choice? If we invert the Mark 7:21 Bible passage gives us an obvious answer. The agency for the transference of evil is the thought of the heart. It stands to reason that the agency of promotion of good must also be thought of the heart. Good of course is the antithesis of Evil.
The book of Proverb insists that the flow of good or the flow of life within a person or a community is directly and contextually related to the diligence in the management of the thoughts of the heart. So the book insists:
One of the pertinent research question is this: Why do we need change? To answer this question requires an understanding of the context of the nation of
The nation has an amazing availability of resources; this includes a well-educated and resourceful workforce and a wealth of unexploited natural resources. There is a good trade link with the rest of West Africa and this gives it access to a market force of more than 350 million people within 1 hour flight of
In an October 2007 publication by the international non governmental advocacy organization, Human Rights Watch[3]; there was an intense description of the socio-political atmosphere of the nation. Some in the leadership of the nation habitually deploy violence to normate the society. They justify violence and take it for granted,” they operate with an entitlement mentality and create “an all pervading climate of impunity that blocks change.” They visit the populace with depredations, corruption, abusive, and unaccountable governments. It is within this milieu that our young people live.
Nigerian history of leadership is compounded by the extensive diversity within its borders. There are more than 300 ethnic groups, each of these have it in mind that it has a right to what the nations euphemistically refer to as “the national cake;” the elite instigate fighting and killing to get this national cake but once it is gotten, it never gets to the people. Young people are the most challenged in this regards. In a February 2007 presentation, the erstwhile Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili wept as she stated that over 50% of the nations 42.1 Million young people are not in school. Of the 20 million or so in school, less than 20% have access to quality education[4]. In spite of massive income from petroleum export, education is consistently under funded in the nation. UNESCO recommends that 25% of a nation’s expenditure should go to education; the average level over an 8 years period in
Looking directly at our target group of older teenagers to young adults, 800,000 of them took the entrance examination into universities in 2006 but only 125, 000 were given space. This dilemma of development faces the Nigerian young person. It accentuates the desire to be competitive rather than cooperative and it challenges mores that suggest moderation pushing rather a circumstantial extravagance. Nigerian young people are continuously confronted with a modeled extravagance of the old guard, they reject moderation and they are pushed towards extravagance in the pursuit of what they consider modernity. Despite this push however, there is a general repression of the young populace in their access to meaningful life. It has been suggested that between 1999 and 2006, more than 80% of the Nigerian population live on less than $2.00 a day and only 500 people control more than 80% of the national wealth. In the midst of these How should our young people live? How can we design a journey that is meaningful for an adult learner?
Scott Bessenecker[6] defined the intractable poverty that is found among the nations. This is a form of poverty that has become entrenched over generations and is very difficult to dislodge. People in this situation have virtually no toe – hold with which they can climb out of their circumstances. There are many forces that are responsible for intractable poverty. Bessenecker called these forces the “push and pull factors” that prevents people from breaking free. In
The Pain of Poverty and a Sense of Abandonment
Intense poverty promotes a sense of abandonment. Chap
Abandonment creates a tendency towards aggression and a defensive guard that is necessary to sustain the impact of aggression in the environment.
Seeking the Promised Land, in a Cold Clime
Global News are replete with pictures of African young people paying to be transported across the ocean into
The pertinent question then is this, why do young people risk life and limb to cross the ocean or cross the desert or even try something as dangerous as stowing away in the wheel wells of an airplane? We believe with Chap Clark that it is an intense sense of abandonment, a feeling of hopelessness, a sense that nothing within the native community will support their existence. This feeling is so prevalent among our young people and we seek to design the programs at the Emerging Leaders Conferences to engage with this feeling.
We are conscious of the “us against them” feeling that this experience generate, we try to transcend it. We are convinced that accepting the “us against them” rhetoric is a fallacy. We therefore affirm their experiences and ask that we and them together should rethink viable options to these intensely challenging reality. We affirm the fact that the adults world has indeed abdicated its responsibility but we ask the young people to question our own responses in the face of that abdication. Such a candid engagement with the deep, heartfelt experiences of our youth leaves everybody at our sessions drained. It causes raw emotional feelings to flare up; it introduces a sense of helplessness and then calls forth a resilience that the youths often do not know reside in their bosoms. The desire to escape begins to wane, the call to engage begins to crystalize; we the facilitators of the experience and those that are participants in the same are simultaneously drained of strength and vitality, but with our strength and vitality also goes the deep anger, the hatred, the jealousy, the hopelessness. It is difficult to describe this cathartic experience; we have found out that the truth literally sets free in such sessions.
Addressing Poverty
The boogeyman of poverty is the big motivator of deviant behavior among the young leaders. To go back to Bessenecker, the kind of poverty that we engage with are those in which the poor stands at the edge of intractable poverty and is desperately seeking to prevent descent into the abyss of hopelessness. An Analysis of Bessenecker’s strategy presents multiphase actionable steps:
Stage 1: Identification with the Community… This is a movement from saying you are poor to saying we are poor because I choose to identify with you.
Stage 2:Mobilization of the Community… We will identify what is wrong with our systems and understand it
Stage 3: External Action… We will take steps to address the source of the poverty with in our community. This stage is multilayered, it starts with an attempt at rapprochement, it progresses into a conciliatory stance, it transmutes into a confrontational position, it can sometimes lead to all out aggression. Aggression in this instant is Christian aggression. At first this sounds like an oxymoron, how do you have Christian aggression? Aggression does not have to be negative. The non violent resistance method of both Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi – both of which mimicked Christ’s call to turn the other cheek - are eminently aggressive without being negative.
Stage 4: We succeed in our engagement with poverty.
Bessenecker’s strategy and that of the New Friar Movement may not work in my context. This is because it is difficult to say to the poor, remain in your estate of hopelessness and help will come. Speaking to such a person about incarnational Christian experience brings a puzzlement: he seems to say, I am the poor in need of a doctor, I am the sick in need of healing; how long shall it be before I receive help?
Let the Poor Say I am Rich
The intractable poor may question your motive in embracing poverty. Why are you picking up a toga that which he is seeking to cast off? For the souls at the border of intractability of poverty, our emphasis must be on the riches of Christ. In His book, “Encounter God in the City,[11]” Randy White had an engagement with a little girl who said to him “you are rich, aren’t you Randy?” For that girl, the start up point for healing and wholeness, is in the identification of someone in her experience; who is Rich! This same reality may be applied to my young people in
Defining Rich: Hope is an Entrepreneurial Exercise
We must contextualize what being rich means for the young people. Bessenecker described fact that engendering hope is an entrepreneurial exercise on the same platform as business of manufacturing or merchandising. Bessenecker actually utilized business terminologies to describe the process of engagement with hope. To engage with my young people, the facilitating agent must see himself as an investor, hope must be actively and positively traded. Such an investor must valuate his estate, he must look at the risk factor – which in this case includes an acute rejection of the familiar, he must seek out partners who will be the Lord’s agent to invest in that which is positive within the communities.
The person working among young people such as ours must have an understanding of return on investment. Every investment in the young people must be calculated with an eye on results. There is no other operative in modern history with a clearer commitment to such operational understanding as William Carey. Ruth and Vishal Mangawaldi showed how he conducted a critical operations that formed the basis for the structures that liberated India. This operation lasted decades; by the end of the process, the strategy has produced a new generation of empowered Indian nationals; this was 200 years ago[12]
Philosophical Construct of Poverty Sequence
William Carey understood that persistent, pervasive and entangling poverty is a philosophical construct, engaging with this has to be philosophically motivated. Carey carried on a very conscious war on the negative content of the Indian culture while affirming encouraging and passionately promoting that which is worthy in the national systems. Any effort to engage with young people in
It is amazing to see how one man’s life intertwined with so many sectors of the community. Mangalwadi conducted a fictional quiz in which Carey was validly presented not just as a missionary, but he was also shown as a botanist, an industrialist, an economist, a medical humanitarian, a media pioneer, an agriculturist, a translator, an educator an astronomer, a library pioneer, a forest conservationist, a crusader for women's right, a public servant, a moral reformer and a cultural transformer. Any actor willing to really engage with the African possibilities must engage with all the possibilities as listed above and more; such a person must be an ultimate entrepreneur and design an entrepreneurial program based on the understanding of philosophical options that maintains a culture of poverty. Mangawaldi presented William Carey as the one man who is "the central character in the story of
For Carey, the means of establishing human dominion is work. Carey and his contemporaries promoted the concept that effective calling for every man is to be fully and fruitfully engaged in one form of work or the other. This for Carey is the fulfillment of God’s call that man should have dominion[13]. Engagement with African reality demands an intimate understanding of God’s plan for work which honors.
One of the key requirements in envisioning a new
The affirmation of the feminine gender must not be an abstract deification such as it was in Bengal of Carey's time. "Women of
Education was a critical tool for lifting up Indian women of two centuries back, it will be critical today. In designing our experience with young people in
The Disorienting Dilemma
Dr. Randy White wrote about a “disorienting dilemma[16]” this is a dilemma where perspective of the actor and that of the observers clash. How often it is we seek to appear good and the recipient our goodness misread our intentions. For Dr White it was a little girl’s perception of him as “rich” and his need to simply say “I guess I am” that brought a new level of awareness. Layers of knowledge became a multifaceted tool for the good doctor, actions became carefully conceived, Dr. White started to come to grips with the fact that in the city, it does not always look as it seems[17]. Every leader involved with young people in
Dr White dealt with the sin of low expectation of people other than himself, he engaged with assessment and reassessment of assumptions; action follows reflection, truth becomes crystallized and the result is “a deep calling , a single message and a true love of neighbors.”
Dr. White quotes Laurent Daloz when he affirmed that all of these (and more) will happen “not in a gradual linear way but in distinct and recognizable leaps.” Shalom between people and for people will be built not as a concept or a theological construct but as an experience. The gospel for instance must develop a confrontational face. Dr White was strong about the need to “unmask the social systems in order to transform them.”
In thinking about young people, we must be aware off and careful about the danger of wholesale transference of hegemonic thinking that surrounds economic globalization. This is more important as we structure the operations that affect the Christian Church and especially ministries among young people. Ruth Valerio writing in One World or Many edited by Richard Tiplady, warned against the “bigger is better” thinking and stated that this can redefine how the church engages with mission and it can affect commitment and long term focus.
There is a battle for the hearts and minds of young people targeted by globalized transnational corporations., these corporations are referred to as McWorld. Valerio asserted that mission agencies who are working in this context must “partner rather than poach.” Ms. Valerio believes that a transnational tent making construct is a valid way for missions to engage with and use the resources of globalization for African young people.
Valerio agrees with Cox (1999) who wrote that the “realms of economics, culture, morality and religion are not as separate as we think” Valerio expounded the concept of “beings in relationship.” This concept flows from the idea of the Godhead in relationship. It can affect the way we view globalization which can be characterized either as “a ceaseless interchange of mutual love” or as a veritable tool of mutual destruction[18]. .
In the same book, Sam George fleshed out the idea surrounding the destructive impact of globalization over young people. He looked at globalization from the perspective of cultures and located globalization in the medium of a range that have Terror-Culture of the Jihadist and Techno-Culture of the MacWorld and Transnational corporations as polar opposites. He affirms these two cultures as representative of global youth and that both cultures are concurrent, subversive, and that they intersect. The church must form a cross cultural, missiological paradigm to engage with both of these cultures as both cultures are inherently imbued with the capacity to “reprogram perception” and “create cross-border civilizations” among our young people.[19] For Sam George, the concept of terror-culture is summarized by this insightful thought: “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter” and “terrorists are global citizens. [20]” In
A Transformational Journey
All of this brings us to the concept of transformational journeys. This concept is beautifully encapsulated by Laurent Daloz in His book “
Mission Africa International seeks to engage with blurring and eradicating the secular sacred divide. We agree with Daloz who compounds his thesis by asserting that “we are learning all the time, from our families, our workplace, our friends and our environment.” We as teachers of young people are learning to ask the the question: “Where are our young people going?” And “What are we for them in their journeys?” Each of our young person is in motion, each of their motion has a destination; and the movement towards the destination is a dialogical mentor - mentee “conversation.”
End of the Journey
Daloz quoted Frodo in the Lord of the Rings, “the people in these journeys will not know the ending of their tales.” This is so true of the experience with our young people; we do not know where all these shall end. We agree with Daloz – however that following the process we outlined will cause our young people to be brought to the point of beholding the “unimaginable.” They will be brought to the brink of “being and nothingness,” at this momentous boundary, that which cannot be imagined becomes a possibility![25]
We will continue a process of mentoring, we will commit to the details of engendering trust, we will embrace the process of issuing stiff personal challenges; we will discover vision and provide encouragement for the same[26]. We will target a measurable and understandable process of creating “a desire for continued growth.[27]” This will be our focus in Mission Africa International, SO HELP US GOD.
[1] Foreign Direct Investment
[2] Human Development Index (2006) retrieved from http://hdr.undp.org/hdr2006/statistics/countries/country_fact_sheets/cty_fs_NGA.html
[3] Human Rights Watch (2007). Criminal Politics, Violence, “Godfathers,” and Corruption in
[4] Segun Adegbile (2007). Minister weeps over rot in public Schools retrieved at ww.sunnewsonline.com/webpages/opinion/2006/nov/11/backpage.html 2 on Nov 11 2006.
[5] Sam Aluko, (2007) Public-Private Partnership (Ppp) and the 102 Federal Unity Schools: An Appeal. An Open Letter to the Nigerian Minister of Education written on 20th February, 2007 retrieved from the Internet at http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com/index.php/content/view/5524/55
[6] Scott Bessenecker (2006) The New Friars Interversity Press,
[7] Chap
[8] Ibid p. 11, 12, 13
[9] Ibid p. 47, 55, 80
[10]Kareem Faheem (2005) Body Parts From Jet Hit a Long Island Home. Retrieved from the internet on 10/16/2007 at http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/08/nyregion/08parts.html
[11] Randy White (2006) “Encounter God in the City” Intervasity Press, Madison WI
[12] Ruth and Vishal Mangalwadi (1999) The Legacy of William Carey: A Model for Transformation of Cultures. Crossway Books
[13] Ibid p. 116
[14] Ibid p 38
[15] Ibid
[16] Randy White (2006). Encounter God in the City. Intervasity Press, Madison WI
[17]Ibid
[18] Richard Tiplady (1999) One World or many Authentic Living
[19] Ibid p. 38, 57
[20] Ibid p. 58
[21] Laurent Daloz (1999)
[22] Mobolaji Aluko (2004) Cultural Wars and National Identity: The Saga of the Yoruba and the Bini-Edo retrieved from the internet 17:58pm on 10/16/2007 at http://www.dawodu.com/aluko89.htm
[23] Coatzee P. H and Roux A.P.J (1998) The African Philosophy Reader Routledge,
[24] Holy Bible, American Standards Version. Thomas Nelson Inc.
[25] Laurent Daloz (1999)
[26] Ibid p. 39
[27] Ibid p. 62
