Contents
Our Roots in Many Stories................................................................................... 1
The Roots of My African Story ............................................................................ 5
Overcoming A Sense of Abandonment ............................................................... 11
My Calling ............................................................................................................. 15
Missional Leadership ............................................................................................................ 17
What Will the Griot Do? An Exercise in Reflective Leadership 23
Giving Shape To Communality:: The Goal of an Omo Oduduwa…... .............. 29
Bibliography.......................................................................................................... 33
This story is irrelevant – however - if it does not touch our stories and our local contexts. Overture 1 caused me
[1] to look deep within my soul, it caused me to ask questions about our many stories, I
re investigated (in my heart…) the events that has happened layers upon layers; I look into the deeds that has made it necessary for me as an African to look to him who was crucified for me. But I choose to look, as an African, I choose to look with the eyes of a
Griot[2].
The Griots of Africa,
The
Griots were essential features of the ancient African communities. They tell stories of days gone by with the sole purpose of linking it to the wisdom that is needed for this day. The stories of the battles of the Kings is not just to reminisces on ancient myths it is to teach the warriors of today how not to fight, the stories that mothers tell by the fireside is not just to lull the babies to sleep, it is a tool for creating order and
normating behavior in the community.
Griots go from community to community, they write their stories with sonorous songs, they put it into forms that can be easily recollected; they focus on getting a response from their community
[3].
The Gospel and The Griots The gospel ties in very closely with the African commitment to stories. The structures of the Testaments look much like the way the
Griots weave their stories. They took seemingly unconnected stories, they took issues that those stories represented; they turned it into a huge canvas of life-depicting art. Usually, by the time they are finished; a pattern has emerged. It is a wholesome pattern, it brings health to the community and it leaves unassailable the orthodoxy of the reflective theology.
Reflective Theology and Story Telling In the Old Testament
Moses was brilliant in using the word “remember” in the books of the law, the Psalmist and the Prophets however took it to another height. Psalm 137
[4] was a climax in the reflective use of stories to frame a theology. The Psalmist said:
5. “If I forget you, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget [its skill].
6. May my tongue cling to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you,
if I do not consider Jerusalem my highest joy.”
By doing this, the Psalmist took a story that was current, contemporaneous and patently negative and he used it to define what is at the core and the essence of the people, he used it to paint a picture of their claim to uniqueness. By the
skillful use of stories, the Psalmist turned that which was morbid to that which was heroic, he caused light to shine on darkness and he brought life out of death. What the Psalmist ended up defining was a beautiful passionate declaration of commitment; this essentially is the
Griots call: to observe the mystery of unfolding life when death seems to rule, that is the call of the wise.
Reflective Theology and Story Telling In the New Testament
The Gospel writers wrote “that we may believe” (
Jn 20:21
[5]) Luke wrote about “an account of the things fulfilled among us” “just as they were handed down to us” and what we “carefully investigated.” Luke laid claim to having written an “an orderly account” It was for a person who was named “the most excellent
Theophilus.” It was so that
Theophilus “may know the certainty of the things you have been taught.”
Paul affirmed the relevance of the model of the Griot as a tool for understanding faith and transmitting it within a generational context. Speaking to his favorite “son” Timothy, he said
2Tim 2:2 -
And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable men who will also be qualified to teach others.
This statement affirmed the Griots commitment to public speaking, public witness, personalized reception, empowered relationship of trust, reliable commitment to transfer the information as communicated. These are features of the Griots commitment; they are the characteristics promoted by Overture 1.
Layers of Communication In The Story Tellers World and The Impact of the Layers
It is necessary to look on at least three levels in communication, there is the level that has passed and its impact on the present, there is the level that we operate in now and its implications for the future; and there is the level of what is possible in many years after our deeds of today are fully done.
Our Roots
Our World
Our Future The World of The Story Teller
What will our world look like in the days that our children say goodbye to the world? How will my great grandchildren react to the faith when they are confronted with my response and have the tools to dissect its implications? Will they deal with this faith as we deal with the stories of Zeus and the Greek Gods? Will they reject it outright and force it into the outer realms of consciousness as we have dealt with the ancient Egyptian mysteries? What will give life to the faith in the days when we can no longer contribute to its essence? How can I develop practices in my own life and ministry that will “prepare God’s people for works of service” (
Eph. 4:12
[6]) and reach into the past, be involved – in a rounded manner - in the present, and have an arrowhead established firmly in the future?
How can I be a centrist with an influence at the edges? How can I affirm orthodoxy, honor history, engage positively with innovation and be balanced as I touch each of these layers? How can I be centered in power but also influential at the margins? How can I proclaim the gospel “from below”
[7] and yet proactively honor and engage with power and structures of community leadership? How can I proclaim a universal gospel without making it sectional racial or power biased? How do I preach the gospel of the cross and get the hearing of the leasers.
The Roots of My African Faith Story A Difficult Beginning
Overture I stirred a very deep current in my life. It made me go back into the roots of my faith story to seek a context driven definition of faith. What does faith mean to me today as a descendant of Africa? Context as has layers; one must necessarily start from the past.
Historicity of faith in Africa is often charged by a general sense of demonization or abandonment of roots. Books like “Things Fall Apart “by Chinua Achebe, “Kongi’s Harvest“ by the Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka; has treated this fact extensively. Those that first accepted the Christian faith were seen simply as turncoats, communal traitors, breakers of faith with the people and shameless profiteers. This perspective was not helped by the fact that evangelism by the first set of missionaries was a cultural invasion. Evangelization was an attempt to make the savages of Africa into Westerners. All values and cultural mores of Africa were evil; the gospel can only be received in the context of Roman, Constantinian, and purely Western structure. The gospel frankly was a white man’s religion, and the white man made no bones about his intention to use it as a culturally subversive tool.
Every attempt at contextualization was rebuffed. Donna Beatrix of the Kingdom of Kongo was burnt at stake as a witch
[8],
[9] William Wade Harris of Liberia
[10] could not overcome the Methodist missionaries inability to accept his contextualization of the faith. This
was in spite of the fact that he actively encouraged his followers to join the White led Church! The obvious orthodoxy of Simon
Kimbangui in Belgian Congo did not save him from thirty years in prison.
Kimbangui eschewed politics, embraced a puritan ethics, rejected the use of violence,
condemned polygamy, refused magic and witchcraft, preached against alcohol, tobacco, and dancing. His people worshiped in a manner very similar to the Baptist in America; yet the Belgian overlord viewed him with suspicion and he died in prison.
[11]
Samuel Adjai Crowther and the Niger Delta Mission has often been lionised as the light in an era of darkness. Reinvestigation of the cultural impact of that role and its lingering influence is necessary though. At what cost to the African psyche is the fact that were at the roots of the building of the present massive Nigerian Church of the Anglican Communion? What did the people have to give up to become Anglicans? What did we receive in return?
Waibinte Wariboko of University of West Indies
[12],
[13] has done extensive
research and wrote on these issues. In his book on the New
Calabar Mission which is probably
Adjai Crowther’s most significant mission,
Wariboko showed a systemic marginalization of the native African people by their own neighbors who have been indoctrinated by the Church. The Western educator actively supported and encouraged this with the help of the political and fire-power of the colony’s Maxim gun.
Evangelization was not a simple matter of accepting Jesus as your savior, it was a major struggle to convert a culture. One might argue that there were values in the culture that contradict the tenets of the Christian faith, but the question still is:does this justify wholesale
demonization of a people?
The Middle Passage and Its RoleIt is also important to point out the role of the Middle Passage and its impact on the African psyche. 500 years of continuous instability focused on supplying the West with resources to support their industrial activity cannot be wished away as having no impact on the systems and the psyches of the people affected. Subsequent colonization, the exploitation and the open domination implied in the process leaves a mark in the minds of the people. Colonization leaves a
suggestion that there is a clear lack of capacity. If there is a capacity to rule and lead, why are our leaders subjected to the foreigners? Why is the local systems of leadership marginalised and a foreign system of domination emphasized? The Middle passages and colonization created unstable communities that instinctively questioned
[14] its own values and the essence of its own relevance. People stood in the face of practical oddities of massive foreign domination and wondered what am I really worth? .
Growing Up and White PowerGrowing up in the village, we somehow knew that there was something superior that the white man has that we did not have. The thought rankled our young minds and we wondered why this should be so. We however had no words to express our confusion neither did we have a context to debate its implication; we were left in that middle land of mythical fears that cannot be proven true or untrue. One thing is sure however, everything around us seems to say white is better!
We see our Uncles who go to the white man’s school riding in cars and building mansions, we see our uncles who choose to stick with the African village life get poorer and poorer and more and more desperate. We see our aunties who choose to stick with African traditional religion stigmatised and marginalised in the society and we see our aunties who choose the “Christian” Western structure of faith honored and accepted as important.
The houses of worship for the Christian faith had hierarchies. The ones that were directly linked to Europe were Hierarchy 1 Houses of Faith, the ones that came out of those are Hierarchy 2; the ones that have no link at all with the Western originated systems are suspect and to be avoided. This was the reality as we grew up. The Aladura churches in my neighborhood were somehow suspect, their actions are to be viewed with disdain, their modes of worship… who knows what goes on inside there! This is the message that my Methodist Community passed as I grew up in South Western Nigeria. How is a young mind not to be affected by such insinuations?
The question this raises is this: How do one engage with and affirm a people whose reality continually says… “you are not good enough?” I hope this will not be misunderstood to impugn the personal excellence of individual leaders who have given and are giving alpha level services to their communities in Africa. I write however from the perspective of the man on the street, from the dynamics of a people; how do you change an internal concept of self gone wrong?
Liturgy and Change
It is interesting to note the recent exciting discussions on the liturgy of the church and the Africanization of the expressive formats in worship. Thinking back however, this is nothing new. Our people have always expressed their faith in an articulate, vibrant uniquely African format – among themselves. I remember affirming songs like:
Mo dele Onigbagbo O
O dabi Ile Oba
Ere la a je
E mo a Riku Omo o
Translation
I got to the House of the Christian
It was like the House of the King
May He Truly Prosper
May His Children live and not die
Or even the more traditionasl Ijesa one
Irin wo wo wo
Jesu ni maa sin o
Irin wo wo wo
Jesu ni maa sin o
Oba alayo ni ma a sin
Oga Ogo ni ma a sin
Translation
Let the people come in droves (to hear the good news)
I have chosen to serve Jesus
Let the people come in droves (to hear the good news)
I have chosen to serve Jesus
I will serve the King of Joy
I will serve the Lord of glory
The only challenge is this: These are community songs as opposed to sanctuary songs! The sanctuary songs are western, does not rhyme with the people’s daily rhythm. It is foreign, it is adopted... Imagine tonal African language being used to present Bach! It is possible but not natural, it is forced.
But to go back to the question, did our people see their community songs as a valid form of worship – yes and very yes. Did they feel that it is an acceptable form of sanctuary presentation? Not really! Maybe as a fad, maybe as an addendum (which is where African sounding hymns are put in the hymn books of every major denomination!) but definitely not at the core, not as a basis for complete experience of worship.
Herein lies the
dilemma, if I can’t even worship in my own context, what is “good” in that context then? This dualism represents the complex
dilemma of the faith in the African context. Whatever touches faith touches every aspect of life, so we are often stuck with an “I am not good enough” life. How then does an African adapt himself to a world that is hostile to his cultural context and belittles his cultural beliefs? How does he remain linked to his past and enagged with his present? How do we get to the point of accepting that all forms of Christianity has entailed a level of adaptation to the ethnic or regional realities and cultural obtainables? These are questions that I want answered in a Griot like manner.
Overcoming A Sense of Abandonment I posit that Africans must overcome a sense of isolation and abandonment to be able to fully recapture their essence and also contribute their quotas to the growing faith in a new World. We need to hear the Voice of God saying it is okay to be African; it is okay to be real. In our land there are gasps of grief over lost opportunities, it sometimes seems as if death stalks its corners, the massive rise of the church in attendance does not seem to have an impact on this reality; we are left to answer the question in both a missional and a theological context.
[15] It is a question that demands consideration from personal, communal, economic and political platforms. It is a question that the ascendant and those who feel repressed need to face up with for faith to be meaningful.
Feeling Lost in Lagos
I lived and ministered in Ilorin Kwara State of Nigeria from 1993 to 1998 as the Pastor of New Covenant Church. In 1999, I was invited to come to Lagos to coordinate a ministry that provides Daily Bible Study materials to the whole nation. In these years I had the privilege of seeing two sides of faith in my country. On one side is an unfairly abundant availability of resources, on the other side is a lack undescribable. What is amazing however is the disdain that both side have for their land. For both sides, what was important resides outside the shores of the nation. Whatever is local is suspect. The stronger your link to an international source, the more relevant you are supposed to be.
Located as I was in the Center of power, strongly connected to the West, activelly engaged with the local community, I was one of the privileged few, I was supposed to be happy and focused, I was supposed to be engaged with maintaining the status quo; I was rather heavily burdened and sorrowful. My daily question was how could things be as they are in a nation such as mine? How could the church so openly affirm thieving tax collectors, without their having gone through a Zacheaus-tic process?
Why is there not an outrage in the poor? Why is there rather a general clawing for the ladder to better me. Why is there such a massive disdain for anyone talking about bettering us? Why do the poor despise those who seek to be a helper? Why would they rather inflict psychological torture on those who seek their good? I observed this for many days and often, tears were my food.
I would drive down the majestic Lagos Third Mainland Bridge, supposedly the longest bridge in Africa, I will feel the sway of its structure underneath my car; I will be scared about its massive insatbility, but greater still, I will be scared by the instability of my people, a people seemingly commiting a psychological Harakiri.
It was as if the broken does not want to be fixed, the poor does not desire to be bettered, they just wanted consumption to increase. The faithful man was considered a fool, the ladder to meaningful life was been gradually removed from the feet of the poor and the poor were the one hailing the process - as long as a morsels of the crumb of the table of the rich can fall at their feet! There was a complete fixation on
NOW, few people were asking, how shall it be, in a few days time?
The Discuorse of Thinking Friends: A CommunityLonged ForAs my head swirled with these thoughts, I longed then for a community of equals, friends that we can think meaningful thoughts together. The questions posed by this paper were forged in these all night discuorse of thinking friends. I also longed deeply for study, I felt a limitation that I could not explain; I knew that I needed my horizon to be broadened. I came to the USA on a Scholrlarship to Lael College and Graduate School, I soon find out the limitation of a one faculty school. I transferred to the prestigious Washington University in St Louis - George Warren Brown School of Social Work; I studied Social Economic Development. I soon found out the refusal of the leadership to answer question. They rather posed questions on uneding list of stuff that I am already dealing with. I felt that wisdom must have answers. In the search for knowledge there is no end, in the answer of the mouth of the wise is life for his neighbours. I desired life for my neighbors.
Bakke Graduate University & Aliya
Aliya is an Hebrew word for immigration, it represent an upward ascent into promise, it is culminated in a process of absorption and oneness with the land
[16]. My journey to the Doctor of Ministry program at Bakke Graduate University is an Aliya of a sort. Will words of wisdom be spoken, will understanding be granted? Will grace be measured out by my interaction with the wise? Will I be able to get the bridge into meaning? I came to Seattle strung out, five years in the USA, none the closer to my goal, none nearer the desire to impact Africa. So I came for study, for mentoring, for vocational clarification, and for personal transformation, but I came most of all seeking a platform into meaning.
This paper is designed to be summative of the course, I am supposed to interpret, analyse and apply the course. The sum of the course will however be irrelevant to me if it does not answer my questions and interpret the stories of my life. The course need to assist me in engaging with the pains of the past and with designing steps into the future. I take the liberty to write this way for this very reason. I take the liberty further because it was emphasised in class that learning to be true must be practical and context driven, it must embrace an apprecioative inquiry and it must be based on an inquiring “medical model.”
[17]
Personal Learning Comnmunity
My context is edged around by those with whom God has caused me to run the race to date. This group defines my limits and Bakke Graduate University has chosen to empower them to be the primary readers of my paper, They are my “Personal Learning Community”. In the letter which I wrote to ask this special team, I said: “I am writing to ask you if you will serve on this "community" on my behalf. You will: i. Serve as my support and accountability structureii. Read my papers iii. provide me with regular feedback iv. Respond to BGU when they periodically request that you evaluate my progress. Serving on the plc is an invitation to Journey together; I am requesting that you please walk this road with me.”
“Everyone that I have asked to be on this community have struggled with me in thinking on issues of development of faith and ministry in the past. You are not new to playing this role in my life; it is just that this is another dimension, a structured dimension with stated and definable goals. Everyone in this community have struggled together with difficult questions, we have asked question on how our communities will be transformed by our faith, how our faith will become a leaven bringing change into a retarded systems; we have shared vision and life, for a church in the world and for a world touched by the church.
My Calling To the PastorateI have listened and I am still listening to discern a “call” for my life. I believe that a call is God given purpose, recognised by listenning to the rhythm of life and the grace that is manifest in the same. In the first day of the Overture I program, I went through a process of mapping out issues that affected my journey into my call. I joined other participants to map out the narrative of my life to date. It was a coloful chart that came out of the process, it was a line that plumbed the depths of my stories to bring out the high points and the low, low valleys.
I recalled the gift of leadership that I received by observing my community at work. I recollected the weekend meetings in the lobby of my family compound. The elders of the community comes together and make far reaching decisions and did tangible works that subsist till date. I felt a deep strength of gratitude for this empowering gift that I received as a child.
I remembered the Methodist Medical Missionaries who taught me the Scriptures. Mr. Beyer who gave me a living Bible when it newly came out and transformed my appreciation for and knowledge of the scriptures. I remembered the gifts of privilege that I received in being allowed to lead others in my youthful days, I remmembered my mistakes that I generally cannot speak about; I am too ashamed to even mention some of them. I remmembered my victories that I tend to be swollen chested about but in my swollen chestedness; I had to acknowledge, what a wretched man I am. I remembered my youthful commitment to missions, the planting of churches, the painful episodes in its management, the passionate commitment to the leadership and senseless betrayal by the very same leadership to whom we were passionatelly commited to.
A Pan African Vision
I was exposed early to the rhethorics of pan Africanism. Can this rhetorics apply in the arena of faith? What is Pan Africanism? It is a socio-political worldview that seeks to encourage and lift up both native Africans and Africans in Diaspora. Does God have a plan for lifting up Africans? I traveled in the villages and the cities of my nation, I crossed the border and see similar needs, similar contexts, same challenges. This reality advised our starting of Mission Africa International, a volunteer group of commited Christitians who desire to see Africa reached without its borders being an hindrance and nations touched without the custom posts bing a limitation. We desire to see the fire of faith burning in every village or every heath. It sounds romantic but is it really needed?
How can we articulate a salvation that touches souls and causes water to run in the village pipe? How do we articulate a salvation that gives power to the powerles and as it were thumbs its nose at the powerful? My experiences in the villages of West Africa defines for me a need for a power beyond the power of the flesh. It is also not a salvation that touches just the spirit; it is a salvation that must reach into the recesses of the soul and into the fabrics of the village. I still desire to see the same.
Coming To America
I came first to America in 1998. I was entranced by its manicured lawns and its well laid out suburbs, the inner city was well hidden from the sight of this stranger; It seems as if the billing was right, this is God’s own country. By 2002 I came to live, and gradually; I was introduced to the underbelly of America. I found out that America was in as much pain as the rest of the world. It is true that massive resources exist in this country, it is wrong however to look to America for solution. Partnership – Yes, Answer – No.
To Pastor or Not?I am faced with a massive challenge. After five years of graduate study, I came to Seattle to start a doctorate with a question lurking at the back of my mind. Should I or should I not go back to pastoring? It becomes more urgent as I search for direction and question “what next?”. I have also been asked by my church in Nigeria Redeemed Christian Church of God if I will like to plant a church on a mission field. I accepted to do so in Seattle after visiting for Overture I. One of my cohort said, “this is a big move,” my response is no, it is not just big; it is massive.
I barely know what it will be and how it will pan out but I am commited. Missional Leadership
Overture I taught us to evaluate ministry context and paradigm on the basis of six perspctives on leadership. These are 1) transformational leadership, 2) incarnational leadership, 3) reflective leadership, 4) contextual leadership, 5) calling-based leadership, and 6) global leadership. There was ageneral awareness of these leadership levels and a desitre to understand more about the historicity at its roots. There was a general feeling that leadership within the church falls far short of these ideals and that it tends to be oppressive and acquisitive in nature.
Transformational & Transactional LeadershipTransformational leader “is a steward of power” He acquires it, gives it away, uses it for God’s purposes, grows it in relationship, is not focused on pure transaction and does not hoard power or use it for selfish ends.”
[18]James McGregor Burns differentiated between “transformational” and “transactional” leadership styles, in his 1978 book, Leadership,
[19] he outlined the following. Transactional leadership focuses on an economic paradigm, it desires an exchange if you do this for me, I will do that for you. The transactional leader operates by rewarding followers for services that they have rendered to him. There is little thought of structural impact, communal change or people empowerment. It is simply a scratch my back, I itch your nose arrangement. It may involve granting a sense of sense of security to loyal followers or making information or stimulation more easily accessible. The leader is the source of power; the followers must accomplish the leaders vision. Transactional leader cannot really be touched with the feeling of the people’s infirmity. Transactional leadership may even encourage dysfunctionality and condone burn out as long as it keeps him in power. The Transactional leader hoards power and grants largesse to his followers. Transactional leaders seek attainment of goals and not a change of systems.
[20]
A Transformational leader is the opposite of this. His primary concern is for the transformation and empowerment of people around him, his context is always relationship; his goal is the redemption of the structures of the community. The concept of “giving power away” dominates transformational relationships. He creates vacuum that can only be filled by others, he is moved by love, is characterized by a desire to identify and is committed to the ordinariness of his people. These leaders do not try to make a community in their own image. They rather seek the image that God wants to create out of the active and often confused reality of the people’s daily lives.
Incarnational Leadership The doctrine of incarnation gives us the best picture of transformational leadership. God took on flesh and humbled himself to death, Philippians 2 shows the non grasping, all giving incarnational Christ. He was wounded for our transgression… the prophet proclaimed. incarnational layer of the transformational context always involve a leader who “pursues shared experience, shared plight, shared hopes, and not just shared knowledge.”
[21]Incarnational leader manifest himself as a servant leader. He is “willing to pick up a hammer, lift a spade with workers and farmers and toil with them”.”
[22]
The incaranational leader follow Christ to via dolorosa. He walks on the “way of the cross,” he wrestles with Bonhoeffer’s concept described in The Cost of Discipleship: “When Jesus calls a man, he bids him come and die.”
[23]Ministers must be self-aware. Trappings of power often alienate or misdirect the poor and the simple. The shame and alienation of marginalized people is too often exacerbated by proximity to “ministers” who are unwilling to bear the disgrace they bear—or who are oblivious to the trappings of the power they wear like invisible garments. I fully agree with Dr. John Perkins harsh words for leaders from poor communities who seek their own prosperity over identification with the most vulnerable. He stated when he addressed our class that “Biblical leadership enters the pain of the people he leads. Our people are asking how they can buy more stuff, instead of how they can empower their communities.”
[24]We must not see incarnational leadership as just another tool that we use to garner scouting awards. Incarnational leadership is more than a mere a tactic for credibility, cross-cultural understanding, or social solidarity. Our very salvation has its root in this concept, the living God died, that the power of death might be withdrawn from His creation and his death brought new life to every being that was made (Revelation 21:5). Incarnational God identified completely with humanity on the cross to win back the glory that was lost. There is no greater story to re-tell to Africa, that Christ chose to die and be shamed so that the poor can reign; that story is liberating! “The Gospels are full of lost, isolated, alienated and fragmented people: people without an awareness of the glory of being human. To such people Jesus brings his story of atonement—as we are charged to do.”
[25]Reflective Leadership“The leader realistically engages with his community and is reflective of the meaning of his environment; he serves as a catalyst of courage to others and helps them decipher the symbols and meaning of their own lives.”
[26]Reflective leadership is committed to a continuous disciplined development of their minds through a disciplined program of study. James Cone, in his analysis of the extraordinary leadership of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr., writes, “It is important to observe something in addition to their courage and integrity. They were also committed to the continued development of their minds through a disciplined program of study….’
[27] Martin Luther King exhorted his congregation to combine the toughness of the serpent and the softness of the dove, to have a tough mind and a tender heart…. He encouraged his leadership to “willingly engage in hard, solid thinking.” He said that “There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.”
[28] Malcolm X’s and Martin Luther King engaged their communities with Ideas. They found energized their communities for change with symbols in speech and action.
Prof. Kris Rocke taught Overture 1 about the power of ideas in “hard places” he called for a theology that articulates God’s relationship to the pain in the community.
[29] Incarnational leaders – he said, are bound to encounter that “the strange angel of failure.”
[30] But leaders in such situation are called to exercise what Walter Brueggemann calls “prophetic imagination.”
[31] They should critiques and subvert oppressive powers, they should envision and name an alternative reality, and they should energize the people towards a vision of hope.
Contextual Leadership
“The leader recognizes the previous work of God in other cultures and seeks to experience its unique gospel expression.”
[32]A reflective leader must understand the context to which he or she is called. The struggle to contextualize the gospel is not new; it has been going on in missions for over a century. Overture I course (lectures and reading list) however forces the issue of looking at North American Culture not just as a mission sender but also as a recipient of missions. Lesslie Newbigin,
[33] and the edited essay collection Missional Church
[34] address this issue. Lowell Bakke, Rose Madrid-Swetman, have all engaged with this process of radical re- envisioning within their own context.
Calling-Based Leadership “The leader knows that he or she is an instrument of Christ’s transforming work in and above world cultures.”
[35]Overture 1 forced a serious reconsideration of my calling. I dealt with huge emotions as to my locations and missions, I asked questions as to my direction; I am still essentially tied up in my thoughts. I still wonder how can I be called and be passionate about Africa and yet be sent to the uttermost part of America. It is an issue that I have to resolve. Michael Novak lists four characteristics of a calling, they are practical and very encouraging: 1) it is unique to an individual; 2) it requires talent, not just desire; 3) it reveals its presence by enjoyment and renewed energies; 4) it is not usually easy to discover.
[36] Global Leadership “The leader understands the complexity of today’s global, pluralistic, economic and political landscape and sees the church from the perspective of a world church rather than a nationalized, denominational, or localized church.”
Moving to America and ministering to both black and white has challenged the very core of my existence. Looking longingly across the ocean to Africa and asking how can we build a bridge of meaning makes the concept of global leadership a strong concept for me. The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century
[37] by Thomas Friedman and The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity
[38] by Philip Jenkins bring the concept of global leadership alive.
What Will the Griot Do With These Words? An Exercise in Reflective LeadershipThe six perspectives of leadership are intertwined and interrelated. I see them actually as being Kaleidoscopic in nature. It is one action model but with many layers of operability. It is like many strands of a helix, not one strand is really valid in itself but all the strands woven together form a healthy whole. One strand that seems to color the other entire strand however is reflective capacity. To go back to where I started, how can I tell our story by reflecting on our possibilities?
The Need for Missional & Reflective Leadership In Discipleship
We need to develop communities of focused participants whose relationship is missional. The participants in these community will all have a sense of being a critical part in God’s calling to the world; they must all have a sense of strong commitment to Christ’s work in the nations. Leaders must reflectively bring the works of God to light in the midst of the people. Theology must move from the dank halls of the Institute into the vibrant streets of the nations, Emmanuel must be among His people again.
We must remember that it was God who chose to reveal himself to the world. He came down and stooped low in the mud. He touched the mess and made man from the mud. He kissed a statue so that he might give life to a race of beings. How very present in the world he was when he did all these!
Theology must be envisioned as a process of discerning God’s loving presence and creative work in the world. We must go where Karl Barth urged, we must “read the Bible in one hand and the newspaper in the other,” to become the reflective leader who is an agent of transformation. We must verb-alize theology and move it from a seated helpless tome imprisoned in the head of experts, to an active and actionable work being done among ordinary people.
Reflective Leadership understands Martin Luther’s delineation of theology into two wide areas. He understands the “theology of glory,”
[39] and actively contrast it with a “theology of the cross,” he is very aware that the wholesale transplanting of suburban American Christianity may not be useful in downtown Lagos Nigeria. He understands that Triumphalism is a dangerous proposition among the needy and that when God only bring success and victory the glorious gospel becomes nothing more than glorified voodoo. He is also aware that Moralism may not work in the hood. What is counted bad behavior by one generation may actually be the acceptable norm of the next.
Reflective leadership does not equate Marketing to evangelism. Numerical growth based on attractive packaging of religion alone does not prove the effectiveness of Kingdom impact. A lot of work is not an evidence of a lot of grace, reflective leadership therefore avoids Hyper-activism, he does not neglect personal and relational wholeness in an attempt to gain communal change. Reflective leadership always tries to sidestep Heroism. He refuses to worship an individual and realizes that change always flow out of common communal effort. He also does not withdraw from the messiness of life and become Hyper-personal neither does he escape into the cloud with Apocalyptic options; his eschatology is a realized one
[40] it is firmly focused on engagement with his neighbors, he is not waiting for a final divine triumph, he seeks the reign of God now. The reflective leader is not working out of guilt or pity; he is not given to the shallowness of Sentimentalism.
This list represents pits into which I have fallen in the past, and I could list more! But thanks be to God who gave us the gift of Overture 1 and causes us to meditate on what it means to be a reflective, missional leader.
How is it that the Cross saves?
Overture 1 emphasized the practice of “theology from below.” This theology takes its symbol from the realm of powerlessness and engages with life from a non-privileged position. This is a dangerous form of leadership to practice in Africa where the people themselves, the oppressed; actually want people to lord it over them. This is an easy way out of engagement with the practical reality that the people face. We must note that the Cross of Christ, in its fullness; will always be challenged by the process of engagement with an hierarchical society that adores the “big man.” True hope and meaning will come – however - only through the door of Him who so that we can become rich became poor. (Colossians 1:27, 1:24). God’s story must be read and heard first hand by the poor and those on the edge. The essence of the gospel is good news that is preached “to the poor” (Luke 4:18; 2:10).
To view Christian leadership from the historical position of power and privilege is to misunderstand its intent at the root. We must recapture what it means to lead God’s people. Could Paul have spoken of “power of the cross for salvation” if he is aware that in a short number of days; the term will become an oxymoron? Paul’s view of the cross does not promote “power over.” It is rather a “stone of stumbling,” it is a source of skandalon- scandal! (1 Corinthians 1:23). For Paul, the cross is “foolishness,” “shame,” “weakness,” “lowly,” and “despised,” there is nothing in the cross that we should admire for temporal power and privilege. But in this fact is the mystery of the gospel - the grace of salvation to the rejected of the earth (Isaiah 53:3).
The reflective bearer of the cross is not just called to proclaim, he is called to listen. Christ himself proclaimed that his prophetic call is rooted a a mandate to listen (Ps. 40:6; John 5:30). He then turned around and demanded that we have “ear to ear” (Luke 8:8). Often, the silence of the proclaimer and his capacity at the skill of listening defines a clearer reception of the message than the words of the messenger. The silence of the messenger may be necessary for the messenger to find where he has lost his way in the midst of his message. This is why St. Francis of Assisi said “preach the gospel, if necessary; use words.”
How is it that the messenger must listen for the good news among his receiver? The messenger might be almost like a spy who has one agenda, to find and enforce adherence to the Lordship of his King. Could it be that core to the mission of the servant is to find those who will receive grace even before they fully understand the message? This was the case in Orthodox Alaska.
God is present in the midst of His people in a proto evangelistic format, long before the coming of any human messenger, human messengers must learn to listen for God; we must look for Him. Often we are not called so much to bring the good news but to sit with God’s people and huddle around their wagons and hear their stories of God’s exploit in their midst. We should allow them to speak about His mercies on their journey. How true then, is the Apostle’s declaration, “the word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart” (Romans 10:8).
How apposite it is to think of the power of the cross as defined and enshrined! True, vicarious powerlessness is such a glorious thought, it is such a mystery; we need to rediscover it again. True transformation resides in this domain of vicarious powerlessness. It is a domain clearly set apart from the powerlessness of the poor. The powerlessness of the poor is an imposed powerlessness, oppressive forces in their community demand that they align with pain.
The powerlessness of the messenger however is different than this. The messenger chooses to submit; he chooses to lay down his life for his cause. David Bosch distinguish between these two forms of lowliness, one he called ‘negative lowliness’ and the latter ‘positive lowliness’… the poor need to shift from the ‘negative lowliness’ of their poverty to the ‘positive lowliness’ characteristic of the kingdom of God.
[41] The implication of this discuss is massive, it leads directly to the investigation of two closely twined concept: i. the shalom of the city and ii. Christ who is Caesar.
Practices in Context
My friend and mate in the overture cohort, Scott Dewey; wrote this thought. He shared it with me and gave me the permission to share it. It is so insightful that I choose not to modify it. Here goes Scott:
“I offer here an initial rough sketch of some theological perspectives and spiritual formation practices I have observed to hold promise for nurturing and energizing missional discipleship communities. In an almost experimental fashion I have begun to list these in a grid:
Nurture
Energize
Theological Reflection
Listening as a theological method
“Reading the Bible with the damned”
[42]Narrative theology, including salvation history and church tradition
Incarnational, sacramental theology
Theology of the cross
Listening as evangelism
Contextual analysis—exegeting (interpreting) our world
Imagination—seeing with eyes of faith how God is “making all things new”
Action-reflection-action cycle in dialogue with others
Preaching, storytelling, testifying
Education, teaching, scholarship
Spiritual Formation
Listening prayer, silence
Lament as worship
Storytelling
Lectio divina, scripture memory, corporate Bible study, and other practices of meditation on scripture
Spiritual autobiography, identifying gifts, calling
Confession of sin, healing of shame
Conflict resolution
Prayer for the sick and distressed
Discernment, direction
Sabbath keeping
Rest, recreation
Artistic expression and exploration
Listening as a gift to community
Praising God
Sharing meals, hospitality
Celebration in community
Embracing strangers and outcasts
Reconciliation along walls of division such as race, gender, class, generation, sect
Rites of passage
Sacraments of the church
Mentoring, spiritual direction, accountability in community
Pilgrimages
Service, mercy, advocacy
Civic engagement, political action, community development
Peacemaking, reconciliation
Creating beauty; artistic expression
Vocational excellence
Physical and psychological wellness
With such a variety of life-giving activities worth fostering within a community by the reflective leader, it is helpful to begin to give them some shape and form in lines and columns. Much more can be done with this list—items added, arranged in other spaces on the grid, expanded, overlapped, and regrouped under simplified headings. I hope further study and apprenticeship with others will sharpen my understanding of how to practice and lead in the above ways. I want to seek informal mentoring and even formal training for several of these practices that best fit my own gifts. They are worth great investment for the sake of my missional communities and the people we serve.”
Giving Shape to the Communality
The Goal of an Omo OduduwaTo end this paper, I will go back where where I started, by going back into the stories of my people. I am a Yoruba, from South Western Nigeria in Africa. We are called the children of Oduduwa. Oduduwa is a person and an Oracle, literaly translated his name means the oracle that pursues wisdom and or celeberate the perfect life. It is not pursuit of a perfect life as in a sinless context, but a perfection located in real time engagement, a perfection arising out of faultiness, a perfection learned over time in interaction with the living community. This kind of perfection is is called Iwa hence Oduduwa or Odu - ti - O - du - Iwa.
Thinking about this, I am intrigued by the proto evangelistic nature of a person who is an oracle (logos?). Has God located a desire to search for Him at the root of Yoruban national context? Are we called – as a people - to be to be God’s special team? Is this call to celebrate the perfect life I seek a living community in Africa.
The Yorubas were seekers after wisdom. Yoruba wisdom is not rooted in the absence of folly, it is enshrined rather in the awareness of capacity to err. Yorubas love industry but will go out on a limb to protect a weak family member. Could they be saying that productivity is not to be defined by the number of coins one may have the capacity to klink? These historical realities of my people (and Yorubas love history!) may be useful in shaping the future, that which has happened in the past may be deployed to influence the present.
Communal Wealth?
In my society, servant leadership may not be easily discerned by an outward observer, a careful look however shows a commitment to that process. No better illustration can be found than in the way wealth is handled. Yoruba desire is for Olà (Non Material Wealth defined by intangibles, true riches that go beyond material possession) and not for Owó (money) or for Olá (material wealth). For the Yorubas, access to Olá (material wealth). is not a proof of Olà (Non Material Wealth defined by intangibles, true riches that go beyond material possession), every one of our fathers aimed for Olà. The mystery of wealth defined by intangibles Olà is this, no man gets Olà by power, Olà is possible only by communal acclaim!.
Bringing Change by the Gospel
Thinking further about wealth of the society and faith of the people, Africa's drive towards modernization has been checkered. The noticeable absence of human, financial and working capital in our cities makes life difficult. Africa’s massive resource base remain largely un-deployed, un-developed and often times un-exploitable. It often serves little or no purpose for the people who live close to the land, Africa’s children are exposed to all the negative realities of earth – more exposed than children in any other continent of the world. A true missional community cannot ignore this reality.
New Affrimative Action
Overture 1 can be summed up as clarion call to battle. I am convinced anew that we must define a theology that fight hopelessness among the young people in Africa. We must make commitments to the rural people and we must bring hope to the young; we must refocus the land to inquire about its Internal capacities. What do we have that can contribute to the productive economy of the globe. We must refuse to be the helplessly powerless, we must commit to a process of empowerment through the glorious gospel.
Living Community Systems
Engaegement with faith in Africa requires a Living Community Systems. This system focuses on an integrated existence. This existence will be internally productive and also posses an effective capacity to access external platforms. Internal space must be understood as layered, spirituality must engage with its subliminality, real needs of the people must come to the fore. Living systems understands that the whole body is built by that which every joint supplies ( Ephesian 4:16). It utilises all the gifts of God to develop and facilitate effective local engagement and meaningful multilevel, translocal productivity.
The economic concept of comparative advantage can be a spiritual metaphor. This concept says that every community has something that it can do better than other communities around it. Every Living Community Systems, it must determine what its comparative advantage is. A strong sustainable theological foundation is necessary, sustainability of theology is always in the context of its missionality. Any system that does not address missionality will witness attrition. People will exit any systems that does not address their basic heart felt needs.
Bibliography
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Bonhoeffer, Dietrich. A Testament to Freedom: The Essential Writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Edited by Geffrey B. Kelly and F. Burton Nelson. New York: HarperCollins, 1990.
Bosch, David J. Transforming Mission. Maryknoll NY: Orbis, 1991.
Brueggemann, Walter. The Prophetic Imagination. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2001.
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Christian, Jayakumar. God of the Empty-Handed: Poverty, Power and the Kingdom of God. Monrovia, CA: MARC, 1999.
Cockburn, Bruce. “Broken Wheel,” Inner City Front. Golden Mountain Music Corporation, 1981. CD.
Cone, James E. Malcolm and Martin in America. Maryknoll NY: Orbis Books, 1991.
A Dictionary of Asian Christianity. Edited by Scott Sunquist. Grand Rapids MI: Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2001.
Ekblad, Bob. Reading the Bible With the Damned. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2005.
Friedman, Thomas L. The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005.
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[1] I will write this academic paper from my context and use first and second person pronoun This is in keeping with the BGU policy of writing to a Community of Learners and not just to my professor.
[2] Kirk Longpré, An exploration of the potential of music and narrative song as an instrument for learning, with a focus on distance education. (MASTER OF DISTANCE EDUCATION
Athabasca University, 2004) http://hdl.handle.net/2149/546
[4] Unless otherwise noted, all scripture references are from the Holy Bible, New International Version (International Bible Society, used by permission of Zondervan, 1973).
[5] Ibid
[6] Unless otherwise noted, all scripture references are from the Holy Bible, New International Version (International Bible Society, used by permission of Zondervan, 1973).
[7] “Theology from below” is a term coined by Prof. Kris Rocke of Bakke Graduate University and the Center for Transforming Mission.
[8] John Thorton, The Kongolese Saint Anthony: Dona Beatriz Kimpa Vita and the Antonian Movement (Cambridge University Press, 1998)
[9] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Kongo#Dona_Beatriz
[10] Elizabeth Isichei, A History of Christianity in Africa from Antiquity to the Present. (London: SPCK, 1995) 284-86
[11] Simon Kimbangu & Kimbanguism, retrived from http://www.bethel.edu/~letnie/AfricanChristianity/SSAKimbangu.html on June 27, 2007
[12] Wariboko, Waibinte E.. Planting church-culture in New Calabar: Some neglected aspects of the missionary enterprise in the Eastern Niger delta, 1865-1918
[13] Wariboko, Waibinte E.. Ruined by Race : Afro-Caribbean Missionaries and the Evangelization of Southern Nigeria, 1895-1925
[14] Ibid
[15] A theological answer seeks to understand our God from the platform of what is going on in the human community and in the context of the gifts of our faith tradition on the other (including Holy Scripture), a missional answer considers God’s transforming presence in the world, and our active participation in that transformation.
[16] Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs Aliya and Absorption retrieved from the internet at http://www.israel.org/MFA/History/Modern%20History/Centenary%20of%20Zionism/Aliya%20and%20Absorption on June 27, 2007.
[17] Dr. Ray Bakke defined the “medical model” paradigm for the DMin degree. We are to be like medical interns are trained in situ and faced with the blood, the grime and the broken bones, the BGU program shall not be restricted by library and lecture hall and Seminar Platforms. We shall rather use the living systems of our world as our laboratory. (Lecture, Bakke Graduate University, Seattle, WA, January 8, 2007.)
[18] Overture I course syllabus, Bakke Graduate University, Janauary 2007.
[19] Overture I course lecture, Bakke Graduate University, January 8, 2007.
[20] Overture I course lecture, Bakke Graduate University, January 10, 2007.
[21] Overture I course syllabus, Bakke Graduate University, January 2007.
[22] Song Choan-Seng, quoted by Chen Nan Jou in A Dictionary of Asian Christianity, ed. Scott Sunquist (Grand Rapids MI: Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2001), 787.
[23] Bonhoeffer, A Testament to Freedom: The Essential Writings of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, ed. Geffrey B. Kelly and F. Burton Nelson (New York: HarperCollins, 1990), 306.
[24] Overture I course lecture, Bakke Graduate University, January 10, 2007.
[25] Alan Mann, Atonement for a "Sinless" Society (Bletchley, UK: Paternoster Press, 2005), 117.
[26] Overture I course syllabus, Bakke Graduate University, 2007.
[27] James E. Cone, Malcolm and Martin in America (Maryknoll NY: Orbis Books, 1991), 297-298.
[28] A Testament of Hope, ed. James M. Washington (New York: HarperCollins, 1986), 492.
[29] Overture I course lecture, 17 January 2007.
[30] A term Rocke borrows from writer Anne Lemott.
[31] Walter Brueggemann, The Prophetic Imagination (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001).
[32] Overture I course syllabus, Bakke Graduate University, 2007.
[33] Lesslie Newbigin, The Gospel in a Pluralist Society (Grand Rapids MI: Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1989).
[34] Lois Barrett et al., Missional Church, ed. Darrell L. Guder (Grand Rapids MI: Wm B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1998).
[35] Overture I course syllabus, Bakke Graduate University, January 2007.
[36] Michael Novak, Business as a Calling: Work and the Examined Life (New York: The Free Press, 1996), 34-35.
[37] Thomas L. Friedman, The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005).
[38] Philip Jenkins, The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002).
[39] Martin Luther: Selections from His Writings, ed. John Dillenberger (New York: Anchor Books, 1961), 503.
[40] “Realized eschatology” a term popularized by C.H. Dodd, holds that biblical promises have already been completely fulfilled in the life and work of Jesus. I hold to the view that such promises are a present reality in the reign (kingdom) of God announced and embodied by Jesus; however they will only be fully and universally realized in the future.
[41] Jayakumar Christian, God of the Empty-Handed: Poverty, Power and the Kingdom of God (Monrovia, CA: MARC, 1999), 199.
[42] A phrase coined by Bob Ekblad, from his experience conducting Bible studies in the Skagit County (WA) Jail, in which he learned to read scripture through the eyes of people “damned” by the dominant culture. See Reading the Bible With the Damned (Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2005). For another important approach to reading the Bible from the margins of society, see Phyllis Trible, Texts of Terror: Literary-Feminist Readings of Biblical Narratives (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984).
