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Panel discussions and afternoon workshop sessions at the Intercultural Leadership Consultation focused on five areas: leadership development, evangelism and church planting, youth and next generation, social ministry, and diaspora missions in homelands and beyond. These topics were first identified in 2002 at the earlier Multicultural Leadership Consultation in Boston as mutual areas of interest across the diversity of churches. In the months prior to this year’s Consultation, planning teams convened discussions with community leaders to identify key issues in each of these five topic areas and plan the presentations and workshops. This process enabled many voices to provide input into the both the themes and structures of the day.

William Jamara, guest writer for Inside EGC, was able to attend three of the panels as well as a fourth follow-up discussion, and prepared this report.

LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT

The leadership development panel featured five key Christian leaders, who offered their perspectives on challenges faced by people in leadership. Each panel member had selected one person they were mentoring whom they recognized as a future leader. When introduced, the individuals joined his or her mentor at the panel table.

Bishop Gilbert Thompson, senior pastor of Jubilee Christian Church International in Boston, spoke about the importance of mentoring future leaders, the need for leaders to take risks, and the importance of having a support team around you. “Most of the struggles that leaders have, come from within themselves,” said Bishop Thompson. Encouragement, therefore, was a necessary element in mentoring an effective leader.He said he learned one primary rule of leading: don’t go it alone. “That was my position for so long,” he said.

Thompson grew up in a home that worked to shelter him rather than allow him to take risks. Yet as he grew, he saw that he had potential to lead. Through his many experiences, he learned about successfully leading and taking risks. However, the criticism that came with leading took him time to accept. “I wanted to have the fruits of leadership without paying for it,” he said.

Rev. Dr. Jossie Owens, New England District Superintendent of the Church of the Nazarene, emphasized the need for leaders to hold onto their calling, even when others criticize them. Leaders cannot bend under this criticism, said Rev. Owens. One must hold on to a calling given by God despite the opinions of others. “Do not allow anyone or anything to put you in a box when he has called you,” she said.

Leadership also requires service, said Rev. Dr. Elijah Kim, director of the Vitality Project at EGC. “In order to be a good leader I must be a good follower of Christ,” he said. Sometimes serving includes simple acts of kindness such as lending a cell phone or polishing someone’s shoes. “Just serving is the best way to be a leader,” he said.

Rev. Dick Germaine of Barnabas Ministries echoed this sentiment. “More is caught than taught,” he said. This requires patience in many areas including going through the process of receiving an education. He said that Jesus waited 30 years before beginning his ministry and he did more in three years than anyone ever did.

For pastors specifically, maintaining the balance between scholarship and ministry stood out to Rev. Dr. Roberto Miranda, senior pastor at Congregación Leon de Judá. He said the apparent dichotomy between scholarship and ministry is, in reality, two sides to the same coin. “I enjoy reading, above all, Scripture, but I also enjoy getting involved in ministry,” he said.

EVANGELISM AND CHURCH PLANTING

As a classically trained circus acrobat, Rabbi Henry Morse has walked on stilts and juggled to draw a crowd. Then he and volunteers from Sha’ar Hashamayim Messianic Fellowship would distribute free Frisbees with the text of Isaiah 53 printed on them. “For the first time in their lives they are reading the Isaiah 53 passage,” he said. He said he takes the principle of using creativity in evangelism from Jesus, who taught through parables.

The important question to ask is how one can bring the church to unbelievers, said Morse. He was able to gain the trust of one Jewish family by finding ways to reach out to them. Although he was not their rabbi, he performed their funerals and other ceremonies. After two years, a member of that family asked him why he became messianic. “What an investment,” Morse said.

Similarly, the music ministry at Igreja Batista Internacional de Fall River went to their local Stop & Shop to perform while their patrons shopped. When people asked them why they were there, the music ministry replied that they love Jesus. Yet Rev. Ismail Pereira said getting many Christians to reach out is difficult. “I think they are addicted to church,” he said. “They want to stay in church and wait for the fruit to come.”

Often this duty falls to the pastor alone, said Rev. David Hernandez of Defenders of the Christian Faith Church. “Every member can be part of that discipling.”

Genuine Christianity requires action, said Rev. Khaled Ghobrial of the Arabic Evangelical Baptist Church. “If you are a leader in your church,… please get involved. Don’t make a committee,” he said, which was responded to with enthusiastic applause.

DIASPORA MISSION IN HOMELANDS AND BEYOND

In order for Ms. Dalisna Noel, a diaspora missionary to Haiti, to reach her hometown, she takes three planes, then a car, then a horse, then walks ten to twelve hours climbing up and down mountains.

Ms. Noel was one of six members to discuss diaspora missions, or missionary work done by those who leave their homeland voluntarily or involuntarily. Each of spoke about the individual ways in which they conduct their missionary work.

Currently she is working with others to build a school in Haiti. Her challenges include funding, especially paying people to carry the cement up the mountain. “We are in need of a lot of help,” she said.

Rev. Dr. Regina Pinto-Moura does diaspora missionary work in Brazil. She said she chose to do missions ministry in her home country because it was “her prophetic responsibility.” She said that similar to Moses, she left her land but came back. “I did not forget the suffering, the pain I had left,” she said. “So I do have the privilege not only of ministering in Brazil, but I hope in Latin America.”

Her ministry started as simple mission trips to Brazil to provide health items, food and spiritual support to the poor. Since then it has grown to an economic development program called Kingdom Seed that helps empower the poor through training.

Mr. Phil Snell, vice president of World Ishmaelite Outreach Ministries, takes a different approach because he ministers within the 10/40 Window. He cannot reveal which country he serves. “If you are found preaching to them or giving a Bible you will end up in jail,” he said. Because of the nature of his missionary work, it is difficult to bring awareness to it. In America, a missionary has to be visible with reports, but given the nature of his work it is difficult, he said. While his ministry does not have websites or color brochures, it is still an effective ministry. “People who are Ishmaelites, people of the Muslim faith, are coming to know Christ,” he said.

SOCIAL MINISTRY

AIDS in Africa, elders in the community, and the subprime mortgage were all issues raised in just the opening prayer in the second session on Social Ministry. Then, with a brief introduction of the panel speakers, the session dove directly into a list of questions brought up in their earlier panel discussion.

Many of the issues related to barriers churches face in social ministry. Divided perspectives are one of these problems, said Ms. Patricia Sobalvarro, director of Agencia ALPHA. She said the solution is for people to step outside and talk with others about their perspectives. “I think it would work toward healing the fractured body of Christ,” she said.

Many questions were also raised about why more churches are not involved in social action ministries. One audience member asked if there were theological misunderstandings that cause Christians to be self-satisfied. “We think that we’ve got it,” said Rev. Torli Krua, President of Universal Human Rights International. “We don’t grapple with things.”

Another barrier to service that the panel addressed was the material cost. “Social work equals poverty just like the people you serve,” Krua said in an interview after the panel. Insufficient funds are a frequent problem, he said, but Jesus said to lay up treasures in heaven with the long run in mind. “At the end of the day we are all going to succumb to death,” Rev. Krua said. He compared life to a lead pencil that gets shorter the more it is used, but the message on which it was spent will continue communicating to others after the pencil is gone.

Questions were also raised about how Christians who work in other fields can serve. Mr. Mako Nagasawa, Partner in the Gathering Christian Fellowship, said that in a meeting at the computer company where he used to work, an employee stood up and asked if they were still responsible for the ways in which their computer chips were used, especially in weapons. “The place that you’re in is the place where you are going to have influence,” Nagasawa said.

by William Jamara, Guest Writer

[published in Inside EGC, January-February, 2008]