Both authors, Dr. Bosh and Dr. Lingenfelter made a significant contribution to our understanding of global missiology and leadership aspects in the area or cross-cultural ministry. Both of them represent Christian thinkers and practitioners who went above and beyond to be on the front line of global missions, and wrestled with the tensions between Biblical, Western and non-Western worldviews. Dr. Bosh was born in South Africa and served as a missionary as well as high capacity leader in various Christian missional and educational institutions on the African continent. His academic work included six books and more than 150 articles, surveying paradigms of biblical missions in the historical and emerging contexts (Yates 2009, 72). Dr. Lingenfelter
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The purpose of the Leading Cross-Culturally book is to uncover the issues of cultural biases and illustrate possibilities of overcoming these obstacles in ministry partnerships. The Spirituality of the Road book, on the other hand, discusses how the true spirituality and Christ-like leadership can be exercised in global mission context by emphasizing active discipleship lived in the real world.
In his book Dr. Lingenfelter points out that “leading is simply a very difficult and challenging task” (Lingenfelter 2008, 22). Leaders, especially in cross-cultural environment, have to overcome some significant challenges, and there are several reasons why these challenges can generate conflicts and failures. One of the most destructive traps for leaders is arrogance, because position of authority can …show more content…
The cultural differences between American and Eastern European worlds are weighty enough to generate critical impact on the cross-cultural work. My fellow Ukrainian leaders still have to deal with the “hawker’s mentality” of some Western Christians visiting local churches there. This is why I see the importance of having open dialogs between Western and indigenous leaders concerning cultural differences and missional attitudes. Moreover, I found valuable applications regarding my own leadership evaluation and attitudes. Reading the Leading Cross-Culturally book helped me to recognize that I have a tendency to emphasize achieving goals and following a particular church planting model over the building a relational community and trust among partners. Indeed, building trust within a relational and covenant community should be of the highest priority. I found our Ukraine partnership and myself right in the first pages of the Dr. Lingenfelter book, in the Church Planting and the Internet Café case study. I plan to survey the principals of cross-cultural leading from his book with my fellow partners, and work on re-arranging our missional approach. I could not agree more with authors regarding relevance of integral spirituality, Christ-likeness, and prioritizing
The purpose of the Leading Cross-Culturally book is to uncover the issues of cultural biases and illustrate possibilities of overcoming these obstacles in ministry partnerships. The Spirituality of the Road book, on the other hand, discusses how the true spirituality and Christ-like leadership can be exercised in global mission context by emphasizing active discipleship lived in the real world.
In his book Dr. Lingenfelter points out that “leading is simply a very difficult and challenging task” (Lingenfelter 2008, 22). Leaders, especially in cross-cultural environment, have to overcome some significant challenges, and there are several reasons why these challenges can generate conflicts and failures. One of the most destructive traps for leaders is arrogance, because position of authority can …show more content…
The cultural differences between American and Eastern European worlds are weighty enough to generate critical impact on the cross-cultural work. My fellow Ukrainian leaders still have to deal with the “hawker’s mentality” of some Western Christians visiting local churches there. This is why I see the importance of having open dialogs between Western and indigenous leaders concerning cultural differences and missional attitudes. Moreover, I found valuable applications regarding my own leadership evaluation and attitudes. Reading the Leading Cross-Culturally book helped me to recognize that I have a tendency to emphasize achieving goals and following a particular church planting model over the building a relational community and trust among partners. Indeed, building trust within a relational and covenant community should be of the highest priority. I found our Ukraine partnership and myself right in the first pages of the Dr. Lingenfelter book, in the Church Planting and the Internet Café case study. I plan to survey the principals of cross-cultural leading from his book with my fellow partners, and work on re-arranging our missional approach. I could not agree more with authors regarding relevance of integral spirituality, Christ-likeness, and prioritizing