Page 4 - Principles of Leadership - Nehemiah

Every time I leave my Western culture and travel outside of it, I do so to understand cross-cultural leadership
better. Please note that I will address leadership from this perspective from the beginning of this study.
Leadership challenges vary from culture to culture. For example, the first time I taught in Africa, I did not realize
that America is no longer the center of gravity in world Christianity. According to many missiologists, “The
center is shifting south and east. Latin America, Africa, and Asia churches are experiencing phenomenal growth
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and are becoming the great sending churches.” Missiologists are calling this phenomenon “The Global South.”
For example, it was estimated that Africa had 10 million Christians in 1900. That number had grown to 360
million by 2000. “The number of African Christians is growing at around 2.36 percent annually, which would
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lead us to project a doubling of the continent’s Christian population in less than thirty years.”

Another missiologist uses similar statistics and explains God’s hand of blessings this way. “The continent of
Africa in 1910 was 9.4 percent Christian, with an estimated 11.7 million people identifying themselves as
Christian. By 2010, the estimate was that the continent was now 48 percent Christian, with 495 million Christian
believers. By 2025, some estimate that Africa will be home to 1.031 billion Believers.” This author points out
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the great disconnect most Americans suffer in the following comments. “Most of us North Americans live on an
island of affluence in the sea of poverty. We fail to realize this because we think that everyone else around us is
more affluent. So, we often think of ourselves as “poor,” failing to remember our relative position in this
globalized world.”
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“Many missiologists believe that the greatest impact on the church during the twenty-first century will come
from Africa and the African. If God allows the Africans to impact the church to that extent, he must value them
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highly.” God is at work in the global south, and there can be no denying that His hand of blessing is upon these
continents since the overthrow of colonialism! “We need to become global Christians with a global vision, for
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we have a global God.” As I look at Africa through the lenses of postcolonialism, I see massive changes and
enormous needs. There is no doubt that the overthrow of colonialism needed to take place! But this event has
left many countries with many walls in shambles. Mission theology was guided for many years by the “three
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selves” of the church: Self-supporting, self-propagating, and self-governing.” Many missiologists are looking
back and asking themselves some tough questions. They are asking the question about the issue of self-
governing, if it was ever truly allowed, because the colonialists always controlled the money. Charles Van Engen
says that “missiology today exhibits another kind of 'self': they tend to be self-centered and selfish.” All the
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aftereffects of a post-colonial ear missiologist are “split over word and deed, speaking and doing, verbal
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proclamation and social transformation.” Many are realizing that there has to be a balance between both if
the walls of the Christian message are to flourish in a post-colonial Africa. However, “A cohesive, consistent,
focused, theologically deep, missiologically broad, and contextually appropriate Evangelical missiology has not
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yet emerged for this new century.”

Again, this questioning of missional theology, which guided missiology for years, is not just coming from one or
two authors but is widespread. Another academic book says, “Christians should rightly question what the idea
of 'self' means in each of the three selves.” How much is the idea unconsciously framed by Western
individualism rather than by the more Biblical perspective of Christ-centered interdependence?” Therefore, as
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we begin this study on the leadership secrets of Nehemiah, I believe that our Lord wants to develop many
African spiritual leaders to lead a movement that will transform nations. There is enough truth to be found in
this book to do this! Truths do transform lives, which transform nations, which transform continents. But
remember that not all leadership principles are universal, and therefore, you will need to beg God to discern
the principles that will work in your context. My prayer is that those of you who read this book will be the ones
to take up the leadership challenge to be another Nehemiah.

Let me add one more concern I have as we explore the leadership principles of Nehemiah. This concern comes
from my readings in Philosophical Foundations for A Christian Worldview and Making Disciples in Africa. The
Authors of Philosophical Foundations begin their work by telling a story of Charles Malik addressing Wheaton

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