BY: Isaias Catorce, National Director
Two leadership conferences, one in Manila and one in Davao City, were a great step forward in preparing pastors and church leaders to accelerate the spread of the Gospel. A visiting team from the USA, partnering with the AFCI Philippines team, worked together to the benefit of the church leaders.
SERVANT LEADERSHIP
Hayward Paul, from the USA, dealt on the models of servant leadership patterned after Christ, Nehemiah, and Moses. Hayward’s last session on finishing well drew pastors to the front rededicating and recommitting their lives to God for His missions. The act of recommitment propounded by Hayward reinforced and applied the series of devotional messages of Bishop Reniel Nebab - the President of the Christian And Missionary Alliance Churches of the Philippines, on the topic: God, as the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
UNDERSTANDING EACH OTHER
Chip Upjohn, a successful businessman and a church leader, engineered the scientific understanding of human behavior through profiling. The DISC profile, Spiritual Gifts Inventory, and Leadership Style, are instruments that were used. Chip believes that key to the keeping of unity in the body of Christ and the engaging of power of God’s people in the ministry is to understand people’s profile. Our task is more of understanding, adapting and dealing with people rather than ourselves.
Many pastors came up to Chip and expressed their appreciation as to how the materials were presented. One pastor who planted about 40 churches publicly testified that what he learned from Chip confirmed his past approaches though unfamiliar of the terms used. Now, that same pastor is pastoring a city church in Pangasinan, planting 4 new churches, and is eager to apply what he just learned.
Another pastor who has the largest congregation in Davao city, authored the book “From Nectar to Honey,” shared publicly his excitement and desired to integrate the profiling system which he needed most in his data base. Most of the pastors came to me and remarked, “Why only now.” I responded: it’s never too late. Another pastor with the largest Alliance congregation in Cebu City publicly testified of his struggles in completing his plan along with his board for 6 years; but now he is confident and ready to present something to finish their plan.
INTENTIONAL LEADERSHIP
I provided the Philosophical foundations on the Intentional Approach to Urban Church Leadership based on our Theme: “Leading in a Changing World with the Unchanging Message” given a Post-modern context. I also discussed the rationale that our seminar is from the perspective of the pew rather than from the pulpit; thus the reason for inviting Lay facilitators. There was an overwhelming affirmation from the participants. I then offered innovations in Urban Church Leadership by assessing the external and internal environment; applying the principles of critical contextualization and evolutionary change; working towards TEAM principles; and strategic planning in line with the denomination’s distinctive. The workshop is Intentional (against hit and run type of seminar) in the sense that monitoring system is put in place.
BIBLE STUDY SKILLS DEVELOPMENT FOR WOMEN
Barbara Paul and Judy Upjohn also enjoyed their inductive Bible Study course with the women. Most of their students are graduates of Bible Schools. Are there some cultural shocks? It’s given, I believe, since our country is multi-cultural, multi-lingual, and multi-religious. However, a thorough learning on the book of Esther has modeled the painful yet careful process of studying the Word of God. The challenge posed to the women is to produce Bible Study leaders in their Women’s group who can be self-starters and less dependent on their pastors. There is no better way to train independent Bible study leaders than through the rigors of inductive method.
