A legend of our mission community, Roger Kemp, shares about why we should be involved in the training and development of local, passionate missional leaders.

In my 48 years of involvement in theological education, I have always believed that every group of believers deserves someone who can teach and preach the Bible to them. Unfortunately, that is far from reality. Across the world there are thousands of groups who have no-one to help them understand what God is saying to them from scripture. Or, if they do have someone, that person more than likely has had no formal training. It is no wonder that many believers lose their way or get caught up in heretical ideas.

For those of us who are involved in mission, here are seven reasons why I think we need to practice using (and training) local leadership:

1. Local leaders know their own people. Each group of believers faces challenges that are related to their community. Leaders who are local, live and work amongst the people, so they know what is facing them. They communicate at a heart level using their language. In other words, such leaders identify with the people and so establish a platform from which they are respected and listened to. The responses to the challenges will come from within rather than imposed from outside, and as such will be much more effective.

2. Communication is more effective. For communication of an idea to take place, a person must send a message using a form. A form can be either a word, sign or action. Finding the right form is important. Otherwise, the message is misunderstood, and the original meaning is lost. Forms are culturally determined, so a form in one culture can give the opposite meaning in another culture. It stands to reason then, that the person most likely to find the appropriate form for meaningful communication in a particular culture, is one from that culture.

3. It is biblical and good mission practice. As we read the book of Acts and the Epistles, we see a principle being played out – via the use of local leaders. For example, Paul planted a number of churches in his journeys, and he left local leaders in charge once he left (Acts 14:23). There are several examples of Paul using locals as leaders: Timothy (Acts 16:3-5), Apollos (Acts 18: 24-28). We do well to follow these examples in mission work today.

4. It prevents a ‘colonial’ attitude. If we learn anything from mission history, it is that we must resist any thought or practice of colonialism – which can occur sometimes without even realising it. There is always the temptation to adopt the ‘tell them what they need to know and how to do it’ attitude. It is human nature. In my experience, this is something we have to actively work against. The natural position is to see things from our own perspective. It takes deliberate attention to work against that.

5. It emphasises the true nature of the body of Christ. If we practice what is mentioned in #1 above, then we know that each culture has its own way of expressing the truths of our faith. As such there are thousands of groups – all with the same basic set of beliefs, albeit with different expressions – that can share with one another as the one body of Christ. This is one of the unique aspects of our faith. Without even understanding each other’s culture, two people or groups of people, can have immediate unity and fellowship, because they believe in the same God and Jesus as Saviour. This sense of unity becomes an encouragement for every group, and motivation to enrich such fellowship by regular contact.

6. It helps us understand ourselves better. It is commonly accepted that we come to know our own culture better by interacting with another culture. Otherwise, we can become narrow in our vision and see things only from our point of view. We are unaware of our shortcomings or even our strengths. Our understanding of our ourselves, our worldview and our culture is enhanced when we engage with others from different backgrounds. As those involved in mission we do ourselves a favour by helping to equip local leaders.

7. It provides regular teaching and preaching to believers. If all groups of believers depended on leaders from outside their community, the vast majority would remain ignorant of God’s word. There are just not enough such leaders to meet the demand of churches that are being planted around the world. It is estimated that in 2022 there were over 7 million churches planted worldwide! Finding leaders for each of those new churches is impossible without training local believers.

Want to invest in local leaders? Give to support the leadership development of local believers in Zambia and Zimbabwe here >>