GoForth Exclusive: Where are the Leaders?

Thursday, Jul. 17, 2008 Posted: 1:08:05AM HKT

The Rev. Malcolm Tan speaking on Leadership Development in Asian missions. (Photo: Christian Post Singapore)

What is the place of leadership succession in the church? How can leadership succession be implemented in an Asian context? What are the characteristics of true leadership?

These and more questions, of clear importance to the Singapore Church, were answered during Leadership Development in Asian missions, one of eleven full-day specialist seminars delivered by the Rev. Malcolm Tan, who is Pastor-in-charge of the Barker Road Methodist Church, and who has served as a Methodist minister for 25 years, and as a training coordinator with the Methodist Missions Society.

“I believe God created every human being with a calling and with authority… just that we take turns,” said Rev. Tan. “We are all called to be a leader. You are all leaders. If you never had confidence in being a leader, you need inner healing. You need to accept responsibility and with that comes leadership.”

He was emphasising the importance of leadership succession in the church. Before going any further into the subject, he considered various aspects of Asian culture—he outlined collectivism, consensus, hierarchy, and status as having power—and how they easily lead to abuses in authority—including demanding the absolute loyalty of followers, placing oneself on higher ground than Scripture, violating the freedom of individual conscience, and failing to consider their family’s needs—and therefore need to be sanctified by proper Biblical teaching.

Speaking in the context of church-planting overseas, he said that the phase in which an indigenous church is considered a mission but not yet a national church in its own right is usually the most tragic, because ‘foreign’ church leaders think they know what’s best for the local people, and worst still, they hold on to the purse strings, taking away most if not all their dignity, according to Rev. Tan.

“Singapore is planting churches; we must be careful we don’t do to others what we complain about,” he said.

“Don’t be afraid to let the younger generation make mistakes and learn,” he urged as a general rule. And he said of foreign church plants, “The minute you go there, you should be raising leaders… set them up as role models of leaders with that particular national church. Establish a relationship of equality as soon as possible.”

At the same time, he said, “Don’t be in a hurry to let it go by itself… you need to wait on God’s timing… take token steps to raise up key national leaders.

“My observation is that Singaporean churches pull out too fast… because of costs… we don’t want dependency but a baby needs to depend on its parents. One day they will become an adult,” he said.

He added that the consumerist culture has slipped into some Singapore churches, which want to see ‘instant results’.

“The Methodists took 100 years [to set up the church in Singapore], and were generous enough to buy land and leave it behind,” he said.

According to Rev. Tan, one or two years is not enough to raise native leaders; we need to love them, learn their language, stay with them and even intermarry with them.

On the subject of leadership, he said that leaders should not enter into service with a focus on preeminence, quoting from Mark 10:35-40.

“God called you to lead because God called you to serve. As you enlarge in responsibility, God enlarges your authority,” he said. “Greater service, greater responsibility, but not necessarily greater preeminence… leadership must include pain and sacrifice… the lot of every leader is heavy burden, loneliness and anguish.”

Edmond Chua
edmond@christianpost.com