Third Culture Leadership
Dave Gibbons – Founder and Lead Pastor – Newsong Church, Irvine, CA
The Two Greatest Commandments – Love God & love you neighbor.
God has called us to develop a church that is contrarian. This isn’t easy. In fact it’s difficult.
Third Culture = painful adaptation. The mindset and will to love learn and love even in the midst of pain & discomfort.
Characteristics of The Third Culture Leader
- Focused upon the fringe. More on the misfit than the masses. Typically it’s the misfits that lead, not the masses.
- Vision typically starts at the center, the leadership, & moves outward.
- They have a different set of metrics
- Failure is success to God
- Your weakness & failures are gifts from God
- Weakness guides us more than our strengths
- Relationships trump vision
- We don’t need more visionaries but “relationaries”
- How Dave’s life changed
- Priority shifts – move from programs to leadership development
- The best discipleship happens w/ life on life
- Design/space shifts
- Failure is success to God
- Obedience more than passion
- 4 acts of obedience
- Deep collaboration
- Communal living
- Prayer
- More than prayer, the church doesn’t believe in the power of the Holy Spirit
- Sacrificial love for the outsiders
- 4 acts of obedience
Aid vs. Trade
Andrew Regarsira – Founder of Good African Coffee
14,000 African coffee suppliers http://www.goodafrican.com/
"There is no country in the world that has developed through handouts. Why is Africa different?"
Between 1970 & 2000, Africa has received $400 billion in aid. Aid is really not aid. It’s poorly structured, it’s insincere & it’s conditional. It results in remote control of Africa from overseas donors.
Aid undermines the integrity of donor countries. It creates chronic dependence.
Leveraging Your Past
Wess Stafford – President & CEO of Compassion International
In the last 4 years, CI staff has doubled in size
pain is catalyst for passion, integrity, and application of personal gifts. Wess knows this pain firsthand. Beaten as a kid in African boarding school on average 17 times/week, he and his 50 friends kept silent of the horrors for years.
We were so “poe” we didn’t have a zip code.
Last year 187,000 accepted Christ through CI. 50,000 of them were Africans.
What’s your cause? Does it move you to tears? Tears of sorrow or tears of joy. What is it that moves you passionately?
Forgiveness may not mean
- . . .forgetting, or that it was okay
- . . .release from consequences of actions
- . . .reconciliation.
Forgiveness does mean giving up the right for revenge. You will not forget what you will not forgive.
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