School of Intercultural Studies

This paper explores the idea that charismatic leaders of multiethnic congregations should use their influence to form an interpretive community to carry out the work of missional praxis Doing so helps to mitigate the effects of three adaptive challenges inherent in charismatic leadership that hinder multiethnic congregations' missional vitality and long-term viability over-dependence on the leader, flawed vision, and cultural captivity Specifically, interdependence and congregational empowerment are fostered as the charismatic leader gives the work back to the people, thus ensuring healthier leadership transitions Further, more contextually appropriate and Spirit-led vision results as marginalized voices are invited into a culturally inclusive interpretive community Finally, by developing cultural intelligence, the charismatic leader and congregants can overcome cultural captivity that hinders the adaptive capacity of the congregation through exclusionary practices and structures The result is a stronger and more missionally vital congregation that will last beyond the shelf-life of the leader.

This paper is a chapter published in the book, "God's People on the Move: Biblical and Global Perspectives on Migration and Mission." In this chapter, I develop a missional theology of place for churches located in North America’s complex urban environments. I carry out this task by first briefly exploring how we got here, that is, highlighting how place has been deconstructed and de-valued in the North American urban context through the influence of various forces characteristic of modernity and late capitalism. I then propose a pathway forward for churches located in North American urban environments by examining the themes of placement (land), displacement (exile), and re-placement (homecoming) in the biblical narrative. I suggest in this discussion that God’s desire is for local congregations to participate in the missio Dei as a placed people in the current urban culture of displacement. Finally, I recommend that this will require both leaders and congregants of local churches to dwell among our neighbors in humanized relationships characterized by reciprocal hospitality, mutuality, and interdependence, which can ultimately lead us towards embodying God’s shalom in our communities together.

During the last twenty-five years, two scholarly conversations have developed largely alongside one another—one surrounding the multiethnic church phenomenon and another regarding the missional church. To date, no empirical research has explored the relationship between these two conversations. In this dissertation, I explore the intersection between missional leadership and multiethnic ministry by analyzing how pastoral leadership facilitates missional change at The Lighthouse—a multiethnic congregation in Port City, USA.
    To understand the process of missional change at the church, I utilized a case study approach. I collected data by conducting semi-structured interviews with thirteen pastoral and lay leaders in the church, through participant observation, and by administering a congregational survey through a convenience sample during Sunday morning worship services. I then used an integrated theoretical framework consisting of adaptive leadership theory and schema theory to interpret the data. My findings revealed that pastoral leadership has been utilizing a charismatic leadership approach to construct a missional theology of place among the congregation to facilitate the process of change. They also revealed several adaptive challenges resulting from that approach to leadership: (1) A gap between a lived and preferred value for mission in the congregation; (2) over-dependence on the charismatic leader; and (3) an ethnic hierarchy being perpetuated through a Euro-centric leadership schema.
    As a result of this study, I was able to make three conclusions. First, as a result of the top-down charismatic leadership approach, the church is not on a journey to missional. Instead, it is engaging in an ecclesio-centric form of mission that inadvertently diminishes the agency of the Spirit by centering missional innovation around the gifts and charisma of the pastor. Second, by centering power and decision-making among the charismatic leader, the pastoral staff has inadvertently minimized the agency of the everyday people of God and marginalized ethnically diverse voices in the congregation. Third, the charismatic approach toward change is hindering missional innovation and creativity among the congregation, reinforcing the cycle of dependency on the charismatic leader. Accordingly, I suggest interpretive leadership as a pathway forward for the church to unleash the missional potential in the congregation.

The "homogeneous unit principle" (HUP) has informed evangelical mission praxis in the United States for decades. While many see this as a pragmatic approach to spreading the gospel more expediently, others argue that it mirrors processes of racialization in the society at large, while reinforcing hyper-segregation in the church. In this paper, I suggest that the American evangelical church needs to reexamine , and ultimately, shed the exclusionary mission practices informed by the HUP if it is to faithfully embody the unity and reconciliation achieved through Christ's work on the cross in its racialized mission context (Eph 2:11-22).