Cape Town – Day 5 – Warrick

A. Each morning has featured a short video in a series called Scripture in Mission.  These videos raise awareness aimed at eradicating Bible poverty in our world today:

Scripture translation is the number one needed priority throughout the world because it’s impossible to do ministry without a biblical foundation. Look at the present reality in the 6,909 spoken languages of the world.

1. Only 451 languages have a complete Bible.
2. Another 1,185 groups have a New Testament.
3. 843 language groups have only a portion of Scripture. It is estimated that there are 2 billion people in these 2,028 language groups without any Old Testament. It is extremely difficult to make disciples without the Old Testament Scripture explaining the character of God.
4. Nearly 2,000 language translations have begun work, but as yet do not have one complete book. BUT HERE IS THE TRAGEDY:
5. 2,252 language groups do not have one verse of Scripture and no one
   is working on them. What can we do to change this? Increasing our
   efforts to launch the Oral Story Bible would be an important first step.

B. Chris Wright presented on… but I missed it because Abdul Asad and I were talking to Common Ground people!  My four concerns of Common Ground (and C5 in general):

1. Shallow ecclesiology (we want to see the full expression of the church- fellowship is not ekklesia).
2. Reduced understanding of the Gospel (it’s about more than just salvation- we want to see transformation). 
3. Unrealistically positive view of Islam (the key issue is not “What does it mean to be a Christian?” but “What does it mean to be a Muslim?”).
4. Interpretation of “remain” 1 Cor. 7 (I don’t think that text is germane to the conversation).  Related to this a narrow view of spiritual regeneration- it actually means something as it relates to our socio-religious identity in Christ.

The leader from Common Ground is a good guy and he heard these criticisms and actually wrote them down.  That’s a good example for me, to genuinely listen to criticism. 

C. I attended a breakout on Leadership Development: Issues and Solutions.  A leadership covenant is here. Random notes from the session (here is a picture I took of their model): 

• Good training provides a benchmark.  But even the best of training can’t close the gap between knowledge and change.  Most of “Leadership Development” is really just “Leadership Training.”  Only 3-5% of leaders who get training (without coaching) demonstrate any change in their leadership behavior.
• Coaching/Mentoring is a developmental relationship.  It provides ongoing assessment, challenge, and support in the leader’s real life (Job Assignment).  It has to happen on the job. 
• Training in combination with coaching is what actually works.  Training happens concurrently with coaching.  Knowledge and experience should go together. 
• What Jesus did with his disciples was mentoring.  Coaching is a little bit different technically.  But the point is that there must be a developmental relationship between the mentor and the leader for change to happen.
• Leaders cannot be mass produced.  More time with less people is the key idea.