A Rich Garden: Non-Clergy Leadership in Africa

Take a moment and think about the Christian leaders in your local community. Who are they? What is their background? How did they come to serve God in their area of influence? A quick inventory will probably reveal many different kinds of people serving as leaders. Around the world this is becoming more and more the case. Pastors and other ordained or full-time ministry staff play a key role, but many others are involved. The Africa Leadership Study tried to understand a bit more about these non-clergy leaders within the African Church. Explore their findings.

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<p><a href="https://missionexus.org/a-rich-garden-non-clergy-leadership-in-africa/"><strong>A Rich Garden: Non-Clergy Leadership in Africa</strong></a><br />Take a moment and think about the Christian leaders in your local community. Who are they? What is their background? How did they come to serve God in their area of influence? A quick inventory will probably reveal many different kinds of people serving as leaders. Around the world this is becoming more and more the case. Pastors and other ordained or full-time ministry staff play a key role, but many others are involved. The Africa Leadership Study tried to understand a bit more about these non-clergy leaders within the African Church. Explore their findings.</p>

Engage Through Prayer
Dear God, we commonly ask you to raise up leaders among your people. Thank you for the many men and women you have gifted with leadership abilities and put in positions of responsibility within your Church. We pray for them today and ask you to encourage their hearts and give them courage for the tasks you have given them to do. Amen

Personal Reflection
As you engage with your community this week, who are the leaders who are guiding and supporting you as you serve? It is likely that some are full-time ministers but many others are not. How are non-clergy leaders impacting your community and helping advance the Kingdom? Consider their unique contributions. Now take some time to explore some of the characteristics of non-clergy leaders in Africa. What similarities do they have with those in your sphere of influence? What are the differences? How can you encourage those who are sacrificing so much to lead the Body of Christ?

Engaging the Church
How do you see the non-clergy leaders in your church? Do you know who they are and how they have been called to serve? What is the dynamic between paid staff and non-clergy leaders? Consider your own context and then look at some of the characteristics of non-clergy leaders in Africa. Notice the high level of mentoring and training among these leaders. Are you seeing that in your community? What are the areas of focus where non-clergy leaders are making a real difference? What can you do to increase the diversity in leadership in your church? How might more diversity lead to a richer ministry in your local community?

Organizational Application
So many times our organizations are focused on leaders who are in full-time ministry. There are many reasons for this. It may be easier to relate to this group or you may have long-standing relationships with them. But in today’s world, leaders in the Body of Christ can come from anywhere and can be serving everywhere! So many people from every walk of life are engaging in leadership in new and creative ways. How can your organization identify the many non-clergy leaders in your areas of outreach and support them? What kinds of support and encouragement do they need? Need more ideas? Make sure to join the Africa Leadership Study on Facebook to get ongoing content from their research: https://www.facebook.com/africaleadershipstudy.

Good information is key for any individual or ministry. For more insights look at missiographics.com.

Sources
All data on African readership and trends taken from the The Africa Leadership Study.

Permissions
The representation of this data is copyrighted by Tyndale House Foundation and the information within is used by permission. GMI is sharing this visualization as a Missiographic with permission. Anyone seeking rights to utilize this infographic must receive permission from Tyndale House Foundation. Please email Tyndale House Foundation for more information at Foundation@TyndaleHouseFdn.org.