Reflection for ETC Students on Implicit Leadership Scripts
Dear ETC students,
The letter you’ve just read represents a fictional congregation in ancient Ephesus articulating their cultural expectations about leadership. This exercise demonstrates how making implicit leadership expectations explicit can affect church dynamics. Let me offer some reflections on this approach for your context.
The Value of Making Implicit Leadership Scripts Explicit
Advantages
Reduces Misunderstanding: When congregations articulate their expectations, leaders can better understand the cultural lens through which their actions are interpreted. In Ethiopian contexts, where relationship harmony is highly valued, unspoken expectations often cause tension without direct confrontation.
Promotes Self-awareness: Making these scripts explicit helps both congregation and leaders recognise cultural biases that may not align with biblical principles. For example, some Ethiopian church contexts might unconsciously value high power distance because of cultural traditions, without examining whether this aligns with servant leadership models in Scripture.
Creates Opportunity for Dialogue: When expectations are articulated, they can be discussed, affirmed, or gently challenged. This allows for thoughtful engagement rather than silent frustration when expectations aren’t met.
Facilitates Cross-cultural Ministry: In increasingly diverse Ethiopian cities, church leaders may come from different regions with varying leadership expectations. Making these cultural differences explicit helps navigate potential conflicts.
Enables Intentional Counter-cultural Choices: Sometimes biblical leadership principles will challenge aspects of Ethiopian culture. Making expectations explicit allows for deliberate choices about which cultural patterns to affirm and which to transform.
Disadvantages
Risk of Rigidity: When expectations become explicit, they can harden into inflexible requirements, leaving less room for the Holy Spirit’s guidance or contextual adaptation. Church becomes about satisfying preferences rather than pursuing God’s will.
Potential for Consumer Mentality: In Ethiopian church contexts where the concept of servant leadership is sometimes misunderstood, explicit expectations could shift the church dynamic toward a service provider/consumer relationship rather than a biblical community model.
May Overemphasise Cultural Preferences: Some implicit leadership scripts may reflect cultural values more than biblical ones. Making them explicit without biblical assessment risks elevating culture over Scripture.
Can Create Unnecessary Division: In Ethiopian churches with members from multiple ethnic backgrounds, explicitly stating cultural preferences could heighten awareness of differences rather than unity in Christ.
Might Unduly Burden Leaders: In contexts where leaders are already stretched thin with limited resources, detailed articulation of expectations might create additional pressure rather than supportive clarity.
Finding Balance: McDonald’s Orders vs. Loving Dialogue
The risk in making leadership expectations explicit is that church relationships can indeed become transactional—like ordering at McDonald’s: “I want this specific leadership style, delivered exactly this way, with these precise characteristics.” This approach treats church leaders as service providers rather than God-called shepherds.
However, there is a significant difference between demanding service and lovingly communicating to build understanding:
When Articulating Expectations Reflects Love for God and Neighbour
When the motivation is unity and mission: “We share these perspectives so we can work together more effectively for God’s kingdom.”
When expectations are held loosely: “We recognise these are our cultural preferences, but we remain open to God’s Spirit leading differently.”
When communication is reciprocal: Leaders also share their expectations and limitations, creating mutual understanding rather than one-sided demands.
When Scripture remains the ultimate authority: Cultural preferences are openly acknowledged as secondary to biblical principles.
When the goal is growth: The community recognises that some discomfort with leadership styles might reflect areas where God is challenging cultural norms.
When It May Be Helpful to Articulate Implicit Expectations
During leadership transitions: When a new pastor comes from a different region of Ethiopia with different cultural assumptions.
In conflict situations: When tensions arise from unspoken expectations, making them explicit can help resolve misunderstanding.
In multicultural church plants: When intentionally creating a new church culture that draws from diverse Ethiopian traditions.
In leadership development: When training new leaders who need to understand the cultural dynamics they will navigate.
In church revitalisation efforts: When addressing dysfunctional patterns that have developed from unexamined cultural assumptions.
When It May Be Unhelpful to Articulate Implicit Expectations
When it becomes a form of control: Using cultural expectations to manipulate leaders rather than support them.
When it elevates preference over calling: Rejecting God-called leaders because they don’t match cultural preferences.
When it preserves unhealthy cultural patterns: Some implicit scripts may actually contradict biblical values and should be transformed, not preserved.
When it creates unnecessary burdens: In resource-limited contexts, overly specific expectations may crush dedicated leaders.
When it’s done without humility: Presenting cultural preferences as spiritual requirements rather than as one perspective among many.
Questions for Reflection
In your Ethiopian context, which GLOBE dimensions seem to most strongly influence church leadership expectations? Are these aligned with biblical models?
How might the diversity of Ethiopia’s ethnic groups create different implicit leadership scripts even within the same denomination or theological tradition?
Consider a recent church conflict you’ve observed. Were unspoken leadership expectations contributing to the tension? How might making these explicit have helped or hindered resolution?
How can Ethiopian churches honour aspects of traditional leadership that align with Scripture while challenging aspects that may not?
In what ways might Western missionary influences have affected leadership expectations in Ethiopian evangelical churches? Are these helpful adaptations or problematic impositions?
How can church communities create healthy processes for dialogue about leadership expectations that honour both leaders and congregation?
Remember that the goal is not to create perfect alignment between leaders and congregation on every preference, but to foster loving communities where both leaders and members serve Christ together with understanding and grace.
May your study of leadership bring wisdom that serves the Ethiopian church for God’s glory,
Claude