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Daily Assembly Digest |
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Second Joe Wing Memorial Lecture given by Professor Bonganjalo Goba |
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We are pleased to publish below an edited version of the lecture delivered by former UCCSA President Professor Bonganjalo Goba.
I have chosen the topic for this lecture: "The quest for a visionary leadership in the UCCSA today."
There is no doubt in my mind that Moruti Wing was a visionary leader. He possessed an amazing personal knowledge of many of our church situations in Southern Africa. We live in times of great change when there are great expectations about the future of the church leadership, particularly its meaning and relevance in society.
Developing the visionary leadership requires or demands discerning God's will for our time. We are discovering that traditional modes of leadership are becoming obsolete as more and more shared forms of leadership make a difference in organizations. (In the past) we were trained not to share leadership, but for a leadership that was not to be questioned, but to be followed.
Today, if you examine our theological curricula in many of our Seminaries, Colleges and Universities, the focus on leadership is insignificant. On the other hand, we also have lay people who think that leadership is their speciality because they control the resources of the church. I believe the establishment of the Leadership Academy is a step in the right direction in our church.
It is an innovation that has to be supported. Today, the greatest temptation is to follow the business models of leadership. We have also seen failures of leadership in the political field. As we come to grips with the Vision of the UCCSA, let us be mindful that nothing remains the same. We are challenged to reject the status quo and live in the dynamic presence of God's newness.
One of the new challenges is to move away from the myth of the heroic Leader, and to recognize that visionary leadership is not a one person show, but entails a shared vision. I believe that there are elements of this visionary Leadership emerging in our local church communities in Southern Africa. During my term as the Secretary of Global Ministries, I sensed a new enthusiasm in the numerous projects and a variety of ministries we supported.
I believe this growing commitment will be deepened as we embrace the new mission statement of the UCCSA. We have a great prophetic task in our different contexts in Southern Africa to understand the calling of the church to the critical spiritual needs of God's people to be caring and inclusive church. Inclusive in the sense that no one, given the unique experience, cultur- al, political outlooks, sexual orientat- ion and race will be excluded.
This calls for radical openness to embr- ace, irrespective of our distinction.
To declare that, "In Christ there is a future", we need visionary Leader- ship that will demonstrate, in no un- certain terms that faith in Christ makes a radical difference |
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