The Power of Leadership
With Tito Iranga
Leadership in Africa has its origin within the worldview of kingship or chieftaincy. A leader inherits their position through merit and wealth and gains status because they exercise power over others to achieve their personal goals. But Jesus taught a different way.
A character centered on Christ-like servant leadership is the call of Christ to his followers. He modeled servanthood and challenged his disciples to follow his example. So teaching Christ’s leadership style is important for Africa; it will impact African leaders to emulate Christ’s leadership in serving their communities rather than fighting to achieve their personal gain.
On a personal note, I’m a product of several persons who invested in this way in my life. I’m serving God today because Pastor Joseph Kenyi picked me into a life journey of faith with him as he served among the Muslims in Khartoum. He was intentional in every step he took and encouraged me to watch as he endeavored into a tough ministry among unreached people. Sometimes I got discouraged and disobeyed his calls for visiting people, but he never gave up on me. We faced jail and trouble together for the sake of Christ Jesus and at the end of it I began to love moving with him. He planted in me a heart of serving God and His people. When he began giving me the opportunity to share words of encouragement and preach the word of God, I experienced the call of God in my life. I built confidence and started serving. I came to understand my pastor was mentoring me into a huge ministry of leadership. When he knew I was in it, he sent me to seminary to study theology.
In seminary, I was plugged into the hands of mentors who guided me till my graduation, who checked me in my journey with Christ Jesus. One of them, Gordon, has been helpful to me for the last 22 years. We met once a month then he visited me once a year. He helped me to understand my journey with Christ, to know how Christ displayed His leadership, how He showed servant leadership (Philippians 2:5-10). My mentor also helped me to understand the importance of mentoring and coaching others to be servants. He encouraged me to join courses that can build me to be a better servant in the vineyard of God.
These leaders helped me to build a solid leadership style in my family and ministry. It has helped me to use the same knowledge of mentoring and coaching with African Leadership – to continue pursuing a Christ-like style of leadership that reflects the character of Christ Jesus, serving and investing in the lives of others so that they can continue with the same process of investing and impacting even more lives as established by Christ Jesus. Jesus Christ taught His disciples to be servants who are committed to serving others (Matt 20:25-28).
Servant leaders like this are essential in Africa.