Simon Cox Blog: The Need for Culturally Agile Leaders in Church Planting

Tuesday 5 December 2017

The Need for Culturally Agile Leaders in Church Planting

The mission of God knows no cultural boundaries

We’re in one of the best times in history to start globally-minded churches in North America—churches that are rooted in North American cities, but effectively minister to and minister through global citizens. This isn’t just for cities like New York or Chicago. Immigration and the rise of the information-based economy are turning cities like Tulsa and Minneapolis into globalized cities.

Leaders of church planting organizations and networks are realizing that the global reality is changing how they should now lead and develop church planting strategies for North America.

In business and economy, we’ve seen global organizations work towards increasing the cultural-competency of their corporate leadership. As the CQ (cultural IQ) of corporate leadership rises, so will the need for cultural-competency among next-tier leadership. These organizations want leaders who can effectively and efficiently produce consistent results whether in Boston, Brussels, or Beijing. They want leaders who have high cultural agility, the ability to quickly, comfortably, and effectively work in different cultures and with people from different cultures.

Today in North America, we need church planting leaders with high cultural agility who will lead church planters to plant churches with high cultural agility.

This is because Boston, Brussels, and Beijing have come together in North America.

Cultural agility in church planting isn’t just the ability to share the Gospel across cultures. It’s the ability to transmit the mission of God from one context to another. It’s the ability to create a missionary people from what once used to be unreached, disparate groups of people. And while some Christians may find the cultural ...