REIMAGINING MISSIONS: LEADING FROM BELOW

by | Mar 21, 2025

[30 Minute Read]

Dear fellow participants in God’s mission,

Grace and peace to you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We are excited to announce the release of our elder, Dr William D. (Bill) Taylor’s latest book: “Leading From Below: Lessons from the Crucible of Global Mission“. Known as “Uncle Bill” to some of us, this new book reveals insights learned from six decades of cross-cultural ministry and decades of WEAMC development. To introduce the volume to you, this essay features excerpts from Bill’s introduction and the entire afterword from current MC Executive Director, Jay Mātenga.

From The Introduction

William D. (Bill) Taylor (WEAMC Executive Director 1986—2006)

I’m unimpressed with Christian leadership literature that focuses on influence, executive positions, measurable objectives, strong numbers, success, reaching your goals, or “learning from the giants, the great leaders”; I am much less impressed by the ones that offer me success if I apply their ten or twelve or fifteen crucial leadership steps. “Buy your successful leadership package, on-line, discounted.” I deny there’s an easy path to gifted, efficient, godly, global leadership, much less a successful Spirit-filled life. God doesn’t work that way. The true north perspective of the authentic Christian leader must be marked by the cross. But too many of us have been influenced and misshaped by contemporary culture. Leading from below puts little weight on those popular success principles and stories, though it can learn from them—particularly the negative lessons.

Christian leadership books address these issues diversely. A few are narrative in structure; others are very pragmatic. Some focus only on biblical models, with Jesus the prime example. Others contribute by studying the broader nature of leadership. Some authors even include their academic degree in the title. Why? Others take secular and modern culture models then baptize them with Christian language and application. Some collect the stories and testimonies of “great and successful” Christians in business and industry, in the military and academy, in the church and its institutions. They smack of “triumph only” results, or “data-driven decisions,” skirting too close to Christianized secular (perhaps American or British, perhaps Singaporean or Korean, perhaps Nigerian or Brazilian) values…

Our understanding of Scripture must anchor our convictions on leadership issues.

As thoughtful evangelicals, I believe we listen to three primary wisdom fountains about leadership: First, Scripture; second, the historic lived experience; third, resources from those who have grappled with these issues—whether from a Christian worldview or not. However, at the end of the day, our understanding of Scripture must anchor our convictions on leadership issues. Note just three New Testament lessons. Jesus invested in a diverse band of potential leaders, creating a three-year nonformal learning community for them—including his later betrayer Judas. Second, Paul gives us clear guidelines about local church leadership in 1 Timothy 3:1–7 and Titus 1:6–9. Might these requirements apply when we evaluate future missionaries regardless of age, gender, or life stage?

Should we reference these norms when appointing any person to leadership—woman, or man, younger or older? How might that change things? Finally, James warns us (3:1), “Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness.” Each of us who seeks to be a leader should consider these words deeply and with constant care….

The leader is one who provides a vision of a preferred future and invites-gathers-empowers others to participate in that vision.

My definition (of leadership) emerged organically from reading, hearing, observing, and experiencing leadership. “The leader is one who provides a vision of a preferred future and invites-gathers-empowers others to participate in that vision.” Thus, leadership combines natural and spiritual gifts, training, and purpose to cast vision, inviting followers to join that venture. I apply it equally to women and men. And I believe it fully embraces all leadership categories. This definition releases initiative, creativity, and courageous leadership.

Crucial to my understanding of leadership is described as “leading from below.” It follows the contours of the “downward path of the cross.” It contrasts sharply with the dominant view of secular leadership and seen in too many evangelical circles. “Leadership from above,” tends to emphasize strong personal initiative, individualism, central authority, and metrics that lead to measurable results. Almost all Christians and many seculars will speak of servant leadership, yet too few allow it to become a prime driver…

All leaders, even top-down ones, must learn from leading from below, making significant changes in their style to serve more commendably and collegially. This requires listening, assuring there are viable and periodic mechanisms of feedback where the leader truly pays attention and heeds the feedback from the rest of the team or the board. This kind of leader is willing to change course without losing integrity and is not defensive or self-protecting…

My audience will be a diverse set of leaders. I write for missionaries from everywhere to everywhere. All of you will be leaders in some sense of the word. I write for tested (and wounded—whether by others or self-inflicted) servants of my generation and younger. You have experienced some of this “stuff ” and have learned your own lessons. You have your unique scars. I speak also to those in the earlier stages of leadership or about to enter new arenas of influence and direction. I see another group of leaders who may be in that transitional leadership topography where you are about to move into a new space with new responsibilities. You both need and must ask the Spirit’s presence and wisdom. There are also former leaders who were unable to transition into another uncertain future, or who withdrew from leadership, or perhaps did not finish as well as desired.

I have in mind local church mission leaders, especially those who determine the fates and finances of their field partners. I am also keenly interested in that cluster of readers who have not been in recognized leadership and who wonder “Why did that person get the position?” Perhaps you are one who was wounded by leadership. I know what that’s like. While I do not write for the academic or leadership specialist or theoretician, I do write for students of leadership in both formal and nonformal academic worlds. Finally, I write for the leader in the last laps of life, perhaps en route to becoming a tested person of maturity and wisdom.

Whatever the category of leader, I write for all, with colleagues and friends in every set. I have found myself in different categories throughout my life, as do many others. Instead of exploring leadership theories, this book invites readers into personal stories of family and service, transitions and change, wounds and laughter, mistakes and maturity, all drawn from my long decades in cross-cultural service.

Taylor, William. D. 2025. Leading From Below. Littleton, CO: William Carey Publishing.

Afterword

Jay Mātenga (WEAMC Executive Director 2020—)

Walk through the front door of the grand old house at Easneye Estate, on the rural outskirts of Ware, Hertfordshire, and you will see a wide staircase at the far end of the large reception room. Skip across the polished floor flanked by a sandstone fireplace and the stairs sweep you around to a glass encased lounge, locked to the general public. To this day the lounge serves as the conversation space for Master of Arts students at All Nations Christian College (ANCC). I first encountered Bill and Yvonne Taylor there, in the spring of 1998.

I cannot remember how the meet was set up, but I do remember my MA research was intended to refute the way my mission organization (at the time) was applying the Mission Commission’s 1997 book, Too Valuable to Lose: Exploring the Causes and Cures of Missionary Attrition—the report of the (first) REMAP study on missionary attrition. Based on those findings, our agency was developing a narrative that the new generation of missionaries just did not have the mettle to endure the rigors of missionary life. As one of this new generation, and an early adopter of mobilization as an emerging missions activity I was incredulous. “No, no” I thought, after reading the conclusions myself and recalling the conversations I was having with my age-cohort bouncing out of the institution. “It’s not the missionaries, but rather the missions structures that are to blame”… and maybe also the editor of the book for presenting the findings in such a way that such erroneous conclusions could be drawn. Now, here was my chance to have it out with that editor! I was thirty years old, and my wife and I had been serving in missions for all of three years.

We are GenX. We were used to being ignored, overlooked, and underestimated.

These veteran mission leaders were endearingly peculiar.Charged with enthusiasm for my cause, I arrived for my appointment with Bill and Yvonne. Upon arrival, I immediately forgot why I was there. Before me sat an older US American couple looking somewhat counter-cultural after a Celtic fashion, with no hint of the air of authority I had come to expect from missions leaders. Soft-speaking, with eyes that searched the soul, I was immediately disarmed. They asked about me and my interests and actually seemed to listen to my over-inflated opinions. Furthermore, they seemed enthusiastic about what I understood to be my generation’s perspectives and concerns. This grace was highly unusual. We are GenX. We were used to being ignored, overlooked, and underestimated. These veteran mission leaders were endearingly peculiar.

Furthermore, Bill shared with me a vision for a Holy Island Roundtable of younger missions thought-leaders to explore the future of missions for the next generation, and invited me to consider attending. I never expected to get an invitation, but I felt honored in the moment. To my surprise the invitation did come, but I had just been appointed the director of another organization and my first international meeting clashed with the Holy Island dates. That gathering resulted in the book, Postmission: World Mission by a Postmodern Generation, edited by fellow GenXer and convenor of the Roundtable, Richard Tiplady.

Backward leaning, in his inimitable thinking-speaking style, he spoke of downward mobility. He flipped the script on leadership expectations and success metrics and drew us toward the heart of our self-giving God.

My wife and I met Bill again in 2004 on the shores of Lake Taupo in the middle of the North Island of Aotearoa New Zealand. He was the keynote speaker at the Missions Interlink (NZ) national missions conference. I was four years into what was to become a fifteen-year missions leadership role, mobilizing, recruiting, sending, caring, and reentering missionaries, mostly GenX, from Aotearoa New Zealand to the world, guided by principles drawn from my ANCC MA research. Bill’s keynotes at that missionary alliance event are etched into our memories. If Bill were any more laid back, he would have been horizontal. Backward leaning, in his inimitable thinking-speaking style, he spoke of downward mobility. He flipped the script on leadership expectations and success metrics and drew us toward the heart of our self-giving God. Those thoughts, that were seemingly downloaded from heaven in real-time beside the shores of that volcanic lake, are expanded upon in Leading from Below after almost two decades of further development and practice. Simmering and ready to erupt afresh.

In 2007 Bill reached out and invited me to consider becoming a researcher in a project with global scope that would investigate reasons for people becoming involved in missions (whatever they understood missions to be). That research informed the 2016 book, Mission in Motion: Speaking Frankly of Mobilization, that I coauthored with sociology professor Malcolm Gold. Having completed one book, Bill figured I knew the ropes enough to take over from him as Publications Director for the MC. While I negotiated the publishing of the next book, Spirituality in Mission: Embracing the Lifelong Journey, Mission Commission Executive Director David Ruíz (2016–2018) invited me to join his team of Associate Directors. A couple months later, David announced his resignation.

I learned much about the World Evangelical Alliance’s Mission Commission and the caliber of its other leaders, warmly introduced by Bill in the book’s pages.

Twenty-two years after meeting Bill and Yvonne Taylor in that ANCC lounge, I was invited to take responsibility for the leadership of the very community that Bill represented so well. During my previous thirteen years’ involvement I learned much about the World Evangelical Alliance’s Mission Commission and the caliber of its other leaders, warmly introduced by Bill in the book’s pages. Each leader’s casual humility and generosity of spirit spoke volumes about the ethos of the MC, exemplified by Bill and Yvonne’s commitment to lead from below. As I write, I am in the throes of administering the MC’s next Global Consultation (Chiang Mai, Thailand 2023), the first without Bill’s presence. It also marks the beginning of a new era—a new generation of reflective practitioners are carrying the vision forward. The vast majority of consultation participants were born between 1965 and 1982, so GenXers now carry the responsibility to rally participation towards a desirable shared vision.

The MC continues to be a community of reflective practitioners, drawing together established and emerging global leaders to share from their missions experiences. Humility, mutuality, and service remain core values, among others. Promoting missions perspectives from the Majority World, in concert with established and creative views from traditional missionary sending nations, is an ongoing commitment. Discerning the movement of God’s Spirit to help the global church and its missions communities navigate our way into the future of God’s mission is our central activity. All for the glory of God in all nations.

With the change of generations, we move from a “Globalization of Mission” focus (which generated a series of MC books, from 1997’s Too Valuable to Lose to 2018’s Spirituality in Mission) to a “Future of Mission” (now, “Reimagining Missions”) focus… My people, the Māori of Aotearoa New Zealand, have a saying, “Ka mua, ka muri.” Roughly translated, it means to “walk backward into the future.” It carries with it the assumption that we look to our past to understand how we got to where we are and to determine where we are going. We never forget our roots. Our elders always remain with us, and we live to honor their contributions to our wellbeing today. I am committed to honoring those who have led before me as I now carry the metaphorical mantle and the literal South African wooden mace of leadership for the MC.

Even now, I am looking for the emerging leaders who will be among the choices for my successor—leaders who will hopefully be influenced by my leadership from below as I was influenced by Bill and Yvonne’s. But if I fail, as has been my experience at times, at least they will have this book from which to learn. I commend it to every person who desires to walk the narrow way of Christ, the way of kenosis in service of the will of God (Phil 2:5–11). A way that is navigated by using two words: “Yes, Lord.”

But wait, there’s more…