AAnnddrreewwss UUnniivveerrssiittyy DDiiggiittaall CCoommmmoonnss @@ AAnnddrreewwss UUnniivveerrssiittyy Dissertation Projects DMin Graduate Research 2012 CCrroossss--CCuullttuurraall SSeerrvvaanntt--LLeeaaddeerrsshhiipp ffoorr tthhee SSeevveenntthh--ddaayy AAddvveennttiisstt CChhuurrcchh iinn PPaappuuaa NNeeww GGuuiinneeaa Loren Kekes Poli Andrews University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/dmin Part of the Leadership Studies Commons, and the Practical Theology Commons RReeccoommmmeennddeedd CCiittaattiioonn Poli, Loren Kekes, "Cross-Cultural Servant-Leadership for the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Papua New Guinea" (2012). Dissertation Projects DMin. 279. https://digitalcommons.andrews.edu/dmin/279 This Project Report is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate Research at Digital Commons @ Andrews University. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertation Projects DMin by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Andrews University. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ABSTRACT CROSS-CULTURAL SERVANT-LEADERSHIP FOR THE SEVENTH- DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA by Loren Kekes Poli Adviser: Jeanette Bryson ABSTRACT OF GRADUATE STUDENT RESEARCH Project Dissertation Andrews University Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary Title: CROSS-CULTURAL SERVANT-LEADERSHIP FOR THE SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA Name of researcher: Loren Kekes Poli Name and Degree of Faculty Adviser: Jeanette Bryson, Ph.D. Date completed: October 2011 Problem Providing leadership for a diverse Papua New Guinea (PNG) remains a challenge for the Seventh-day Adventist church. There are more than 750 languages in current use and yet very little is being done to provide representation or give consideration to the cultural differences. Method A mixed-method research, both qualitative and quantitative, that included a review of literature, interviews, case studies, and a survey designed for use in PNG was used to conduct this research designed to explore and identify the knowledge of leadership from the context of PNG and how that understanding influences the support, perceptions, and practices of the Church.. Results/Findings PNG, despite its diversity, is grouped into two main people groups: the Austronesians and the non-Austronesians. Scholars in the area of anthropology have thus identified two cultural leadership practices that are dominant in PNG: Big Man and Chieftancy—and a cause for the tension. Research substantiates that developing a cross- cultural servant model of leadership that speaks to the diversity in PNG sensitive to the issues of respect, fairness, justice, and unity is paramount for leadership practices to succeed. Conclusions PNG, composed of diverse people groups, will experience difficulties if led strictly from either a Chieftancy or Big Man mindset. Both practices, however, thrive on serving others. The first step in providing servant-leadership training is to develop a process based on the biblical model. The Jesus model, if followed, would unify the leadership for the Seventh-day Adventist church in PNG and its associate area, the South Pacific Division and the Seventh-day Adventist Church at-large. Andrews University Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary CROSS-CULTURAL SERVANT-LEADERSHIP FOR THE SEVENTH- DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA A Project Dissertation Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Ministry by Loren Kekes Poli October 2011 © Copyright by Loren Kekes Poli 2011 All Rights Reserved CROSS-CULTURAL SERVANT-LEADERSHIP FOR THE SEVENTH- DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA A project document presented in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree Doctor of Ministry by Loren Kekes Poli APPROVAL BY THE COMMITTEE _______________________________ _______________________________ Adviser Director of D. Min. Program Jeanette Bryson Skip Bell ______________________________ ________________________________ Barry Gane Dean, SDA Theological Seminary Denis Fortin ______________________________ ________________________________ Roger Dudley Date approved Dedication I dedicate this dissertation project to my parents, Poli Pani and Ronukup Loie Poli (now deceased) who instilled in me the value of an inquisitive mindset and servanthood that orbits around the very life and ministry of Jesus Christ—the Lord and Head of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii LIST OF TABLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii I. INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Statement of Purpose . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Statement of the Problem. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1 Justification for the Project. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 Representative Voice Needed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 PNG Union Level Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 Underrepresentation of Ethnicities in PNG Leadership . . . . . . . . . 4 Membership Representation in SDA Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 Integrated Leadership Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Expectations from the Project . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 My Personal Journey . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9 Benefit to Existing Church Leaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 Policies that Affect the Morale of Church Employees . . . . . . . . . 10 Spiritual Benefit for the Church in PNG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 Description of the Project Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 Growth Patterns in PNG Against Successive Leaderships . . . . . . . . . 13 Leadership Training for Church Leaders . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13 Delimitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Limitations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14 Definition of Terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 Outline of Project Dissertation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 II. BIBLICAL SERVANTHOOD AND LEADERSHIP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Servanthood in the Old Testament . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Ebed as Servanthood in the Old Testament . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20 Examples of Servant Leaders in the Old Testament . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 Moses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 David as God’s Servant-leader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27 Servant Leadership in the New Testament . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 iv Jesus as a Servant Leader . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Servant Leader in the Gospels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31 Matthean and Marken Texts on Servanthood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33 Apostle Paul and Servanthood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38 Knowing Paul and His World . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39 Apostle Paul and Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46 III. LITERATURE REVIEW . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 Cultural Leadership in Papua New Guinea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Cultural Leadership: Big Man . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50 Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Characteristics of Big-Man . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Implications of Cultural Big Man . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52 The Chieftancy Model of Leadership in PNG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54 Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Characteristics and Functions of Chiefs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55 Chieftancy and Expansion of Authority . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Benefits of Chieftancy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57 Disadvantage of Chieftancy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58 Servant Leadership. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 History: Robert K. Greenleaf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59 Definition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60 Characteristics of Servant Leadership . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61 Servant Leadership and PNG as the Cultural Area . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72 IV. SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH IN PAPUA NEW GUINEA: HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES IN LEADERSHIP . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Demography of Papua New Guinea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Geography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76 Population . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Regions, Provinces, and Districts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Seventh-day Adventist Church in PNG . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 Brief History—Papua Mission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78 New Guinea Mission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79 Bismarck Archipelago . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80 Northeast New Guinea Mission . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Formation of Northwest New Guinea Missions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Missions in PNG, 1908-1950 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 Union Missions in PNG from 1950 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82 SDA Church Leaders in Papua New Guinea . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 84 Leaders in PNG from 1908 to 1950 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85 Leaders from 1951 to 1980 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 v