I’m nearly
leaping with excitement. I’ve just returned from a meeting with Harvey, a
Malawian friend and I can’t wait to talk about “Ubuntu”. Harvey told me that in Malawi, ubuntu is a high ideal people strive for. Ubuntu means “person” but it’s
more complex than that. It is the humanization of individuals within a
community through generous understanding. A person who listens to the experiences and
ideas of another person dignifies them and is said to have ubuntu. A person
with ubuntu is generous with his time and resources. And he is able to empower
others to exhibit ubuntu within their community.
Desmond Tutu says it this way:
“A person with Ubuntu is
open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened
that others are able and good, based from a proper self-assurance that comes
from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole and is diminished when
others are humiliated or diminished, when others are tortured or oppressed.”
The concept of ubuntu is
also tied of with the idea of the spirit. So when a person with ubuntu
humanizes another person through listening, understanding, and affirming, then it is said
that they have a “spirit.” I was thinking about the parallels to the
incarnation and our pursuit of whole-life discipleship. I. Was. Blown.
Away.
Jesus was the paradigm of
ubuntu for humanity: he “moved into the neighborhood” (that’s how The Message
puts it), he identified with our human experience, he made himself available to
people and became the servant of all, and in the ultimate act of generosity,
was outcast, tortured, and killed on our behalf. In doing so, he bestowed the
spirit of a new humanity on us in the ultimate humanizing act. In him, we are
restored to community with God and with each other (another effect of ubuntu).
Ultimately Jesus empowers us to humanize and validate other through the ubuntu-spirit he
bestow on us.
As we seek to raise up
mature leaders in the church worldwide, I’m beginning to believe that
traditional pedagogical discipleship paradigms will fail. Read this book,
memorize these verses, sit in this Sunday school class, listen to the sermon,
let me give you advice. It only goes so far. In my experience the single most
effective act of disciple-building in Amercica and worldwide comes through the
humanizing force of ubuntu. It is in the act of truly seeing one another that
we are truly able to “spur one another on” toward deep rootedness in Christ. That’s
why WDA’s discipleship acronym (R-CAPS) places relationship at the top of the
list. Relationships based on understanding, love, and trust are the foundation
the most potent life transformation we can foster as human beings.
Check out this passage:
“Let us consider how we
may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting
together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and
all the more as you see the Day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:24-25)
Is it not clear in this
verse that in considering how to help one another grow, we MUST (1) continue to
meet together in relationship and (2) encourage one another? It is primarily by
building relationships and validating one another’s experiences that we build
disciples. This is not to say that we agree with everything people say, but we
recognize the difference between a person and their ideas and actions. We are
able to validate the person and thus leave room for divergent views and
experiences… not because we are wishy-washy, but because we are secure in ourselves and our beliefs because of our
relationship with Christ.
Wouldn’t it be awesome if
our mentors and teachers were more concerned about understanding and validating
our experiences than they are about pushing content? Wouldn’t it be amazing if
the way we thought of mentoring, pastoring, and disciple-building was primarily concerned
with finding opportunities to be generous with our time and energy, to love, to
serve, and to really, really listen to people? If you had someone like that in
your life, wouldn’t you be BEGGING them for guidance?
Do you want to change the
world? Be a person with ubuntu in your community. I promise it will not go
unnoticed.
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