The topic for OMC XVII in 2010 was “Indonesia, a call to serve and to lead: creating transformation in the midst of its cultural realities”. This topic was inspired by our discovery trips in 2009. During the trip, we visited several regencies in Kalimantan, Sumatra, and Sulawesi. We discovered the quality of life in certain regency was directly related by the quality of its leader, which in this case the governor and lieutenant governor. However, we could not distill the essence of the leader quality that critical to his/her success. We wanted to be able to search the bible for answers and to test these essential leadership qualities against the characteristics of successful leader.
Hebrews 13:7 says, “Remember your leaders, those who spoke to you the word of God. Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.” According to this passage, a leader is someone that tells the word of God. In public space, we need a leader that is willing to stand up for the truth without being afraid of the worldly implications. Secondly, we need to look at the leader work and life. The leader needs to be skilful in what he does so that the task is completed successfully. His personal life matters. If the success at work leads to an abandon family, the outcome of the leader life is not good. Thirdly, we also need a leader that we could imitate. His/her life should be genuinely transparent for us to imitate. He/she does not hide failures or fake successes.
OMC XVII revealed to us that not only we had next generation leaders that fit the description above but also the church had the ability to be the leadership “factory”. We were inspired by the speakers with their courage to stand up for the truth and the poor. One of the speakers described that Indonesia need to have leaders that have 3 characteristics: clean, transparent, professional. It takes courage to be a clean or anti-corruption official in Indonesia. The system is so corrupted that it will purge out clean officials to the curb or to jail. Both transparency and professionalism are also required for the reasons above as well as for reforming the system. Transparency is needed to make officials accountable to the public; while professionalism is required so that the best people can be recruited to serve the people in the right position and function.
Another reason for us to be optimist about Indonesia’s future was the condition of Indonesian churches. We found that the non-profit organizations driven by the next generation leaders of local churches had made a difference in local communities. Because of the extensive activities of these non-governmental organizations, a lot of resources and man power was needed. Unfortunately, the church did not have resources and the bandwidth of the church leadership had been well spent. The church had to rely to the younger generations to run the program. With increasing exposure to serve and opportunities to lead, their characters and skills were developed.
OMC XVI taught us to be an optimist. Moreover, we should not doubt God. As long as we are walking with God and fight for His causes, Indonesia will be better.