The following is a book review by John Pearson of Pearson and Associates:

Few leaders and managers navigate a normal week without being reminded that globalization is here and here to stay. You dial an 800 number and connect with a customer service rep from India. The youth pastor at your church is taking your daughter or grandson on a mission trip across a border. CNN reminds you that what happens in Haiti or Chile will affect your colleagues and acquaintances in the media or in relief and development organizations. Perhaps you worship in a multi-ethnic church or you serve on a missions committee.

“In spite of profound yet hidden differences,” writes James Plueddemann, “many pastors naively lead short-term teams and attempt to create cross-cultural partnerships. I have noticed a growing number of voices suggesting that anyone can do crosscultural partnerships. Missiologists call this ‘the amateurization of missions,’ while the amateurs call it ‘the democratization of missions.’”

Yikes! Read this book and you may be tempted to cancel your next crosscultural trip. And for good reason. According to Plueddemann, you (and your culture) might be more goal-oriented, but your friend or co-worker from another culture might be more relationship-oriented. Will that be a problem? Usually, yes.

The author, with a considerable global track record of missionary, mission organization CEO, seminary professor, researcher and author, believes that an understanding of biblical leadership (versus biblical ideas tweaked via our cultural bias) is needed to complete the cycle of evangelism and church planting. We need both a theology and a theory of leadership that enables leaders with differing cultural backgrounds to do Kingdom work together.

His real life crosscultural examples (stories from the multi-ethnic trenches) illuminate his well-researched insights. (He cites the 1,500-page tool, The Bass Handbook of Leadership, published in 2008, and Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers.) Some cultures elevate individualism. Others salute collectivism. Still others have a low tolerance for ambiguity, while some nations have a high tolerance for ambiguity. So what happens when a get-your-ducks-in-a-row short-term missionary check-list-maker meets up with a we’ll-figure-it-out-sooner-or-later national leader? Unintended conflict.

What if your church desires to “partner” with a church in another country? Watch out, warns Plueddemann. “The idea of ‘equal partners’ is foreign to most of the world. Partnership in much of the world assumes a junior or senior member.”

“Crosscultural leadership is a school from which you never graduate,” says Joshua Bogunjoko, one of many contributors to the informative two-page vignettes, “Reflections on Multicultural Leadership.” The author’s diagrams are excellent. The three circles of 1) biblical principles of leadership, 2) my cultural values of leadership, and 3) leadership values of other cultures intertwine only in a small area. Yikes again.

“Too many Christian books on leadership are written from a monocultural perspective interspersed with Bible verses and marketed as universal principles of leadership.” Not! Plueddemann adds, “The biblical text is inspired from God and is without error, but my interpretation is not.”

Though he took an American Management Association course, it “raised subtle doubts in my mind about the universal benefits of Western management models.” One of the author’s friends suggested he title this book, “My 1001 Greatest Leadership Mistakes.” This is a vulnerable and transparent book, but wise. Yet if he ever writes the “1001” book, I’d buy it.

P.S. It’s tough to do justice to this extraordinary book in just a few paragraphs, because it’s a rare mix of humility, insight, memorable illustrations and crystal clear charts and graphs, like the grid on page 88 comparing High-Context Cultures with Low-Context Cultures in six areas: time, communication style, authority, leadership style, conflict resolution style and time. Another yikes.

To order this book from Amazon, click on this title: Leading Across Cultures: Effective Ministry and Mission in the Global Church, by James E. Plueddemann.