GUEST POST BY BOB WILSON For much of its history, the church has largely disregarded Jesus’ teaching in Luke 22:24-30 to lead differently from the Gentiles. Instead, it has “established and embraced the leadership models of ‘the Gentiles’”, leading to church history being “replete with examples of leaders actively accumulating, protecting, and abusing power, frequently […]
Polycentric Leadership
Translocal Futures: Michel Bauwens and the Polycentric Transformation of Governance
BY JOSEPH W. HANDLEY, Jr. As our world navigates civilizational disintegration—where nation-states strain under the pressure of global systems and capitalism fails to integrate emerging realities—new models of leadership and governance are emerging. Among the most provocative voices in this arena is Michel Bauwens, founder of the P2P Foundation, who offers a hopeful, decentralized alternative grounded […]
Unilever: Leading Globally, Empowering Locally
Case Study Executive Summary By the late 2000s, Unilever, one of the world’s largest consumer goods companies, faced growing complexity across its operations in over 190 countries. Under the leadership of CEO Paul Polman (2009–2019), Unilever embraced a polycentric leadership model, empowering regional hubs while advancing a unified purpose: “Making sustainable living commonplace.” This case […]
Rethinking Leadership for Wicked Problems
Rethinking Leadership for Wicked Problems: A Polycentric Perspective As leaders navigating today’s global complexity, we often find ourselves face-to-face with what leaders call “wicked problems”— stubborn, multi-layered challenges that defy simple solutions. Whether it’s global migration, economic disparity, or declining trust in institutions, these problems transcend borders. They demand more than just technical solutions or […]
Reimagining Missions: Paradigms Paths & Partnerships
GUEST POST / CASE STUDY BY KIRK FRANKLIN Facing momentous change, missional leaders and practitioners face daunting complexities and remarkable new opportunities. Long-held patterns of sending and receiving are giving way to vibrant, interdependent, collaborative efforts spanning languages, cultures, contexts and continents. Instead of relying solely on inherited structures or leadership models of a bygone […]
A Movemental Turn in Missions: Thoughts on New Eras and New Wineskins
GUEST POST BY WES WATKINS “The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.” — ALAN WATTS Change is a constant in our world. Especially in the last few years, however, it feels that the pace of change is increasing dramatically. I suspect we […]
Who’s at the Table?
GUEST POST BY BRENT FULTON The notion of polycentric leadership has become an important topic of discussion within the global Christian community. In an era of missions “from everywhere to everywhere,” with more cross-cultural workers being sent out from non-Western countries than from traditional sending nations, it is imperative that the contributions of all be recognized and […]
OM International: The Case for Polycentric Mission
GUEST POST BY LAWRENCE TONG Our task, shared with other groups of Jesus followers, is to profoundly reduce the number of least reached anywhere in the world, making them disciple-makers to their people—the ultimate expression of polycentric mission! Every day, our world becomes more complicated and more difficult for God’s people to engage meaningfully with […]
A Journey to Polycentric Mission Leadership
WEBINAR SUMMARY MissioNexus recently held a webinar on Polycentric Mission Leadership. The following summary of the webinar gives a snapshot of the learning… To see the full webinar, click here on MissioNexus site: https://missionexus.org/webinar-a-journey-towards-polycentric-missions-leadership/ Embracing Polycentric Leadership: A Paradigm Shift in Mission – Part I In the landscape of leadership, the concept of polycentricity is […]
Who’s in Charge
GUEST POST BY BRENT FULTON When Christians from China take the gospel to other nations, they encounter a double-edged cultural challenge. Not only do they need to adjust to the language and customs of their new host country; they must also negotiate relationships with Christian workers from other parts of the world with whom they […]
