You know what a filter is. Think about a coffee filter or an oil filter in your car or a colander - something that keeps certain things from getting through. These filters we are going to discuss deal with the way you look at something - consider it a filter for your perception or thinking. They are important because changing your perspective gives you a different view on the same subject. Most of the time, new insight leads to new action. And heaven knows, the world needs you to act.
Indigenous - "originating in and characteristic of a particular region or country; native."The concept of indigenous is huge when you talk about cross cultural service. Yes, the Gospel sometimes requires people outside a culture to move into one - that would be the incarnation - like Jesus coming to Earth. But there is gold when someone intimate with a culture rises up to lead within it. God came not in a UFO, but as a baby.
My friend Jeremy Del Rio is one of the leading gurus in the area of urban youth ministry. What he knows he learned by doing - he has first hand experience. When he was a high school student, he was part of a team that created a ministry for students - by students. Generation Xcel started when he and a group of his friends decided that they needed to do something to spur on some positive growth in their community while helping kids their age invest their lives in something significant. Years later, after college and law school, Jeremy ran GenXcel for a time as the executive director. You can imagine how effective he was after being one of the founders. That's an indigenous leader - one that has erupted out of the context.
I'm posting some writing from a global student leadership guidebook that I'm working on. Let me know if you are interested in the progress of this project.
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