A study of discipleship in Mark 10:35-52 : a model for leadership development of clergy in the church of Uganda (Anglican)

Abstract

The study is about discipleship in Mark 10:35-52: a model for leadership development of clergy in the Church of Uganda (Anglican). In this thesis I engage with three contextual models that have impacted on the leadership development of clergy in the Church of Uganda (Anglican) namely: the Ganda model of kingship, the Church Missionary Society (CMS) model and the East African Revival (EAR). Kingship models reflect oppressive codes of patronage and authoritarianism which have influenced all sectors of the church leading to constant struggle for power. The East African Revival emerged as a resistance model against the two “banking models” of Christianity. The movement managed to decode the banking models through their values of simplicity manifested through hospitality, fellowship and Bible study. They overcame the racism and ethnic hostility that had been cultivated by the CMS missionaries and the Ganda. These three models are then brought into dialogue with the Jesus model of servant leadership to develop a model which is both Biblical and contextual. Social historical criticism coupled with the Freirian pedagogical approach is used to analyse and critique both the contextual models and the text of Mark 10:35-52. Oppressive codes such as hierarchy, honour and status, kyriarchy, and patronage have been identified in both the text and contextual models of leadership. These oppressive codes have been decoded using Jesus’ model of servanthood in which he embodied the oppressive codes as the New Human Being, resulting in equality for all irrespective of ones’ social status or gender. Jesus embodied the servant role which was meant for the slaves and the poor by laying down his life as a ransom for many. Jesus’ shameful death was a way of decoding the power of the cross where the slaves, insurrectionists, and servants were crucified. Since then the cross became a symbol of liberation where the slaves, insurrectionists and servants could find victory and justification. The cross brought equality between the oppressed and the oppressors. Women found favour before Jesus in the face of a kyriarchal culture where only a male figure counted. The poor, sick and blind and those considered outcasts in society found victory and liberation in Jesus. Appropriation of Jesus’ discipleship model of servanthood creates a place of dialogue, where the situation in the Church of Uganda (Anglican) can enter into an extended conversation with Jesus’ discipleship model. This thesis suggests that the contextual models of leadership development in the Church of Uganda (Anglican) in dialogue with the Jesus model of leadership can result in a contextual model of an egalitarian church where everybody, irrespective of gender, status and tribe, could enjoy the privilege of being a member of the family of God.