About Rebecca

Rebecca has been serving cross-culturally since 2012 in a large mission organisation with 4000 workers from more than 70 countries. She and her husband led a multi-ethnic, multi-generational team comprised of both support-raised and salaried workers spread across three countries in South-East Asia that was in turn working with around 700 churches, training and equipping them to use sport as a bridge into communities.

Prior to moving overseas Rebecca studied Arts and Law at UNSW, trained as a lawyer and then worked for ten years in management for a multi-national publishing company. It was in that business context that Rebecca discovered a love for training and mentoring people and for doing research and analysis that gives organisations the best quality information possible on which to make informed strategic decisions.

In South-East Asia, God grew Rebecca’s understanding of His world and her heart to see young people reached with the gospel and discipled into leaders. Having worked in very different but equally complex organisations she is interested in the dynamics and cultures of organisations and the role of leaders within them. Rebecca believes healthy Christian organisations which are both grounded in biblical leadership and have robust leadership and management skills allow individuals to flourish and be better able to bring the gospel, justice and mercy to a lost and hurting world.

Fellowship project: ‘Entrusted with the sent: Leadership skills in support-raised organisations’

Christian organisations where individuals raise their own financial support are growing in number and size. For countless people, they are the public face of Christianity.  Often they care for vulnerable people who would otherwise fall through the gaps of programs run by governments and secular NGOs. Not just small groups of like-minded people, some of these Christian organisations are large, multicultural organisations with complex governance structures, entrusted with significant financial resources. Support-raising means that they have unique leadership and management dynamics and are increasingly grappling with developing their leaders.  Leaders face many challenges in these organisations not least that workers feel a sense of dual accountability; to the leaders who have responsibility and accountability for them in their roles and to the churches and individuals that provide their salary and financial stability.

Christian organisations strive to model their leadership on beautiful images in the Bible of a leader as servant, shepherd and steward. In fact, these images are so compelling that we see them taking hold in the wider business world. However, when it comes to practical leadership skills like conflict resolution, communication and change management, most Christian organisations rely on resources developed in secular leadership contexts with little thought to the challenges of contextualising them to take account of organisational values and practices.

Engaging with biblical leadership theories, secular leadership resources and with specific leaders, Rebecca will develop a series of online articles and a podcast which develops a more holistic understanding of key leadership skills needed within the culture of support-raised organisations.