91

 

WORKSHOP ON MOVEMENT BUILDING AND LEADERSHIP

 

Introduction

The group discussed the different possible approaches to the problem regarding move­ment building and planning. Next they dis­cussed some possible alternatives or solutions to these problems. Two vital areas were pinpointed as vital aspects of movement building and planning, namely:

1.   Problems and solutions to movement building

2.   Leadership training and functions, i.e. the important role of the SCM in leader­ship training and the characteristics of leaders for the SCM. These areas evolved from the sharing of movements' life and experiences of the participants representing national move­ments.

 

I. Some Problems and Approaches

1.       How does the movement relate itself to the national and Asian political, ideological, social, etc. realities?

2.       How does the movement understand it­self in the context where it is situated?

3.       How does it respond to these realities?

4.       How does a movement confront and function under pressure and restrictions?

Some approaches mentioned were the following:

1.       Movements should have the tools to analyze the problems of society and the milieux in which they are situated.

2.       Movements should have the courage and the efficiency to implement the SCMs' response to the problems.

3.       Where restrictions and pressure are attending, SCM's should be able to iden­tify and discuss these so proper strategies can be pursued.

The church has a negative reaction to SCM's involvement in issues. There is a gap between parents and students, too, as for the older people personal salvation is regarded as a moral code, which has to be the regulating factor in their lives. Many of those who join the SCM face a personal crisis in the sense that the movement's drift towards socialism is deemed as contrary to the teaching of the institutional church. This situation is aggravated by the presence of conservative, evangelical and parochial student groups. For students and SCM's who have been politicized, this type of pro­moting Christianity is viewed as a domes­tication process supported by the ruling classes and the colonial powers. Particular examples given were those of India and New Zealand and Australia. But the group accepted that this problem is universal in their own situations.

 

II. Building of Membership

There was unanimity in the feeling that there is a lot of work needed to build membership and cadres particularly among movements who have been and continue to be under pressure. Some of the ideas and experiences shared were the following:

1.       Leaders should be involved in recruitment and branch building.

2.       SCM should be involved in Christian community building among its constituencies and other related bodies.

3.       Student centers should be utilized to the maximum in building SCM groups.

4.       SCM’s should be program-oriented to at­tract participation from the larger student community;   therefore, facilities to support such programs should be tapp­ed.

5.       SCM’s should have projects, which shall involve not only its membership but among other sector of society, which is within their reach.

 

III. Leaderhip Formation

A lot of discussion was done on the idea of earmarking human investment program and laying down concrete details of leader­ship formation. The following were some of salient points raised during the discussion.

1.       We need to form a type of leadership which is characterized by an understand­ing of itself, an analysis of the contexts in which the SCM moves and a collegiality — type of working with each other and the rest in the community.

2.       We need to produce leaders who shall

 

92

 

serve not only the SCMs but the vital sectors of the society.

3.       We need leadership in the movement, which understand the faith and its view of the world, our relationship with the church, our role in the academic com­munity and above all our role in the processes of social change.

4.       We need to widen the scope of our leadership formation to include all potential cadres in our movements.

5.       We need to discover and discover anew methodologies, which shall reflect our objectives of being catalysts in the com­munity of the church but in the limited space in society where we find ourselves today.