The SIAFU Guidebook

Part I I : Making the Case

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Objection 6: We don’t have anyone to give oversight to a SIAFU Chapter.

The Argument: “Frankly, the idea of a SIAFU Chapter sounds great, but we currently don’t have men or women who could lead such a Chapter. We’re a small church with very few faithful leaders, and right now they are currently tied up with the other business of the church. We can’t afford to spread them too thin on a new, risky outreach kind of thing like SIAFU right now. Maybe we’ll consider it when we have more leaders available to lead it.”

The Answer: SIAFU Chapters function as incubators, literally, greenhouses, for servant leadership development.

One of the greatest benefits of a SIAFU Chapter is its ability to provide urban churches with a built-in structure where emerging leaders can come and learn to lead. The Chapter is set up in such a way that grow- ing Christian leaders can come, under pastoral authority, and learn how to host a meeting, to pray for others, and to prove themselves capable, sacrificial servant leaders, for the well-being of the church. In this sense, SIAFU Chapters operate as an incubator, as a greenhouse of growing and cultivating solid Christian servant leaders. As such, it can solve the problem of local urban churches which have few or no urban leaders by creating the condition where we produce new ones, a class of servant leaders who open themselves up to healing their neighborhoods instead of avoiding them. Servanthood is a call that any urban person can fulfill, regardless of their education level, social class, or current skill set. Anyone can learn to serve, to care, to help others. SIAFU Chapters will encourage all to give what they have, to be faithful, available, teachable, and open. Every person in the church is given gifts of the Spirit and can be trained to be a servant.