Perhaps the most difficult part of being a good leader is having the ability to speak from the viewpoint of people who have not gained adequate education to understand terms like materialism, worldliness, humility, spiritual upbringing, and many other words that mean a lot but are often misunderstood by most listeners or readers. It entails having a poor individual rise up from experiences that are about the same as the experiences presently being confronted by the majority of the population. Such a person from the grassroots should have gained sufficient education to learn how life should be lived. And then, he can use his background to elaborate the meaning of oftentimes misunderstood terminologies.

Let us take the word materialism. I am almost sure that most people would question what it means in a time when every family needs physical or material needs, specially cash, food, clothing, and shelter. Do you mean no more second collections? Do you mean a stop to 10 % donations four times a month and the government’s taxation through deductions from salaries every payday ? Do you mean no more asking of additional donations aside from the weekly first collections and second collections ? All of these speak of MATERIALISM. And the probable reaction of most people would be a big question mark concerning whether or not our leadership understands the situation of the ordinary people. If preachers cannot do away with its own asking for materialistic wants ( regardless of what are the justifications ), how is it that the same preachers are asking the common person to do away with its own needs and wants for similar justifications. The bottom line appears to be a sign of having double character. And so it is imperative to provide a more down-to-earth communication of terminologies ( that appear to be clear to those who are intelligent enough to understand but obviously questionable to the greater population ).

We need leaders who can communicate practical ways of living for a better life in the future. Such rare CHARACTERS should have a clear mind about what the ordinary family, specially representatives of the greater majority, are actually experiencing in hard times. Their usual message is simple. ” We want to live a decent, more humane life. Our family members need to eat three times a day, have the children educated, while the adults should have an income generating work even when the economy is down. Furthermore, we want a good looking shelter with amenities for a little convenience. The cost of living keeps rising. But our income is not rising as fast in order to cope up with the changing times. What are the leaders doing about this situation? “

That simple message does not warrant an accusation that perhaps these people are MATERIALISTIC and that therefore, they should abandon MATERIALISM. I believe the majority of our population do not deserve such an insult in addition to their poverty. In the first place, what is MATERIALISM ? If who we are is partly what we have, what we know, what we believe in, and what we need and want, does that not make every person materialistic to some extent ?

However, it seems clear from the viewpoint of those who have higher education to understand the meaning of materialism, that such a message was not intended for the greater population who have to meet basic needs to live a more humane life. Indeed, there is a generation gap or maybe just a communication gap that can cause misunderstanding and loss of faith in leadership. We need to be careful about the way we say things. Keep in mind who might receive the message and how the message might be understood or misunderstood. Our elders should not settle with assuming that the general public have acquired a similar education and length of experience as much as those who have actually gained both in time. A good leader must speak based on what the greater majority of the population can understand. Remember that Jesus walked along with the poor and less educated, less privileged — unlike the Pharisees, Sadducees, and the Scribes — and communicated to them on the level of farmers, fishermen, beggars, the blind, etc…