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Christian Leadership is contextual.


Christian Leadership is contextual.

A short while ago I received an email from an old friend in New Zealand. In the email he was bemoaning the fact that we had been talking about leadership in churches for over a decade, yet leadership had made very little difference. He felt that perhaps we needed another model or better still get back to good old pastoring, where the pastor looks after one church for a lifetime.

I have written before on how I love looking at the Christian job websites and look at those jobs that are advertising for pastoral positions. When the recruitment committees of churches are looking for a new pastor, the last thing they are looking for is a leader. They are looking for someone who can solve a problem or be an expert in a particular area of ministry.

            The one thing that all Christian Leaders have in common is that they breathe, all the rest is just contextual, one size does not fit all.

Following on from my last blog, leadership is cultural. In the west we tend to measure leadership among churches as to how successful you have become and how fast your church has grown. Leadership is not measured on faithfulness or the length of time a person has been pastoring. Whereas in the east leadership is measured to some extent on the exact opposite to the standards of the west.


I don't think my friend's solution is the right one, nor do I think that going backwards is the way to go. When it comes to recruitment for pastoral/leadership positions I think many committees have also got it wrong, because it's not all about filling a position to solve a particular problem of that church or parish.

Leadership is about risk. For the Apostle Paul it was planting, for Apollos it was watering and for another it was reaping the reward. For the modern day Christian leader it's about doing the same thing, but also knowing when to move on in order to develop and increase their portfolio of skills. It is also about building a team around you that will extenuate your strengths and take up the slack on your weaknesses. The wrong leader can result in the collapse of a church, the wrong skills could end in the demise of the leader.

Lastly beside breathing, Christian leadership is about future proofing, looking ahead and developing the skills that may be required to carry your church into its future success.

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