Church Leadership What Is Leadership?

Church Leadership

What is leadership? Firstly we could say that it is the act of someone guiding the rest to accomplish particular tasks or to attain certain goals and objectives in a group setting. The person, who does this, is practically practicing leadership. On the other hand, leadership could also be taken as the art of motivating a group and getting people to see things in a particular same point-of-view and get them to achieve a common goal.' (Patrol, Troop, 1972).

It is also the act of serving people in different capacities, either in an organization, school institution, church, public office, etc. The leader makes important decisions, inspire, communicate, and supervise the activities in the group. One may born with leadership skills or acquire them in life

Apart from that leadership could be taken to literally mean the act of showing the way. This means you direct the way for others. In most cases you have to be a good inspiration, have better skills, generally you're better than the rest.

It could also be described as the process in which one person enlists the help and support of others in the accomplishment of a common task. It could also be taken to mean creating a way for people to contribute to making things happen. The people in this case work as a group with someone leading them to work to accomplish the task at hand.

It also a situation of standing out amongst the other and yet not turning against others with the uniqueness but making people want to copy you or follow what you do. This means you show the way as others follow your actions, performances, or efforts. Incase of such a situation you have to be better than others so you are higher than them or have something that makes you better than the rest

Question four. You are the Pastor of a small church in a growing area. You moved into this church six months ago. The former Pastor died of a heart attack during worship one year ago. The congregation says they want you to lead them to grow. They say they want to reach out to newcomers. However, when new families come to visit, they report back to you that they felt left out and cold. You are on salary support from your judicatory for two years. The assumption is that you can grow the church enough by then so that the church can pay your salary. What are you to do?

Introduction

This paper reflects on the facet of leadership in a church milieu. My argument is on why there is need for church leaders to change from their accustomed leadership tactics and delve deeper into leadership complexities as they discover what's new and imperative while re-drawing their leadership maps and aspirations of leadership. I belief it is time church leaders practiced transformational leadership, servant leadership, perpetuation of values and principles, management of ethical issues, and have the tenacity to handle contradictions and confusions of leadership.

It is evident that the world is changing fast and the assumptions are that church leadership has to change in the process, because it is an integral part of society. The challenges of leadership in the church are also becoming diverse and require great skill to resolve. 'It is becoming apparent that as we feel our way to the 21st century, pastors are in the midst of a crisis. Being a pastor today is more difficult than anytime in memory,' (Kuhl, 2005).

In order to experience church growth, you have to keep people and especially transform the newcomers into long life members. It is not an easy task especially if you do not have the necessary skills required. (Rickards, Clark, 2011). As a pastor this translates to great leadership skills and a clear cut generally accepted conception of leadership in the church. Transformational leadership has to be adopted because the congregation needs and expectations are ever changing.

Some church leadership skills could be incorrect for the context in question. One of the reason why newcomers may not feel part of the crowd is it still is operating in old fashioned ways and yet their aspirations is to be a modernize church. Church leaders have to delve deeper into leadership complexities and to discover what's new and imperative and re-draws their leadership maps and their aspirations of leadership that will drive into the expected changes. For instance a church that is not yet using online services, such as a website may not attract new comers because more people have become technology savvy and are searching for information in the internet.

My argument is that the whole world is changing and the church cannot in way be left behind because it's the same congregations that push for change in all areas of society. Flexibility in leadership is a must due to the changing society. Technology keeps changing every day, and the church adopt the changes. Newcomers to a congregation that is still using the traditional books may not cope with the rest of the congregation if they have been using projectors.

A pastor is very instrumental in the growth of the church but due to our culture many of the teaching they have received are insufficient and unhelpful, especially in holding and attracting new crowds. The skills and capacities that shaped church leadership for much of the twentieth century were right one for that context, but in the twenty first century these skills have changed. I am advocating that the teaching for pastors change different context. I am not critiquing these skills and capacities but my point is that the world has changed. Discontinuous change means that many rules and assumptions about leadership now need to re-examined and rewritten.

However this does not make pastors who have led in the past wrong; it means we are functioning in a different context. We must learn new things. I am not judging or accusing or even dismissing the past efforts of leaders but new rules of attraction of congregation must come into play. The situation requires cultivation of new leadership capacities. A case in study is the change of worshipping styles, in the twentieth century, the church was conservative but in this century things have changed, the church has revolutionarized.

People come to church to receive religious goods and services, and the pastor must meet these needs. Good pastoral care is still a central thing for any leader in the congregation. But being skilled to care for people when they come to church is not sufficient for changing the context in which newcomers find themselves. Their satisfaction will be achieved when multiple complexities are achieved. For instance, apart from pastoral care only, they should benefit from other programs such as hospitality, after service host etc.