Knowing the Pathways of Congregational Life
by Margaret J. Marcuson

On a recent trip to Kansas for a family reunion, I made my way out to the property that used to be in my grandmother's family. My great-great-grandparents had settled the land in the 1870s, moving from Ohio to central Kansas. We drove down the dusty, gravel-strewn road, between the tawny stalks of wheat, along a route that had been used for generations to drive first horse-drawn wagons, then pickups and tractors, and now our silver rental car.

Churches have well-worn pathways as well, sometimes set down by the first "settlers," sometimes developed along the way. These paths can be healthy and beneficial, like support and encouragement for the pastor, open communication even in times of high anxiety, or the ability to incorporate newcomers easily. Other patterns are not so useful, such as secrecy around money issues, conflict between people at the top or at the bottom, or a history of firing the leader when things get tough.

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Did you download the weekly budget monitoring template in our last issue? If so you should click here to download an updated template.

Book Review

Servant Leadership: Jesus and Paul
by Efrain Agosto, Chalice Press, 2005

Reviewed by Ann A. Michel

Efrain Agosto’s new book, Servant Leadership: Jesus and Paul (Chalice Press, 2005), reminds us that leadership is inherently contextual and relational. Forgoing character study, he concentrates on how Jesus and Paul related to others, particularly other leaders, and situates their leadership in the context of the first century’s social, political and economic climate.

Examining Jesus’ mission through the lens of class conflict, Agosto’s voice resonates with liberationist tones. He understands Jesus as leader of a renewal movement among the oppressed. Similarly, he views Paul’s reversal of classical leadership expectations as empowering to women and those from lower social strata. “To invoke the name of God and not call for justice to the neglected masses,” writes Agosto, “is to shortchange a Christological definition of leadership.”

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Leaders do not need answers.
Leaders must have the right questions.

Sometimes people think of great leaders as people who always succeed. The opposite is often true. Both strong and weak leaders have made mistakes. The difference is that strong leaders learn from their mistakes. One scholar has reported that weak leaders have trouble remembering their mistakes while effective leaders can easily recount past failures and what they learned. So, a question that many people find useful in interviewing is:

Tell me about a time when you failed
and what you learned from that experience?

Editors:  Lovett H. Weems, Jr. and Ann A Michel
Production and distribution:  Joe Arnold

Copyright © 2006 by the G. Douglass Lewis Center for Church Leadership. Leading Ideas material may be freely distributed with attribution (exclusive of material protected by separate copyright).