When I first got into the Emergent conversation back in the day, I remember a lot of conversations about leadership styles and what that might look like in emerging churches. There was a lot of angst about anything that looked at all like a form of hierarchical leadership, and we either didn’t think pastors should have “power” or we didn’t want to admit that pastors had “power.” They were some pretty interesting conversations, and gave me lots of good stuff to think about.
When I was in seminary, I would generally push back whenever professors or students talked about the power that pastors have. I wanted to talk about collaborative leadership, a form of leadership that allowed pastors and parishioners to be on equal standing with one another, where we worked together to craft decisions through a consensus model…and everyone was happy.
Well now I’m serving a church that would definitely not be classified as an emerging church. We are a smaller, aging Presbyterian congregation in a small town of 20,000 people, and now that I’m serving as an ordained pastor, meeting with committees, attending Session meetings, all of these conversations are coming back to me.
I still believe that a top-down, authoritative, hierarchical style of leadership won’t generally go over very well – and it isn’t something that would be received well at my own congregation. But as to what my leadership style will morph into…I’m not exactly sure yet. I find myself sitting at Session meetings and having this internal dialogue with myself: “So…how much do I share here? How many of my cards do I lay out on the table? Should I just gently make some observations and pose some questions? Should I really step into this pastoral role that I have been called to and be pretty blunt about what I think and about the direction I think the church needs to go? Or do I just smile and nod for the first 6 months and then really go for it!”
Maybe some of this depends on how long I’ve been at this church? More listening in the beginning? More active leadership after I’ve been here for awhile and gained more trust? I would love to hear your thoughts about pastoral leadership in churches today.
