ABSTRACT
A great bandwagon has been rolling by for some years now. Its name is ‘leadership’ – leadership in industry, in commerce, in the military and in the Church’s mission. In magazines acres of print are devoted to the subject. Bookstalls are stocked with an array of leadership titles. In ministerial training there is a heightened emphasis on leadership. Some of this material is sound and helpful. But all too often the idea of leadership that is deployed is an uncritical, naïve one, drawn from the world of business and secular organisations . . . The rhetoric of leadership has almost taken over Christian literature about ministry and mission. Notions of leadership derived from organisational or management studies or social psychology threaten to displace ecclesiological reflection on the Christian ministry. These disciplines have their uses and are not to be despised, but they can hardly replace theology. 1
