Question: What does Jesus shaped leadership look like?

Dear Mr. Spencer:

I’m a big fan of both the website and the podcasts, and since you say you always welcome questions I’m going to take you up on that offer!

My question is how does pastoral leadership fit into a Jesus-shaped spirituality? Is the current system even necessary? (By which I mean, the churches that have staffs of dozens and a pastor who gets up and speaks on some topic every week, not discussions with wiser people on spiritual issues). Something that has always deeply troubled me is the cult of personality that often arises around pastors in evangelical churches- the pastor’s always right, a receptacle of great wisdom, has a better opinion than anyone else, has a direct line to God, etc. This is an old issue, of course, but it seems worse today when pastors seem to want to develop multidisciplinary “ministries” whose main outcome seems to keep them away from the church they are supposed to be “pastoring” a majority of the time. What place does “full time Christian service” have in the post-evangelical wilderness?

I hope I’ve been clear. Thanks for your time and thoughts on this subject!

Thanks, Carl

Carl asks a great question that will eventually deserve more than a little attention from this blog. Until then, Carl and the JSS readers will have to get by on these tantalizing tidbits hinting at the posts to come.

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Considering Two Good Observations From The Music Discussion

JSS commenter Michael Bell makes two worthwhile comments about the “worship” post.

When we get to heaven, if I am reading the book of Revelation correctly, we are going to be doing a whole lot of worshiping. I appreciate the fact on Sunday Morning that I can get a glimpse of what that will be like.

Michael makes what is probably evangelicalism’s best case for its particular approach to music-dominated worship: the eschatological visions in the Book of Revelation.

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