Team Leadership

I read an interesting blog today. You can find it here.
It follows up and even references another article that I read that can be found in the newest issue of Leadership magazine. Apparently there is a trend among younger evangelicals toward churches with a team leadership structure, rather than a hierarchical or senior pastor model. Of course, this intrigues me as I'm getting ready to set out and launch a new church. I really resonate with the idea. I don't want to be the guy in the spotlight, and I certainly don't want a church that is "Jeremy's church." I guess what I wonder though is how you do this in a practical sense. How does it work? How are decisions made? Who sets the vision for the church? Who holds people accountable to their particular ministries? Who does the fundraising for the new church? Who recruits people? It seems like at some point there's got to be a point person. And maybe that is only necessary for the first year or so, up until the church launches. Maybe at that point leadership can be shared. But it's an interesting idea nonetheless. It seems more biblical to me. Rather than one guy trying to be and do everything, there's a team of people who function and minister out of their areas of giftedness. I say it seems biblical, but then again in the New Testament it seems pretty clear that there is a hierarchical structure in place. Form Peter to Paul to Timothy, there are clear cut leaders in the local churches. Paul writes to whole churches at times and urges them to function as the body of Christ, but other times he writes specifically to the leader (Timothy, for example) and encourages him to lead.

It will be interesting to see how this all works itself out in the next 20-30 years. I do think that the current model is lacking. I wonder though if this team leadership model is the answer. My guess is that there is some kind of balance of the two that would be ideal.

Posted in: church,Leadership