Leading the Congregation

Leading the Congregation is a complete and definitive guide to the practice of church leadership. The book describes essential paradigms for the leader that integrate spiritual integrity and service within a "systems" view of the congregation and its ministry. This revised and updated version focuses on the challenges of congregational leadership in a culture that has fewer ties to Christian faith. The authors lay out the dual contexts in which church leaders must function within the congregation, and as the congregation s representative to the community and they explain the very different skill sets required to flourish in each. Underlying the revised edition is an insistence on the congregational leader s call from God, and cultivation of her or his relationship with God. Leadership is not the same thing as charisma, they explain; it is rather a set of attitudes and practices that each of us can and must master if we are to be worthy servants of Christ. "