ministry leadership – community

Ministry Leadership is the exercise of serving and equipping people within a community: Ministry leadership is not done in isolation.  Even John the Baptist faltered in leadership while imprisoned (see Matthew 11:2-6).  Only Jesus is able to serve and equip others in his own authority, and yet he cooperates with his Father and with the Holy Spirit to accomplish his intended ministry.  Considering this, ministry leadership exists within a community through a team-based approach established in its theology in accordance with Scripture and the timeless truths of the ancient creeds, organic in its nature so that growth and nurturing raises people from within to reproduce next generations, flexible in its structure to encourage fresh initiatives prepared for unique situations, and cooperative in its orchestration, emphasizing plurality of supervision and mutuality of purpose, that engages the cultural ethos of historical movements, temporal trends and regional emphasized world-views with contextual relevancy whereby the people of God communicate the Gospel with clarity and confidence in the redeeming work of the Holy Spirit (see Figure 4):

a.       Through a team-based approach: The ministry leadership team is composed of like-minded individuals who commit to one another with an established theology derived from and in accordance with Scripture as well as with the timeless truths of the historical, ancient creeds of the Church.  The team is organic in its nature so that growth and nurturing results in the raising of people from within the community to reproduce further generations of followers of Jesus.  The team is flexible in its structure in order to encourage fresh initiatives and to be prepared for the unique situations that inevitably arise in the course of ministry work.  Finally, the team functions together, cooperative in its orchestration emphasizing plurality of supervision (not top down) and mutuality of purpose.  The ideal ministry leadership team is one that recognizes the unity of the Spirit and of the work set before them (see Ephesians 4).

b.      That engages the cultural ethos:  Every ministry team exists within a particular time and place.  So ministry leadership is concerned with comprehending and addressing the historical movements, temporal trends and regionally emphasized world-views related to their unique setting. 

c.       With contextual relevancy:  Once the cultural ethos is understood, ministry leadership concerns itself with the responsibility to make Jesus known to people.  So ministry leadership seeks to address culture with contextual relevancy, trusting God to reveal his salvation to those in the surrounding setting.  Thus, the task of ministry leadership is to share the Good News of Jesus whereby the people of God communicate the Gospel with clarity and confidence in the redeeming work of the Holy Spirit.