For the past twelve years, I have been involved in a congregation where ministers are called from within the ranks of the church to share a volunteer-type team ministry. The dynamic is very different from what I learned in seminary, but is a traditional model found in the denomination of which I am part. A non-salaried team of ordained ministers serve the pastoral needs of a congregation primarily through preaching and shared pastoral care.
Dr Laniak writes, “Leadership is a shared dynamic in any community or organization. Shared leadership is a reality in a flock and a biblical norm for the church.� (Laniak 217) In a congregation, like the one described above, the lines of accountability become blurred. Yet at the same time, together with a team of deacon caregivers, the system works and thrives in a congregation of more than 500 members.
A key to the structure described above is what Laniak would refer to as, “indigenous leadership�. Those who are called to pastoral leadership in the congregation, described above, know the minister - warts and all - and the minister knows his people. What seems an awkward way of securing good leadership, actually becomes one manner of nurturing “a biblical norm for the church.� It is risky at best.
After two years of being part of this shared leadership team, I still feel like an outsider who is privy to a strange mix of personalities and temperaments that works, by the grace of God and the empowerment of the Holy Spirit. While the interactions of the team bewilder me, frustrate me, and even cause me to wonder what I am doing in this situation, I know that I am to be here for such a time as this. It is something that my wife and I have prayed about, and we know that we continue to be drawn close to this team despite the idiosyncrasies of such a model.
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